TORONTO – Last week’s Canadian Telecom Summit saw the leaders of Canada’s largest ILECs stay relentlessly on the attack, hitting at the CRTC as well as Canadian cable companies.
While Bell Canada Enterprises CEO Michael Sabia’s keynote on Tuesday said the telecom regs were just plain wrong, Telus Communications CEO Darren Entwistle backed him up the next day.
Both executives are peeved at the May 12th voice over Internet protocol regulatory decision which said, mainly, that for the incumbent local exchange carriers VOIP will be regulated as their traditional circuit-switched systems in that they must file tariffs each…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – With the telecom industry taking swing after swing at the Commission he runs for three straight days, CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen jabbed back on Wednesday.
He was given the last word by Canadian Telecom Summit organizers and spent much of his speech at the conference defending the CRTC’s VOIP decision. The May 12th voice over Internet protocol regulatory decision said, mainly, that for the incumbent local exchange carriers VOIP will be regulated the same as their traditional circuit-switched systems in that they must file tariffs each time they want to alter their pricing.
Telephony newcomers like cable…
Continue Reading
NIAGARA FALLS – The CRTC will begin three days of hearings in the honeymoon capital today focusing on a potential new TV station for the region and on six applicants for a radio station serving Woodstock and Tillsonburg, Ontario.
As reported only by www.cartt.ca last week, ITV founder Wendell Wilks is behind the well-financed, ambitious proposal for TV Niagara. He’s due up first thing this morning and is opposed by broadcasters and cable companies alike.
The roster of radio applicants for the 104.7 FM station license include Byrnes Communications, Standard Radio, CHUM Radio, Newcap Broadcasting, Sound of Faith…
Continue Reading
ST-LAURENT – National wireless provider Telus Mobility today announced the official opening of two new, state-of-the-art retail locations in Quebec City, one on trendy de la couronne boulevard and another in the Galeries de la Capitale.
Combined with the renovation of F.M. Electronique and recent opening of Expert-Cell Télécom, two prominent independent dealers, Telus Mobility has invested more than $500,000 to provide Quebec consumers with the company’s wireless wares.
These two new corporate store locations are part of the company’s network of more than 3,000 retail locations across Canada, including more than 100 corporate retail stores.
www.telusmobility.com
Continue Reading
TORONTO – VOIP, wireless, video, SMS, IMS, GSM – we are on the cusp of major telecom changes – not to mention a riot of acronyms you can’t identify without a program.
It was clear through several sessions at the first day of the three-day Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto that wireless and voice over Internet protocol telephony are leading a revolution in communications, world wide. Here’s a bit of what we saw and heard.
Ericsson Canada’s president Mark Henderson told delegates that video looks to be the next big thing in wireless. Good video too, with interactive television…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Don’t expect Bell Canada Enterprises to let up on the CRTC any time soon.
Still stinging from the Commission’s May 12th VOIP decision, which maintains traditional regs on telcos’ voice over IP offerings while cablecos and others get a head start, BCE CEO Michael Sabia made plain today in his keynote address at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto that the company will keep pressuring government for wholesale change.
The situation is dire, he said, as Canada loses ground in the information communications technology (ICT) space to forward-thinking countries like Ireland and Korea. “By making a conscious…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – While he didn’t name names, one of the newest players in the telecom space in Canada appear to be having problems dealing with a certain western MSO.
At a Monday session during the Canadian Telecom Summit entitled VOIP Pioneers – Early Results, Matt Stein, vice-president of new technology and services with VOIP provider Primus Canada, expressed his frustration with customer issues that are peculiar to the west.
“The vast majority of our quality issues are from Alberta and British Columbia,” he said. “An overwhelming amount comes from those provinces and while I won’t name the company, it…
Continue Reading
WE ALL HAVE A WISH-list, don’t we? Things we think and sometimes say about what we’d change if a genie popped from a bottle.
While a genie grants but three wishes, I have many, many more than that. Greedy, I guess, but here goes. I wish:
* I had telephone call display on my TV screen. That’s a nifty option Sasktel and MTS offer on their DSL TV service. It’s something I’d certainly pay for.
* Telcos and cablecos would quit going after each other at the Commission so often and concentrate on their marketing and engineering. Each side…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – A new report authored for Videotron released today says that voice over Internet protocol telephony offers a unique window of opportunity for real competition in the Canadian voice marketplace.
Videotron, not surprisingly, calls the CRTC’s May 12th decision on the regulation of VOIP-delivered telephony the right one.
“In its decision, the CRTC recognized the potential of VoIP technology to finally bring meaningful entry into the local telephone market, eight years after this market was formally opened to competition. At the same time, the CRTC purposefully refrained from a premature deregulation of VoIP services offered by the former…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Look for some day two fireworks at the 2005 Canadian Telecom Summit.
The 11 a.m. session on May 31st, day two of what looks to be a great three days, is entitled “The Regulatory Blockbuster”, which most will identify as last week’s VOIP ruling from the CRTC. The session’s panelists are scheduled to be Lawson Hunter, executive vice-president, BCE Inc.; Janet Yale, EVP corporate affairs, Telus; Jean Brazeau, senior v-p regulatory, Sprint Canada; Ken Englehart, v-p regulatory, Rogers Communications; Chris Peirce, senior v-p regulatory, MTS-Allstream; and Michael Hennessy, president, Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association.
Given the hundreds of…
Continue Reading
