WHILE THE SENIOR REGULATORY EXECUTIVES of all the nation’s telcos, cablecos and other parties met with federal MPs Thursday in Ottawa to plead their cases on telecom regulation, across the river in Gatineau, the CRTC was receiving its newest application for local forbearance – in Fort McMurray, Alberta.
Saying it has already passed the threshold of local line customer losses (25%) in the Alberta oil-boom-town about 450 kms north of Edmonton – thanks to rigorous competition from Shaw Cable – Telus wants the CRTC to deregulate the market, as outlined in its April 2006 local forbearance decision.
Shaw…
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VANCOUVER – Bollywood content, news, cricket updates, entertainment and cultural information direct from South Asia are now options on Telus mobile phones.
The Canadian telco and Reliance Communications, India’s largest integrated telecom service provider, says the press release, today announced Apna Des, a mobile phone based content site is now available to Telus wireless customers.
"Apna Des offers Telus clients a complete South Asian mobile experience that brings together the best of Bollywood and the latest updates on news and cricket, while respecting the region’s incredible cultural depth," said Robert Blumenthal, Telus senior vice-president of products and services, in…
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MONTREAL – As if remembering to turn the clock back an hour isn’t enough, many Quebecers also have to remember to dial all 10 digits come Saturday.
This marks the end of the four-month transition period implemented to get users out of the habit of dialing only seven digits (Ed note: We even remember the good ol’ days of only having to dial five). The intercept message and automatic call rerouting will be eliminated as well. The Telecommunications Alliance (www.dial10.ca) is issuing its final notice to anyone who has still not started using 10 digits to dial local…
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IN THE FIRST PART OF Cartt.ca’s exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CEO, Robert Rabinovitch talked about stable funding, the TV Policy Review, The One, CBC radio and SRC, among other topics.
Click here to read Part I of the story from last week.
In the second part of our chat, Rabinovitch goes over on demand strategies, HD, CBC Sports (the interview was prior to Nancy Lee’s departure), local news and the residual effects of the 2005 lockout. What follows is an edited transcript.
Greg O’Brien: Let’s switch back to English TV – but actually this question…
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TORONTO – G4techTV Canada announced Monday that digital cable and satellite subscribers will get to see its high-tech and gaming programming through the month of November at no charge.
As well, the Rogers-controlled digital specialty service is offering viewers a chance to win a five day trip for four to Honolulu, Hawaii and tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl football game in February 2007.
The winner will also receive four passes to the Madden Championship online football gaming tournament being held in Hawaii.
Participating BDUs include: Bell ExpressVu, Rogers, Cogeco, Videotron, Persona, Access, Telus, MTS, Mountain Cable, Source, and…
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VANCOUVER – Last week Telus turned on the first five of seven new cellular sites which are providing voice and data service to a 25 kilometre stretch of Highway 1 between Revelstoke and Golden, B.C. known as Rogers Pass. The remaining two sites are planned for later in the year.
The $7 million project is part of the company’s ongoing investment to improve existing cell service along the highway and throughout British Columbia’s interior.
“We recognize cellular service along this corridor is particularly important for people living in the area and travellers, and are doing what we can to…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced this week it will invest $800,000 to launch mobile phone service to four small coastal B.C. communities in the coming months.
The company is upgrading existing central switching offices with state-of-the-art cellular network and transmission equipment in Port Edward, Hartley Bay, Klemtu, and Oona River. The sites will provide PCS cellular and wireless data services such as text messaging and Internet access to each community. Similar upgrades were just completed to bring mobile phone service to the Queen Charlotte Islands, Bella Bella, and Bella Coola.
“By adding cellular network equipment to existing Telus landline sites…
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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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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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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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