WHEN NBTEL FIRST CAME to market in 1998 with a digital TV product serving customers in Moncton and Saint John, N.B., the cable industry laughed.
Sure, it was all-digital television, but each TV needed its own set top box, channel-changing latency was a problem and due to the limitations of the early ADSL technology it used, all the TVs in the house had to be tuned to the same channel. Fine for homes without a second TV, but not so much for most folks.
At the time, NBTel (which is now Aliant) was the North American leader on the…
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TORONTO – The spiffy new Treo 700wx from Palm was launched in Canada with Bell Mobility today.
It has a big (for a handheld), bright touch-screen. It’s a smart phone with numerous bells and whistles with push e-mail and a camera, 64MB of RAM and integrated Bluetooth. It runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, meaning web access is simple, quick and easy (when on the right network).
So, with the explosion of video (of the free variety) available on the web that is easily viewable on such a device, who needs DVB-H, the nascent standard which stands for digital video broadcast…
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SAN FRANCISCO – Just four percent of Canadian mobile phone subscribers and three percent of American cell customers use their handsets to shoot video, says research firm Telephia.
To some, that might say folks aren’t really all that keen on using their mobile phones to record video, since camera phones have been around for some time now. However, says Telephia, it just means we’re only at the beginning of an emerging market.
The mobile industry is buzzing these days about services that share user content, like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook because mobile phones are the camera of choice for…
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VANCOUVER – Telus launched a pair of products today that will help lost customers find where they’re going and let parents electronically track their kids.
Navigator and Kid Find are the two new GPS services that will help "consumers get increased peace of mind whether on the road, at the park or going trick or treating," said Robert Blumenthal, Telus senior vice-president of products and services, in a press release.
Navigator and Kid Find now operate throughout Telus’ 1X Digital PCS coverage area in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe region, which stretches from Oshawa to Kitchener, and…
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TORONTO – By the end of this year, cablecos are expected to have 12% of residential telephone subscribers in Canada, while telcos will have 2% of TV subs, a report by The Convergence Consulting Group predicts.
Showing how the competitors are going after their untraditional business, the report forecasts that cablecos will have 1.56 million phone subscribers at year end 2006, up from 835,000 subs at the end of 2005. By 2009, they’ll have a healthy 27% of the residential market, or 3.3 million subscribers, the consultants predict.
The telephone companies will make inroads in television distribution, ending with…
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VANCOUVER – Members of the British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union working at a subsidiary of Telus have reached a tentative agreement.
The BCGEU members work at Telus Sourcing Solutions, which provides payroll services to the B.C. government.
The agreement provides what the union calls “significant pay increases” of an average of 6% retroactive to Apr. 1 this year, followed by additional hikes in December this year and December next year.
The BCGEU bargaining committee is recommending its member accept the deal when a ratification vote is held during the week of Oct. 2.
The B.C. government privatized…
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RIMOUSKI, QC – After hiring 40 agents in May to staff its Rimouski contact centre, Telus held a second career fair September 22 and 23, looking for more workers.
The company is even offering new prospects the chance to work at home. "This gives our team members another option for balancing their busy lives, saves commuting time and also allows for greater flexibility in scheduling shifts," said Clément Audet, Customer Contact Centre director.
www.telus.com
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TORONTO – After bobbing and weaving through a very successful first year, Canada’s The Fight Network looks to be a budding media empire.
The company – which launched a year ago last week – started as a category two digital channel but thanks to its original content, has branched out into mobile, on demand, radio, the web, events, clothing, energy drinks and other platforms – in Canada and the U.S.
“We’ve achieved some significant milestones in our first year of operations,” said Mike Garrow, president and CSO of the channel. “From day one our goal has been to build…
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VANCOUVER – The people living on Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, will have high speed Internet service from Telus later this year thanks to a recent agreement between the western telco and the Gwaii Trust Society.
Telus is investing $1.3 million to build a series of high-capacity mountain-top data transmitters to Mount Hayes near Prince Rupert. High speed Internet service will then beam 115 kilometres over water to a station at Masset, on the Islands. Service will flow from the station to other points on the Islands via fibre optic cables.
Until this build, Masset…
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OTTAWA – Speakers have been announced and sessions outlined for the 2006 Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention, set for Vancouver November 5-7.
The early registration deadline (where attendees get a rate break) ends on Friday.
The theme for this year’s CAB Convention – New Realities. New Rules. – "reflects the tremendous rate of change that Canada’s private broadcasters are experiencing," says the association.
"From the explosive growth of new digital technologies to an unprecedented level of regulatory review, 2006 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Canada’s private broadcasters," adds a release.
In keeping with well-established tradition,…
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