SSi Micro says northern broadband won’t grow if everything is given to incumbents
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Last week, outgoing Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said a chunk of the United States’ historic C-band spectrum proceeds should go toward a fund intended to help bring basic telecommunications services to all Americans.
North of the border, NDP Member of Parliament Brian Masse (and many others) has long been calling for spectrum proceeds to fund rural broadband investments — even creating a proposal to connect the entirety of the country to universal objective speeds (50 Mbps download/10 Mbps upload) much sooner than…
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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Cloud-based software and services company Synacor today announced its work with popular health and fitness platform Openfit to make the company’s trainer-led workout content available to millions of Telus subscribers.
Openfit is using Synacor’s Cloud ID identity management to seamlessly authenticate Telus subscriptions and quickly extend access to millions of potential subscribers. This allows Telus subscribers to explore new content experiences outside the typical pay-TV viewing lineup, explains Synacor’s press release.
Telus subscribers can add Openfit to their Optik TV package or choose an Optik TV bundle that already includes Openfit. By adding Openfit, subscribers will enjoy…
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VANCOUVER — As Telus prepares to take its Telus International subsidiary public, the company announced today the expected share price for the initial public offering (IPO) as well as the subsidiary’s preliminary fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 financial results.
Telus International is offering 33.33 million of its subordinate voting shares in the IPO, including 21.93 million from treasury and 11.4 million from Telus Corporation and Baring Private Equity Asia (its selling shareholders). Telus says the IPO price is currently expected to be between US$23 and US$25 per share.
Following the IPO, Telus is expected to hold approximately 66.6% of the combined voting…
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VANCOUVER and TORONTO – This week, Telus announced the expansion of its innovative mobile Health for Good clinic program with its community health partner, Kílala Lelum Health Centre in Vancouver, and the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre (CHC) and University Health Network’s (UHN) Social Medicine Program in Toronto.
The mobile clinics are specially-equipped vans whose staffers in Vancouver will provide trauma-informed, culturally-sensitive primary medical treatments, Indigenous Elder-led cultural care, mental health services, and addiction support directly to the underserved citizens of Vancouver.
In Toronto, the clinics “provide essential primary health and harm reduction services directly to underserved persons in neighbourhoods…
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But really, everyone is pretty good, winning in one metric or another…
SEATTLE — According to Seattle-based Ookla’s latest Speedtest Global Index, Telus was the fastest mobile operator among the top Canadian providers in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Using Speedtest Intelligence data from October to December 2020, Ookla gave Telus a speed score of 87.88 (calculated using results from devices built on modern chipsets). The next-highest speed score in Q4 2020 was awarded to Bell (84.51), followed by Rogers (73.05), Rogers’s flanker brand Fido (71.64) and Shaw’s Freedom Mobile (35.62).
In terms of latency, Freedom Mobile had the lowest…
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Telus achieves lowest network latency
SEATTLE — As was the case in the previous quarter, Rogers Communications ranked as the fastest fixed broadband provider among top Canadian providers in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Seattle-based Ookla’s latest Speedtest Global Index measurement of network speeds in Canada.
Based on Speedtest Intelligence data from October to December 2020, Ookla awarded Rogers a fixed-broadband speed score of 147.12. Close behind was Canada’s other big cable company Shaw Communications with a speed score of 146.96, followed by Telus (105.9), Bell Canada (103.62), Cogeco (98.27), Videotron (94.65) and TekSavvy (39.36).
Ookla’s speed score…
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OTTAWA and BELMONT, Calif. — Telus and RingCentral, a provider of global enterprise cloud communications and contact centre solutions, today announced they are expanding their partnership to enable Canadian small businesses to transition their legacy phone systems to the cloud using Telus Business Connect.
An all-in-one communications solution for message, video and phone, Telus Business Connect is now available in two new plans — Business Connect Voice and Business Connect Voice Plus — specifically built for small businesses who want to replace their basic legacy services with “a cost-effective, trusted business solution and richer functionality that enables remote work and…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Late in 2019, in following up its universal service objective decision, the CRTC decided to study the barriers to building new facilities or to accessing or interconnecting with existing facilities in order to extend broadband networks more efficiently into underserved areas, including areas where, due to a lack of such networks, speeds don’t meet the service objectives.
Of course, in March 2020, the pandemic hit, and a vast number of Canadians went home to work, becoming completely dependent on their home’s high-speed Internet to continue work and school. Access to high-speed Internet rapidly became a political…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada today expanded on its plan simplify the process for service providers needing access to aerial infrastructure (poles, mostly) in Québec.
The company has been sharply criticized from many corners for the slow, onerous processes network builders must navigate in order to attach wires and other gear to Bell poles. This year the company has acknowledged this is a problem and pledged to make changes.
The issue of support structures (on a national basis) is also the subject of a full CRTC proceeding.
Service providers, says today’s announcement, “will now be able to conduct…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Back in August 2020, the CRTC found both Telus and Iristel in violation of the Telecom Act and after Iristel issued a Review and Vary (R&V) application, Telus filed one of its own, in November.
While Iristel had been determined guilty of traffic stimulation with area code 867 calls, Telus was accused of taking matters in its own hands and ending the practice by not connecting what it identified as dubious calls.
Iristel retorted on December 14, arguing that Telus was, in fact, violating the Telecommunications Act and restated the case of a lady, living…
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