RESEARCH AND INVESTMENT BANKING FIRM Think Equity says it believes that American telco AT&T (the former SBC) will scale back its IPTV rollout for a number of reasons, the primary one being that providing a 25 Mbps service to consumers is simply not enough.
"We believe the so-called ‘Project Lightspeed’, substantially built on VDSL2, will see a scaling back in terms of homes passed over the next two to three years," says the Think Equity release. "The target had been 18 million homes in three years… We believe the fundamental reason AT&T is likely to do this, is…
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SEATTLE – Canadian telco Telus, along with manufacturer Cisco, have invested US$16 million in Widevine Technologies, a provider of downloadable content protection and digital forensics solutions aimed at IP video operators.
Widevine’s products enable the acquisition of premium broadcast and video-on-demand (VOD) content from all major studios and broadcasters. The company currently has over ninety telco, cable, satellite and internet service operator customers.
"When we looked at the overall market for content protection it became clear that Widevine was by far the most advanced vendor in the space. Widevine provides Telus with maximum flexibility with a proven solution spanning…
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OTTAWA – Contrary to how Canada’s incumbent telcos spun last week’s local forbearance decision, the deregulation process will not take a year or more, says the chair of the CRTC.
Last week, upon release of the CRTC’s local forbearance decision (which set out the rules upon which local telephony deregulation will happen), ILECs such as Bell, Telus and Aliant were up in arms, not just about the terms of deregulation, but of the process. They claimed it could take up to 18 months from an application to deregulation.
No way, CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen told www.cartt.ca on Wednesday. Four…
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OTTAWA – Mobile phone customers will not see the video available on their phone screens impacted by regulation, the CRTC announced this morning.
The Commission determined that the services provided by Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility, in conjunction with MobiTV Inc., fall within the Commission’s New Media Exemption Order, which applies to services that are delivered and accessed over the Internet.
The Commission also determined that mobile television services, whether or not they are delivered and accessed over the Internet, should also be exempt from regulation, and issued a public notice asking for the input of Canadians…
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VANCOUVER – Telus’ new high speed wireless service was launched in Whistler, Fort MacMurray, Alberta and Mont-Tremblant and Saint-Jovite, Quebec, on Wednesday
The service means consumer and business clients in those regions can have what Telus customers already have in the big cities: mobile access to the Internet, e-mail and other data at broadband speeds similar to desktop Internet access.
Bell Mobility also rolled out its broadband wireless service in the Mont-Tremblant region on the same day.
Typical download speeds are 400 to 700 Kbps, with possible speeds of more than 2 Mbps. Since November, Telus has already launched…
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TORONTO – Covering all segments of the Canadian telecommunications and IT industry, The Canadian Telecom Summit brings together the leaders of all industry sectors – service providers, manufacturers, applications providers, policy makers and regulators.
With two major pronouncements from different government bodies regarding the state of competitiveness of Canada’s telecommunications industry – the Telecom Policy Report and the CRTC’s local forbearance decision, which in some clauses appear to contradict each other – it will be very interesting to see how the new Minister of Industry, Maxime Bernier, juggles the interests of all industry players, consumers and the business sector.
He…
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TORONTO – Telus announced today it has purchased Assurent Secure Technologies for an undisclosed purchase price.
Assurent is a Toronto-based provider of information technology security services and products.
Assurent’s 55 employees will become a part of Telus Business Resiliency Services, a part of the Telus Business Solutions business unit. This acquisition is consistent with Telus’ approach to make "tuck-under" acquisitions which augment capabilities related to the strategic growth areas of data, wireless and IP, says today’s press release.
"Information security is an increasingly critical issue for all businesses," said Joe Natale, president, Telus Business Solutions. "Security threats continue to proliferate…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – A local market won’t be considered competitive until one-quarter of the households in it get their home phone from a newcomer, the CRTC said Thursday.
The 44,000-word decision made the newcomers like cable and third party VOIP providers very happy but angered the incumbent telcos, who erupted with anger and say they won’t stand for the decision.
“Aliant fully intends to appeal this decision,” said Heather Tulk, vice-president of residential markets at Aliant, the company whose application for deregulation launched the review.
There are three main aspects to the decision. 1) Competitors must gain 25% market…
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OTTAWA – Who needs to be tethered to a home phone anymore when the phone can be tethered to you wherever you are?
The proportion of Canadian households relying only on cell phones for their communications instead of land line phones has more than doubled in just over two years, according to new data from the Statistics Canada’s Residential Telephone Service Survey.
As of December 2005, just over 615,000 households, or 4.8% of the total, reported having only a cell phone, compared with just 1.9% in mid-2003. Households in the two westernmost provinces, British Columbia and Alberta, are leading…
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TORONTO – New Canadians are avid users of mobile phones and alternative long distance calling options — and spend more on wireless and home phone combined, according to a new study by Solutions Research Group, a Toronto-based market research firm.
Among the key findings of the wireless and telecom module of the Diversity in Canada study are:
• Major ethnic groups in Canada are somewhat more likely to have cellular phones (61% have one, vs. 59% average among 15+ population in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver). Highest penetration is among Chinese Canadians (74%).
• Rogers is the leading wireless company…
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