TORONTO – Canadian Women in Communications have announced the winners of its CWC Annual Awards for 2006.
Four Canadian women and one communications-industry employer are recognized annually for their contributions to the Canadian communications industry.
“Celebrating the achievements of women is one of CWC’s most important and rewarding tasks,” said Stephanie MacKendrick, CWC president, in the press release. CWC holds an Annual Awards Gala in Ottawa that celebrates the achievements of women, and those who support their advancement in the Canadian communications industry.
Participants in the awards presentation program will include: Minister of Industry, the Hon. Maxime Bernier, Minister…
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OTTAWA – In a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, Telus vice-president, wireless, broadband and content policy, Michael Hennessy, called out Quebecor for what he sees as a double standard.
As a member of the Canadian wireless industry, past president of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association and an ex-director of the Canadian Television Fund, Hennessy said he was "both shocked and troubled," about decisions made by Shaw and Videotron to withhold their CRTC-mandated contributions to the Canadian Television Fund.
"While it is disturbing that such unilateral action could jeopardize thousands of jobs and scores of projects…
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TORONTO – Telus has signed a five-year, multi-million dollar contract with Best Buy Canada Ltd., one of the country’s fastest growing entertainment and technology retailers, to connect all of its stores across Canada with a private IP network, winning the business away from incumbent Allstream.
Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Our guiding principle is to develop and provide the best shopping experience,” said Brian Martin, CTO for Best Buy Canada (the company also owns Future Shop). “To maximize the opportunities the digital age affords us, we need a foundation that supports our guiding principle and…
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TORONTO – The 2007 Canadian Digital Broadcasting Summit will be held January 29th and 30th at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre.
On the agenda are topics such as IP delivery of broadcasting, HD studio conversion, how the last mile (consumer premises) affects HD rollout, broadcast delivery capacity, IT infrastructure, subscriber rates and the recent trend towards the consumer as broadcaster.
Canadian comic Ron James will entertain at dinner on day one of the conference, which is organized every year by the Canadian Satellite Users Association. Cartt.ca is a media sponsor of the event.
Other speakers include: Paul Bush, Telesat;…
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VANCOUVER – The Better Business Bureau of Mainland B.C. (BBB) and Telus are teaming up to warn B.C. residents about a local telephone scam where an automated caller promises the recipient a free vacation if they dial ‘9.’
“This is a scam,” said BBB president Lynda Pasacreta in a press release. “If you receive a call from someone trying to convince you to dial ‘9’ for any reason, hang up. For that matter, any call from someone claiming you have won a prize in a contest you don’t remember entering is a scam. If it seems too good to…
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THE SMALL AND MEDIUM-sized business market has become a crowded place.
All of the big companies have said in the past months they see this market as a place to find big growth. Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Cogeco, Telus et al – all have talked about how well they hope to do in the SME space.
So is there room for small startups like Syntagma Network Services? CEO Theresa Carbonneau thinks so. The company’s small business plan offers a full suite of voice over IP-delivered services including broadband connectivity, voice services, e-mail and web hosting, exchange server hosting, virus scanning…
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DEREGULATING LOCAL PHONE in major urban centres in 2007 seems to me to be the right thing to do.
"The idea that somehow the cable guys are at a disadvantage to the telcos has not been proven so far in the entry of the cable industry in local voice," Lawson Hunter, Bell’s chief corporate officer said to me Wednesday. I agree with him. To a point.
Setting aside the unprecedented use of the provision in the Telecom Act that let’s the government issue policy directives to the CRTC (until 2006, it just hadn’t been done), it’s time to…
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LAS VEGAS – In kicking off the session this morning on IPTV, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Asia Pacific head Marcel Fenez outlined the changes in his city, Hong Kong, with the introduction of a serious IPTV player.
There are seven million people in the city and 130% wireless penetration. Broadband penetration is 60% and five years ago, cable had 100% of the video market, he said.
Three years ago, however, one of the five fixed line telcos, PCCW launched an IPTV service with 23 channels.
It now has over 700,000 customers (one of whom is Fenez) and 120 channels. "It’s the largest…
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OTTAWA – Industry Minister Maxime Bernier’s efforts to hasten deregulation of local telephone service have come under fire from Canadian consumer groups.
At a press conference Monday, the organizations charged that the minister’s proposals and policy direction to the CRTC ignore the Commission’s roadmap to competition that took into account the largely dominant position of the established local phone companies and was aimed at permitting the creation of viable competition. Some in rural communities say the directive will stifle competition in smaller markets.
The Canadian Consumer Initiative, a coalition of six consumer organizations, accused the minister of trying…
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VANCOUVER – Last week Telus began offering dedicated adult content to its wireless subscribers.
For about $3 to $4 per download, customers can access images and videos from the Telus network, using age-verification techniques. It’s believed Telus us the first wireless carrier in North America to offer such a dedicated, age-verification protected service to its customers.
Of course, customers of any carrier with a web-enabled phone can access adult web sites whenever they want, but Telus is offering a high quality experience limited to adults only. The quality of experience when surfing to adult sites with a smartphone, for…
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