THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE of wireless walled garden (as referenced in Tuesday morning’s story “Closed wireless networks face broadcasters’ wrath”) was to control the experience because a lack of common interfaces made the internet experience a mess.
While carriers looked at content as an opportunity, it generally is more of a headache to try to manage. We are moving rapidly to the same Internet experience on mobile as wireline. That means an open platform.
However we reserve the right to have our own portal, and like the wireline world you can choose your home pages.
Pelmorex suggested that its content could…
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MARKHAM – The 39 member companies of the Canadian Independent Telecommunications Association (those stubborn, often innovative, mostly rural, holdout telcos who never ever sold to Bell or Telus or another bigger outfit) are gathering this week in Markham for their annual general meeting and showcase and seminar program.
Some members have launched IPTV, all offer Internet service, some have wireless, some are big into business services – and all face similar challenges as compared to the big traditional telcos. A number of member companies are city-owned or are co-operatives.
Seminar topics on Monday covered bandwidth requirements, whether fibre to…
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SEATTLE, WA – NetMotion Wireless has received a Canadian patent for its mobile virtual private network software Mobility XE.
Mobility XE is utilized by more than 1,400 business and agencies worldwide to provide secure wireless connections to applications across wireless coverage gaps and data networks. Telus Mobility offers NetMotion software in Canada by monthly subscription through its business sales channels.
"In today’s economic environment, companies and agencies are relying heavily on our software to increase the productivity and efficiency of their mobile workers," said Pam Cory, NetMotion’s vice president of marketing, in the announcement. "We’re pleased to have this Canadian patent added…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada is buying national consumer electronics retailer The Source, the companies announced Monday.
While the purchase price was not released, Bell said it would be "materially less" than the $335 million paid for the chain by Circuit City in 2004. (The Source was once Radio Shack in Canada but was forced to drop the name in a branding dispute prior to its sale to the now-bankrupt Circuit City.)
The 750 Source stores will offer the full array of Bell consumer services – including Bell home phone products, Bell Mobility, Solo Mobile, potentially Virgin Mobile wireless products and services, Bell…
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BACK IN NOVEMBER, on a regulatory panel at the Canadian Association of Broadcasters final convention, I said then that the broadcasting in new media hearing, which is beginning this Tuesday in Gatineau, was a waste of time.
I qualified it, of course. I do think it’s a good idea that the Commission gather information on what new media is and what it’s doing to the regulated system – and generally be aware of what’s up, on line. But I stand by what I said, especially after seeing some of the submissions.
A hearing by a regulator into something that…
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TORONTO – While saying the business environment and financial performance of companies across Canada are likely to be adversely affected by the ongoing recession and the relative scarcity of financing, advertising-sensitive companies in the newspaper and television broadcasting sectors are likely to be most affected, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
"The recession will adversely affect advertising revenues and EBITDA will decline," said Moody’s vice-president – senior credit officer Bill Wolfe, "and this temporal matter may have lasting implications for these two struggling sectors."
While telecommunications and cable companies are unlikely to experience revenue or cash flow declines and their…
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OTTAWA – Telesat Holdings has hired Ian Scott as its executive director of government and regulatory affairs, effective immediately.
Before joining the satellite operator, Scott garnered more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry through senior government relations and regulatory positions in the private and public sectors, most recently as vice president of federal government relations for Telus.
"I am very pleased that Ian is joining Telesat to direct our Canadian government relations and regulatory initiatives, said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s president and CEO, in the press release announcing the appointment. “Ian has extensive experience in government and the…
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OTTAWA – Canadian wireless companies say they will be ready for the CRTC’s new deadline for the launch of phase two of wireless emergency 911 service.
The Commission said today the deadline for wireless carriers to upgrade their technology – so that people can more easily be found in an emergency – is February 1, 2010. A combination of GPS or radio triangulation will be deployed and the Commission has mandated the technology be precise enough to be able to say where a handset is, within a radius of 10 to 300 metres.
Right now, emergency operators rely on…
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TORONTO – There were a spasm of news stories just after the holidays that highlighted the need for better emergency 911 service for wireless phones in Canada.
There have been a few accidents, and in one case, a fatality, that might have been averted if emergency personnel had been better able to pinpoint where a wireless caller was at the time they called.
And there is no doubt that better 911 service for wireless phones is, of course, a necessity here in Canada.
However, the stories in the consumer press centred on how the wireless industry in Canada hasn’t…
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TORONTO – It was an overflow house of hundreds of family, friends, politicians and Canadian business glitterati who gathered in Toronto’s St. James Cathedral on a grey, rainy Tuesday morning to pay their final respects to Ted Rogers, the founder of Rogers Communications and one of the leading lights of Canadian business.
Rogers died December 2nd of heart disease at the age of 75.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, former PM Brian Mulroney, Shaw Communications founder JR Shaw and his son, CEO Jim Shaw, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, Bell Canada CEO George Cope, Astral chairman Andre…
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