TORONTO – As his wireless company nears its launch in the new year, Public Mobile CEO Alek Kristajic was talking tough this week, addressing how the company plans to attack the Canadian marketplace while applauding the CRTC for standing firm on Globalive’s ownership shortcomings.
Speaking at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Tech Conference on Tuesday, Kristajic (a former Rogers Cable and Bell Canada executive) emphasized how he believes his company is going after a market that no one else has tended to yet: “the low end of the market that doesn’t have a cell phone,” he said.
When western markets…
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TORONTO – A new website called myCELLmyTERMS is promising to match cell phone users with their ideal cell phone plan.
In a concept that seems similar to a match making service, the company asks customers to input their wish list for their cell phone services, including preferred device, specific features and ideal month fee, and then shops the plan anonymously to their network of wireless dealers.
The dealers compete for the business, and MCMT ranks the bids based on the requested criteria. The customer can review them and either propose a counter-offer, or select the deal that they like best.
“What our…
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OTTAWA – In a letter to incumbent telcos and others involved in the recent review of Globalive’s ownership by the CRTC, Industry Minister Tony Clement has asked for even more information as he examines the Commission’s call on the prospective new wireless entrant.
On October 29 the CRTC decided that since Egypt-based Orascom Telecom owned 65% of the equity in Globalive and virtually all of the debt, that the company was not Canadian controlled and could not operate as a telecom company in Canada. Our Telecom Act says our telcos, cablecos and broadcasters have to be majority Canadian-owned and…
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TORONTO –
Whether it’s true IPTV or a version of DSL doesn’t really matter and in a Canadian context anyway, that’s a significant number (right around the total number of people living in Windsor, Ont.). And they are building, experimenting and taking customers away from their primary competitors, cable.
This week in Toronto, a number of the traditional telecom companies which are now offering TV are meeting with the various programmers in Canada and from the States to talk about their expansion plans (more regions, more customers, more channels).
Most are adding channels and capabilities. Some are newer and serve a…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – In what could be a first, Internet service providers, consumer groups and independent producers all agreed that Wednesday’s CRTC framework on Internet traffic management practices got it right.
“I didn’t think that we needed any rules, but, they are reasonable, certainly not draconian”, Rogers’ SVP of regulatory, Ken Engelhart, told Cartt.ca. “They’ve picked a middle ground that we can live with.”
Over at Telus, Michael Hennessy, SVP of regulatory and government affairs, largely concurred, calling the new rules “clear and well thought out”.
“I think it was a good decision”, he said in an interview with Cartt.ca. “The…
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TORONTO – Is Canada’s broadband infrastructure lagging or leading that of other countries?
According to a recent report by Canadian telecom consultant Mark Goldberg and Giganomics’ Suzanne Blackwell, that question can be difficult to answer. International comparative statistics have been conflicted on Canada’s broadband performance, in large part due to methodological errors in some of the research that in turn biased the resulting rankings.
The authors are particularly critical of the OECD rankings which they describes as “highly dependent on per country sampling data used”, while its penetration metrics are biased in favour of countries with smaller household sizes. Also, the OECD…
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TORONTO – Having another company selling the iPhone makes a great headline for Bell Canada, but according to Bell Mobility president Wade Oosterman, there are plenty more benefits to switching on the company’s new, shared, HSPA wireless network.
Bell announced earlier this week its next generation wireless network will be ready next month, earlier than planned and while most media have focused on the overhyped handheld, upgrading the net will bring more to Bell than the Apple mobile.
“There are four big benefits that accrue to us and our subscribers,” Oosterman told Cartt.ca. “The network is vastly larger than…
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TORONTO – A coalition of some of Canada’s biggest TV service providers have teamed up on a campaign to tell their side of the story on the contentious issue of fee for carriage.
Bell, Bell Aliant, Cogeco, EastLink, Rogers and Telus have joined forces on ‘Stop the TV Tax’ which they say is designed to ensure “that Canadians hear the whole story”.
"Cable and satellite subscribers have united to stop the broadcasters’ costly proposal because it amounts to a tax, pure and simple”, said Rogers vice chair Phil Lind, in a statement. “This tax will hit viewers for stations that have always…
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MONTREAL – Astral Media Radio is offering mobile downloads of ringtones, wallpaper, and exclusive content produced by its hosts through a dedicated Internet site.
Called 61215 The Mobile Superstore, or La boutique mobile 61215 in the Quebec markets where AMR operates, the downloads are compatible with Bell, Rogers and Telus devices.
The site will also offer unique opportunities for advertisers looking for a new local media, the company said in a press release.
www.61215.ca
www.astralmedia.com
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GATINEAU – The fact that Globalive Wireless has altered its governance structure to mitigate CRTC concerns is just distracting everyone from the fact that its purse strings are tightly held outside of Canada.
And that means it can’t be a Canadian telecom operator, the three Canadian wireless incumbents told the Commission this morning.
During the final day into a hearing that began last week over the proposed structure of Globalive Wireless (which intends to come to market before year-end under the Wind brand name), representatives from Bell Canada, Telus and Rogers each played different verses of the same tune: Globalive…
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