NL Short Takes

360networks loses US$5 billion in six monthsTroubled fibre giant 360networks Inc. reported a loss of US$5.1 billion for the first half of 2001, compared with US$149 million a year earlier. The company is under creditor protection in North America and is in the process of starting insolvency proceedings for divisions in Asia and Europe. Rogers expects to solve @Home problems this weekRogers Communications Inc hopes to be able to start accepting high-speed Internet customers by the end of this week. It had stopped taking new clients following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of its provider, @Home Corp. of Redwood CA. Delay granted on Montreal area code relief dateThe CRTC has granted the major ILECs a delay in the relief date of the area code overlay in the 514 NPA. Decision 2001-648 moves the date back to Feb. 7 of next year. In addition, the Central Office Code Utilization Survey will now be filed semi-annually, rather than quarterly. The commission also approved the reorganization of independent telco Amtelecom Group Inc in Decision 2001-650 and issued Public Notice 2000-124-2, a re-examination of access to MDUs, in-building wiring and riser space. Telus puts US$2 million into web services firmTelus Ventures is investing US$2 million in Jamcracker Inc., an enterprise Web service company in Cupertino CA. The two have formed a partnership so Telus can offer Jamcracker services north of the border. BCE continues convergence with Globe and Sympatico linkBCE Inc is moving ahead with its funnelization of content by providing news content from globeandmail.com to subscribers of Sympatico.ca. Both firms are divisions of BCE subsidiary Bell Globemedia. SaskTel expands high-speed Internet networkSaskTel is moving its high-speed Internet network into Watrous and Assiniboia and has added an Internet Help Desk in Moose Jaw. The firm already has a Regina help desk to serve its 100,000 high-speed subscribers. Northwestel expands high-speed Internet networkNorthern ILEC Northwestel has rolled out its high-speed ADSL network to Dawson City, Old Crow, Pelly Crossing and Mayo. The Bell Canada subsidiary provides telecom services to Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon and northern British Columbia. SaskTel supplies telemarketing complaint figuresProvincial ILEC SaskTel has provided the final numbers for complaints about telemarketers (NL, May 7/01). It handled 722 protests in 1996; 806 beefs the next year; 980 grievances in 1998; 992 objections in 1999; and 1701 complaints last year. Primus Telecom cuts vendor debt by one-fifthPrimus Telecommunications Group Inc. has chopped its vendor debt and related obligations by US$50 million. This represents a slashing of 20% of the debt and constitutes savings of US$16 million, assuming the debt had been held to maturity. Aliant Telecom introduces Internet portfolio productAliant Telecom has launched WebConnect, a portfolio of services for email management and web chat/collaboration management. Customers subscribe to the service, which runs on Aliant’s ASP platform, on a per agent monthly basis. Toronto Hydro switches to online billingToronto Hydro is abandoning the post office for the Internet. The utility is establishing an online billing service that will permit customers to receive and pay monthly statements through the Hydro web site or through bank portals. Verizon puts Internet Call Manager in four American areasAmerican telco Verizon is now deploying Internet Call Manager in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and northern New Jersey. ICM is manufactured by InfoInterActive Corp. of Halifax. IIA was recently purchased by America Online Inc. (NL, May 22/01). UniLink expands fibre reach into Hong KongToronto’s UniLink Tele.Com Inc. has tripled its fibre capacity to Hong Kong. The facilities provider expects to generate monthly revenue of $50,000 to $70,000 within two weeks of the completion of testing. Wireless lines to overtake fixed lines in five yearsA new study by the Carmel Group in Carmel-by-the-Sea CA predicts the number of wireless telephones in use by 2006 will be 1.66 billion. That will finally overtake the wireline market, which is projected to be at 920 million users. CANARIE unveils e-learning winnersCANARIE Inc has announced the winners of its e-learning competition for this year. Funding is being provided to Etraffic Solutions Inc. of Victoria, the University of Victoria, Vancouver’s Nortia Learning Systems, and Cogniscience of Montreal. The program has been in operation since September 1999. SchoolNet attracts Bell Canada as major sponsorBell Canada has signed on as the first major sponsor of SchoolNet’s Network of Innovative Schools. The telco is donating $450,000 over the next three years. ADSL projected to be leading technology in EuropeThe European Commission has released a study on broadband deployment on the continent. It predicts cable modem and ADSL will become the leading technologies, although there is expectation that the pace of the rollout will be different within member nations. VoiceGenie integrates speech technology with AT&TToronto’s VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. has integrated the text-to-speech technology from AT&T Labs in its VoiceXML gateway. The engine turns written copy into recognizable sounds and a library of voices means that celebrity voices may be duplicated. British Virgin Islands phone scam allegedAmerican telco AT&T is warning clients about messages that require people to call the 809 area code. The messages, which use the pretext of lottery wins or family emergencies, are routed to the British Virgin Islands and have resulted in charges of US$2,425 per minute. Callers get recorded messages designed to keep them on the line for great lengths of time. Nortel builds "Great Firewall of China"A human rights group has accused Nortel Networks Corp. of helping the Chinese government stifle dissent. The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development says China is using equipment from Nortel and other telecom firms to prevent dissidents from using the Internet to get their message to the world.

NL Short Takes

News | 10/22/2001 4:00 am EDT

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