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IN THIS ISSUE:
** 911 Fails in St. John's Phone Outage ** Policy Review Wrong on Wireless -- CWTA Report ** Solution Proposed for Alberta Number Shortage ** Mandatory 10-Digit Dialing Hits Montreal ** MPs Want Regulatory Changes Delayed ** Cisco Intros High-Def Videoconferencing ** Second Fibre Link to Newfoundland Proposed ** NEC Intros Converged Mobility ** Telus Seeks Local Forbearance in Fort McMurray ** MTS Expands Wi-Fi Coverage ** Look Retains Financial Advisors ** Spotwave Boosts Home Cell Reception ** Bell Aliant Revenue Stable ** Shaw Cablephone Expansion Speeds Up911 FAILS IN ST. JOHN'S PHONE OUTAGE: Residences and businesses across Newfoundland lost 911 service and Internet access for five hours on October 20. The outage, triggered by an electrical fire in a Bell Aliant switching centre, cut all phone service to over 100,000 customers in St. John's.
** Provincial Emergency Measures Organization Director Fred Hollett said "We expect the telephone systems to work in times of emergency" and announced an investigation.POLICY REVIEW WRONG ON WIRELESS -- CWTA REPORT: A report prepared by Wall Communications for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association says that the report of the Telecom Policy Review used "limited and selective data" in its analysis of Canadian wireless deployment and pricing. As a result, it "mischaracterizes the relative position of Canada to other OECD countries including the U.S."
** The Wall report says that setting aside spectrum for new entrants, as proposed by the TPR, may "have distorting market effects" and that it is "questionable whether the Canadian market can support a fourth mobile wireless entrant."MANDATORY 10-DIGIT DIALING HITS MONTREAL: 10-digit dialing for local calls becomes mandatory in the 514 and 450 area codes on Saturday, October 28: local calls dialed without the area code will no longer go through. The change enables introduction of a new area code, 438, as an overlay.
MPs WANT REGULATORY CHANGES DELAYED: Over the opposition of Conservative MPs, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology has voted to ask Cabinet to delay any changes to telecom regulation until the committee completes its report on Industry Minister Bernier's proposals. (see Telecom Update #530, 536)
CISCO INTROS HIGH-DEF VIDEOCONFERENCING: Cisco Systems says it will begin shipping a new high-definition corporate videoconferencing system in December. The company announced two models: TelePresence 1000, for small meetings, is US$79,000 per station, and TelePresence 3000, for meetings of 12 or more people, is US$299,000 per station.
** Cisco also announced the acquisition of Orative Corp, a 33-person company whose technology will allow Cisco to add cellphones and smartphones to its Unified Communications portfolio.SECOND FIBRE LINK TO NEWFOUNDLAND PROPOSED: A consortium that includes Rogers Communications, Allstream, and Persona Communications is seeking provincial government support to build an $82 million fibre-optic link from Newfoundland to the mainland. At present Bell Aliant carries all telecom traffic from Newfoundland.
NEC INTROS CONVERGED MOBILITY: NEC Unified Solutions has announced a portfolio of enterprise Wi-Fi systems that combine voice, data, multimedia, and business applications. The "Univerge Assured Mobility" products will be launched by March 2007.
TELUS SEEKS LOCAL FORBEARANCE IN FORT MCMURRAY: Telus has asked the CRTC to deregulate its residential phone service in the Fort McMurray, Alberta exchange, where the telco believes Shaw and Vonage now have more than 25% market share. This is the first application for local forbearance since the CRTC issued Telecom Decision 2006-15 (see Telecom Update #524).
** Telus argues that the Fort McMurray exchange is the appropriate geographic area for forbearance, not the larger Wood Buffalo/Cold Lake area.** Telus says that it has met competitor QoS standards for six months on residential LNP, the only Telus service used by local competitors in the exchange.
LOOK RETAINS FINANCIAL ADVISORS: Look Communications has retained Greenhill & Co. to assist in "the strategic repositioning of Look" and in "maximizing shareholder value." Look's principal asset is 92 MHz of licensed bandwidth in the 2.5 GHz band. (See Telecom Update #538)
SPOTWAVE BOOSTS HOME CELL RECEPTION: Ottawa-based Spotwave Wireless says its new Z1900 Intelligent Wireless Signal Booster will improve cellular reception and maximize wireless download speeds in homes and small offices of up to 2,500 square feet. The device, said to be easy to install out of the box, will retail for $399.
BELL ALIANT REVENUE STABLE: Bell Aliant's first quarterly report shows third-quarter operating revenue of $818 million, up 1.8% from that of its components a year earlier. A 9.6% rise in data/Internet revenue outweighed declines in local and long distance sales.
SHAW CABLEPHONE EXPANSION SPEEDS UP: Shaw Communications added 43,744 phone lines in the quarter ended August 31, half again as many as in the previous quarter: it now has 212,707 phone customers.
** Revenue of $632 million for the quarter was up 12.2% from a year earlier. Net income tripled--or doubled, if one- time items are excluded.** CEO Jim Shaw told reporters that his company has no plans to offer wireless service.
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