OTTAWA-GATINEAU – In a decision that will may have more immediate impact on the telecom industry than last week’s voice over IP deregulation announcement by the Minister of Industry, the CRTC today approved local telephone rate ranges for incumbent telcos.
What is means is that ILECs (Bell Canada, Telus, SaskTel, MTS, Bell Aliant and the like) will now be able to submit to the Commission – confidentially – a low and high range of rates for certain services and as long as their pricing stays within that range, will not have to file for tariff approvals prior to altering…
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TORONTO – Among Canadian wireless carriers, SaskTel and Virgin Mobile have the most satisfied customers, according to a survey released today by JD Power and Associates.
Now in its second year, the Canadian Wireless Customer Satisfaction Study, which is paid for by the wireless industry, "examines attitudes of wireless customers with their service, mobile phone and retail experience," says the press release.
Rankings are provided for contract service and prepaid service providers, as well as for mobile phone providers. SaskTel Mobility ranks highest in customer satisfaction among contract service providers, while Virgin Mobile ranks highest among prepaid providers. LG…
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VANCOUVER – Syntagma Network Services, led by former Telus executive Theresa Carbonneau, last week launched on the Canadian telecom scene.
It says it has "Canada’s first independent, fully integrated telephony, IT and data service," in the press release.
"Syntagma’s innovative service allows businesses and consumers to bypass the big phone companies, allowing subscribers to get all of their phone, fax and Internet services together on one bill, at a 30% to 50% savings. Syntagma’s new service puts an end to costly user fees such as extra charges for voicemail, call waiting, call forwarding, as well as expensive long-distance charges."…
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VANCOUVER – Mobile broadband capabilities on select Dell Latitude and XPS notebooks and Precision mobile workstations will enable the units to access the Internet over the Telus wireless high speed (EVDO) service thanks to an exclusive agreement announced today by the two companies.
Telus’ Wireless High Speed service enables the user to access the Internet and their corporate or home networks on the go, with the right gear. Telus Wireless High Speed service provides typical download speeds of approximately 400 to 700 kilobits per second, and maximum possible speeds of more than 2 megabits per second.
"This offering greatly expands…
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VANCOUVER – Bell Mobility has launched a lawsuit against Telus over the latter’s recent ad campaign, saying it’s wireless plans are every bit as flexible as Telus’.
Telus launched an ad campaign this month touting its Flexible Share Plans", where more than one family member can share their wireless minutes.
Bell’s problem is the Telus line found in the ads: "only from Telus." Bell’s statement of claim decries its rival’s "exclusivity claim" as false and misleading.
"The Exclusivity Claim is calculated to give the impression, and does give the impression, that only Telus Mobility offers wireless communications services rate…
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IF CANADA’S INCUMBENT TELEPHONE companies want total deregulation quickly, they’re going to have to do it for (and to) themselves, in the marketplace.
Yesterday Industry Minister Maxime Bernier told the Economic Club of Toronto, with numerous telecom executives in the audience, that the federal government will force the CRTC to deregulate "access independent" VOIP services, no matter which company offers them or where.
The voice services offered by Primus and Vonage are prime examples. The consumer buys a special box, perhaps downloads some software and "poof", they have VOIP service in their homes –and perhaps portably, too.
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VANCOUVER – Telus wireless customers can now satisfy their hunger for music with unlimited downloads from Telus Mobile Music.
With a TMM subscription, clients can get all the music they want, from hundreds of thousands of hot downloadable music tracks spanning a wide variety of genres from the world’s biggest music labels, such as EMI Music Canada, Sony BMG Music (Canada), Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Group. Telus is the first wireless company in North America to offer such a service.
"We have seen enormous success with Telus Mobile Music as a pay-per-use service, and a clear indication…
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AS A BIT OF A GIMMICK, the moderator of Monday’s personal programming session on mobile video held up a recently released Palm Treo 700wx running on the Bell Mobility EVDO network.
Linked into his PVR at home in Ontario using a Slingbox and the Sling Mobile software, the Treo ably displayed the Sunday Night Football game on the device. Turning to the panel, the smart alecky moderator (that would be your humble author, actually) asked the panel, "If I can do this with a $300 Slingbox, why do I need you guys?"
Those "guys" were from Telus, Bell, The…
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VANCOUVER – Stephen Armstrong didn’t exactly have the easiest of tasks in front of him yesterday: Explain all new and developing media trends in 75 minutes.
The massive shifts in media consumption is keyed off of one major growth product: broadband. Quoting research, Armstrong said that by 2010, 422 million homes around the world will have broadband access. That works out to about 18.5% of all the world’s households, he calculated.
In Canada, 51% of us have broadband in our homes and growth continues. Plus, "it’s no longer the exclusive preserve of wireline carriers," he added, pointing to developments…
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VANCOUVER – While still reeling from this week’s income trust announcement from the Federal government that would seem to put the kibosh on Telus’ previously announced conversion plans, the company reported solid third quarter results on Friday.
The company reported a 7% increase in revenue compared to a year ago to $2.2 billion "due to continued strong wireless and data growth," says the quarterly release. EBITDA increased 13% to $952.4 million for the quarter ended September 30th.
Operating income came in at $569.1 million, a jump of 32.2% while net income rose 68.1% to $319.6 million. Free cash flow,…
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