OTTAWA – Minister of Industry Jim Prentice has been “about to” introduce new copyright legislation for about three months now at least, according to Ottawa sources.
Perhaps March will be the month it happens…
In the meantime, the Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright has submitted a position paper to the minister “urging the government to strike a balance in copyright reform that reflects the needs of users and creators,” says its letter.
Besides the members in the headline, the BCBC also includes smaller stakeholders like EastLink, Cogeco Cable, SaskTel, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association and the Retail Council of…
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VANCOUVER – Fourth quarter 2007 revenue at Telus came in at $2.33 billion, an increase of 3.4% from a year ago, the western telco announced this morning.
“The performance was driven by 9% growth in wireless revenue and 7% growth in wireline data revenue, partially offset by declines in local and long distance wireline revenues. Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 8% to $953 million due to a 14% increase in the wireless segment and 2% increase in the wireline segment,” reads the release
Net income in the quarter ended December 31, 2007, was $400…
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HAMILTON – Fibre to the home is certainly possible – and from a pure bandwidth point of view, certainly desirable. From an economic point of view, though? Not so much.
And is such a conversion going to happen any time soon here in Canada? Not likely. At least that was the consensus around the lunch table I sat at Tuesday at Carmen’s Banquet Hall in Hamilton during the SCTE Ontario Chapter Winter Technical Conference.
Well over 200 from the technical and engineering side of the cable industry descended on Hamilton to hear 10 speakers wax eloquently about the advantages…
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TORONTO – A new Telus and Angus Reid survey released today shows Canadian women are increasingly relying on their e-mail and Facebook for planning social activities and managing their busy households.
Like the little black dress, e-communication is a must have basic that won’t likely be going out of style any time soon.
According to the January, 2008 survey, 43% of Canadians polled said that they organize their evening social plans by e-mail. Furthermore, women are more likely than men to take advantage of e-mail to organize their social plans (46%), tell their loved ones that they are thinking…
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CALGARY – It’s not as large of a contract as the Telus-Montreal one announced Friday, but Bell Canada sent out a release Monday to let folks know it’s throwing its weight around in Telus’ home territory, too, just like the western telco is pushing into its traditional regions.
Bell Canada said today the City of Calgary has picked it to implement an organization-wide, multi-layered security solution that will enable the city to defend against online threats such as spyware, keyloggers, viruses and hackers.
The URL monitoring and blocking solution will proactively block a wide array of potential threats, including…
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MONTREAL – It’s not a big deal in terms of its dollar value, but this one has to sting a bit at Bell.
Telus announced today it was selected as Ville de Montréal’s primary telecommunications partner in 10-year deal estimated at $87 million. Of course, Bell Canada’s national headquarters is in Montreal.
Under the deal, Telus will provide and manage Internet Protocol (IP) based voice and data services for the city’s more than 300 administrative offices across the island.
“Today, Ville de Montréal has placed their trust in Telus to upgrade their communications services to our state-of-the-art IP technology,”…
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OTTAWA – The new Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s fight against the sexual exploitation of children received significant support from the Government of Canada this week with an investment of $2 million in new funding for the Centre over the next two years.
"This announcement is another concrete action that our government is taking to protect children from online adult sexual predators, and to prevent them from being sexually abused,” said the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, in a press release.
“This funding follows an investment we provided the RCMP to combat child sexual exploitation, as well…
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TORONTO – Telus today announced that it has acquired privately held Fastvibe Corporation, a provider of innovative Web streaming solutions for business.
The purchase price was not disclosed.
Billed as a “green purchase” by Telus, the company will use Fastvibe’s web streaming technology to help Canadian businesses reduce travel and improve communications
The Fastvibe team brings unique technical, event and production Web streaming management expertise to Telus, says the press release. The acquisition strengthens Telus’ technology solutions portfolio by offering Canadian businesses an environmentally responsible and cost effective way to deliver information like training, employee communications and investor information…
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HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of new dollars could pour into the Canadian television system under a new fee-for-carriage plan proposed by Canada’s two main private broadcast networks.
Rivals CTVglobemedia and Canwest made a little history Friday by filing a joint submission to the CRTC’s review of its policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and satellite companies) and specialty services. Those hearings are set to begin April 7th.
Saying conventional television – thanks to the ever-increasing rate of audience fragmentation driven by specialty services and new media outlets – is in “crisis”, the broadcasters want the Commission to add a subscriber…
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TORONTO – Comments due today on the expanded scope of the CRTC’s hearings into policy governing broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services show the fee-for-carriage debate will be the dominant issue, come April.
While most companies are not filing their comments until 5 p.m. today, CTVglobemedia issued a press release just before noon touting what it believes are the necessary features of new BDU policy.
While the policy review has been set for some time (the hearing begins April 7), the Commission only announced in November that it had expanded the scope of the proceeding and invited comments from…
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