VANCOUVER – An audit done August 31st for Telus by accounting firm Ernst & Young shows that the majority of the company’s unionized workers are on the job, despite the strike called by the Telecommunications Workers Union.
The E&Y procedures show that 2,880 Alberta based unionized employees were active on the Telus payroll system, which represented 52.6% of Alberta bargaining unit employees. This is up from August 16, 2005, where 2,715 Alberta based unionized employees were active, or 48.8% of the Alberta bargaining unit employees.
It also shows that the longer a labour dispute drags on, the higher the…
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THIS IS A BIG JOB. No wonder Rogers Communications Group’s president and COO Nadir Mohamed doesn’t want to talk about succession. He’s got lots on his plate to worry about now, rather than what his next job might be.
Besides, last week’s National Post Business article beat that story to death (and then some) last week.
What we wanted to know is where the company’s priorities lay. What’s job one for him rightnow? How is he going to bring together two disparate groups (cable and wireless, together a $5 billion business), two completely different technological platforms, into a cohesive,…
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THERE IS SO MUCH on the docket for lawyers working the telecom file in Canada these days, it’s almost hard to keep track.
The CRTC begins its hearings into forbearance from regulating the local phone market on September 26th (same week as Cable Week) while at the same time Industry Canada is deep into its Telecom Policy Review. Then there’s the Federal Court appeal of the CRTC’s telecom win-back rules and the ILECs’ VOIP decision appeal to cabinet, among other things.
So how will a coherent national telecom policy be developed from this muddle of related…
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WE HOPE READERS HAVE ENJOYED the four-month free preview of www.cartt.ca. We do our best to cover the vital issues that affect executives, managers and employees of companies of all sizes in the cable, radio, television and telecom trade.
Since our May 2nd launch, we’ve delivered original journalism – breaking news, feature stories, interviews and viewpoints – important to the domestic industry. In fact, since launch, www.cartt.ca has published almost 800 stories which have appeared in our twice-weekly newsletters that hit in-boxes promptly at 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s more than nine per business day, and includes many…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has turned down a request from a non-profit group in British Columbia to get relief from TELUS Communications Inc. with its phone rates.
The Royal Canadian Air Cadets 828 Hurricane Squadron wanted the telco to allow qualifying non-profit organizations to have two individual phone lines at residential rates instead of business rates. TELUS does so in Alberta, but its General Tariff for B.C. does not.
The cadets wanted TELUS to define customers given rate relief to include churches, youth groups, veterans’ associations, associations for the elderly or infirm, and community centres. It argued that residential…
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TORONTO – Rogers and Bell may have had the press releases out first this year, but Telus Mobility is the first to market with mobile TV – video to cell phones.
Telus Mobility today launched Telus mobile TV, offering clients across Canada real-time access to live television programming including news, weather and shopping channels on their wireless phones.
Both Rogers and Bell made announcements earlier this year that the service was coming soon (those releases anticipated the service would be in the market by now from both companies), powered by MobiTV, but both companies say technical issues has…
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TORONTO – Telus today announced the launch of CallCentreAnywhere, its new contract multimedia contact centre.
Billing it as “a full-featured, on-demand IP contact centre solution that eliminates capital costs, cuts operating costs by 50 per cent, and greatly reduces the technical complexity of implementing and supporting a multimedia contact centre,” Telus has already secured more than $12 million in contracts from this.
"Telus is committed to offering integrated solutions that give our customers a competitive advantage in the market," said Joe Natale, president, Telus Business Solutions, in a release.
"CallCentreAnywhere changes the dynamics of call centres and is attracting…
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WINNIPEG – Business travelers on their way into our out of Winnipeg can now get Wi-Fi in the provincial capital’s airport.
Telus and the Winnipeg Airports Authority today announced a new data and voice initiative at Winnipeg International Airport that includes a managed wireless local area network (WLAN) and public Wi-Fi services for travelers, the Winnipeg Airports Authority, and airport tenants.
The new services expand wireless data capabilities throughout the airport, providing tenants, employees and travelers with high-speed access to the Internet and other data networks throughout the facility.
"This level of wireless connectivity will benefit our businesses and…
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OTTAWA – A number of Canada’s leading information technology companies (Rogers and Bell, for example) have united to urge the government to modernize the Telecommunications Act in order to promote the government’s entire agenda of competition, investment and commercialization.
The urging comes in a submission to the federal government’s Telecom Policy Review (TRP) delivered by the CATA-CAIP TelecomACT Working Group, a high-level panel drawn from the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), and its parent organization, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA). Industry members included: MTS Allstream, Bell, Ericsson, MCI, Nakina Systems, Rogers, Telesat, Telus, Eagle.ca, AOL, Orbit.com, NetIdea.,…
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HAMILTON, ON – The leading news source for the Canadian cable, radio, television and telecom industry is growing again.
While other industry publications cut back, www.cartt.ca is adding to its editorial team. Besides editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, www.cartt.ca now has a total of four other editors now covering the Canadian industry.
Glenn Wanamaker will be our Quebec Editor. He is a freelance broadcaster and journalist, with 25 years experience in the broadcast industry, including 15 in Quebec. Based in Quebec City, the bi-lingual Wanamaker will keep his finger on the pulse of the industry in the province where…
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