Rogers Wireless Communications has appointed Lewis Chakrin and Timothy Finnegan to the company’s board of directors. Both are senior-level executives at AT&T Wireless Services (AWS). Chakrin, who is currently executive VP corporate strategy and planning for AWS, brings more than 30 years of telecommunications experience to the table. Finnegan has 15 years experience and is currently a VP with the company responsible for sales throughout the organization.

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Department extends deadline for comments on TMI filing
Industry Canada has extended the deadline for comments regarding TMI Communications’ application (Gazette Notice DGTP-009-01) to use parts of its satellite spectrum for a terrestrial repeater network. Comments were originally due Dec. 11, but that has been extended until Dec. 28. Reply comments, which were due on Dec. 28, are now due Jan. 13, 2002.

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The Yankee Group predicts that Canada’s four national mobile operators will see a significant increase in short messaging services (SMS) traffic, increased penetration rates among youth users and improved awareness of wireless data services, following an agreement that enables inter-carrier short messaging. The network interoperability agreement was signed in Toronto earlier this month (RoW, Nov. 13/01). The added service will allow subscribers of one wireless carrier to send and receive short messages from users of a rival carrier.

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The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) has taken over the Strategic Microelectronics Consortium (SMC) in a move both groups say will improve their chances of winning funding critical to increasing the number of university engineering professors. In the past, the two groups have lobbied the federal government separately to get funding they needed. Those efforts, however, have yet to yield significant results.

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Telecom giant Nortel Networks Corp. has grabbed a significant share of the world’s next-generation wireless equipment market and has moved into second place behind Ericsson, according to its most recent figures. Despite a significant downturn in its optics business, the company is rolling ahead with its wireless activities landing major contract wins. Most recently, Nortel entered Korea with the completion of 3G testing.

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Two established American companies are touting their individual strengths as reasons why each should be granted the right to operate a Ka-band satellite in the Canadian 107.3 degrees West orbital slot. But before either company can be granted a licence to launch a satellite, they will have to demonstrate adherence to Canadian foreign ownership provisions of the Telecommunications Act.

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An Ottawa-based software provider says it has an answer to reducing wireless operator churn and increasing ARPU by profiling customers’ use of the wireless Internet. Buystream Inc. will soon unveil the details of a major deal with one of the country’s national mobile wireless operators that would see its software integrated into the carrier’s back-end infrastructure.

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A recent decision by Industry Canada to align its 2500 MHz spectrum policy with that of the United States has given MCS and MDS operators the certainty they need to follow through on their long-term business plans. On Nov. 16, the department announced that those providers wouldn’t have to migrate to another band as was previously considered (RoW, Jan. 22/01) and that it was also considering adding a mobile allocation to the band. Licence-holders Inukshuk Internet Inc. and Image Wireless Communications Inc. can now move forward with network deployment and service implementation.

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