NL Short Takes

Aliant managers fill striking workers’ positionsAliant Telecom Inc. says 1,800 of the company’s managers are filling in for workers who are currently on strike. While the company says in a news release that it hopes to maintain service levels, it concedes that there will be some delays in answering calls to its customer care centres for things such as repairs. Cutsomers are urged to use the web to conduct routine business transactions. TELUS launches fast dial-up service with SlipStreamTELUS Communications Inc. has launched its new fast dial-up Internet service, made possible by back-end data compression technology from SlipStream. The service offers dial-up web surfing at speeds of up to five times faster than traditional dial-up. The service, which adds $2.95 to existing monthly dial-up plans, includes spam control, a web-based email account, 24/7 expert technical support, and 10 Mb of web storage space. It will be offered in Quebec this summer. Canada Payphone granted bankruptcy protectionCanada Payphone Corp. expects to file a restructuring plan by May 7 after being granted bankruptcy protection in British Columbia on April 8. Appel & Co. Inc. has been named trustee. The filing was made "due to the risk of interruption of services provided by its suppliers which would seriously jeopardize the survival of its operations," noted an April 19 news release. The company assures customers that their service will not be disrupted as the company rebuilds. Costs awarded by CRTCL’Union des consommateurs has been awarded costs in the amount of $3,880.78 by the CRTC in connection with its participation in the stay and review and vary proceedings for Telecom Decisions 2002-56 and 2003-27. Costs will be paid by Bell Canada and by TELUS Communications Inc. L’Union has also been awarded $517 by the commission for costs with respect to its participation in the proceeding with respect to Allstream Corp.’s alleged non-compliance with Order 2001-193, to be paid by Allstream. CRTC extends confidentiality provisions to resellersIn Telecom Decision 2004-27, the CRTC has extended the confidentiality provisions of Telecom Decision 2003-33 to resellers of telecommunications services. The commission has also decided that the confidentiality provisions apply to all existing contracts and other service arrangements between Canadian carriers and resellers, regardless of whether the provisions were included in the service contracts or other arrangements entered into by those resellers. The decision comes as carriers argued they were at a competitive disadvantage since telecom resellers and resellers of Internet services weren’t subject to the same rules. Comments in the proceeding were received from TELUS Communications Inc., Bell Canada and the other incumbent telcos, and Allstream Corp. SaskTel sees higher revenuesSaskTel has reported net income of $85.1 million and operating revenues of $899 million in its 2003 fiscal year. The growth in revenue occured despite a reduction in long distance revenues of more than $240 million per year over the past 14 years. Operating expenses grew to $786.6 million in FY2003, up from $754 million in the previous fiscal year. Local service contributed $324.3 million to the top line in FY2003, while long distance added $125.4 million, and data, Internet and entertainment services contributed $147.2 million. As of Dec. 31, 2003, the company had 148,853 Internet access subscribers, up from 128,501 the previous year. Navigata launches VoIP in Western CanadaNavigata Communications (formerly WesTel), has launched a VoIP service dubbed WebCall by Navigata in eight centres in Alberta and British Columbia. The BC-based subsidiary of SaskTel is offering three different VoIP packages with free calling to any number in all WebCall areas starting at $29.95 per month. The service runs on Nortel Networks Corp.’s Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5200 platform. The service will initially be offered in Victoria, Vancouver, Abbotsford, Prince George, Kamloops, Kelowna, Calgary and Edmonton. Additional locations will be added in the near future including: Nanaimo, Kitimat, Terrace, Vernon, Nelson, Whistler, Squamish, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray, Canmore and Banff. Shaw selects RemotePipes to offer global Internet roamingShaw Communications Inc. has selected RemotePipes Inc. to provide worldwide mobile Internet services for Shaw’s cable Internet customers throughout Western Canada. The new offering, dubbed TollFreeISP, lets business travelers, infrequent Internet users, and rural users to access the Internet via wireless or wireline connectivitiy throughout Canada, the U.S., and 100 other countries. The service is being touted as a complement to Shaw’s webmail services. The new mobile Internet services are available immediately for all existing Shaw Internet customers. A 10-hour free trial is being offered to Shaw customers who sign up for the service. TELUS to serve Kootenay credit union with fibre connectionsTELUS Communications Inc. and the Kootenay Savings Credit Union have teamed up to provide a unified telecom system and fail-safe fibre network to improve access and service to all communities served by the financial institution. TELUS will provide high-speed fibre connectivity for both data and voice to all credit union branches. The project is expected to be completed during 2004. The credit union has 13 branches throughout the Kootenays, and over 200 employees. Chair buys TigerTel sharesDonald Swift, chair of TigerTel, has acquired 2.8 million common shares in the company from the Shurman Family Trust, Richard Shurman, Brenda Preston and Albert Rahim. The shares represent all the holdings of these shareholders. As a result, Swift now owns 12.6 million common shares, which represents more than 40% of all of TigerTel’s outstanding common shares. TELUS, BenchmarkPortal renew exclusive partnershipTELUS Communications Inc. and BenchmarkPortal have renewed their exclusive partnership, first begun in September 2003. The team is benchmarking and certifying customer care considerations in call centres. The duo hope to benchmark every call centre in Canada. AOL Canada puts Wi-Fi box on store shelvesAOL Canada Inc. has negotiated a distribution agreement with Future Shop and Best Buy to put a new wireless home networking box and high-speed access software on store shelves. The new AOL High Speed Internet in a Box will sell for $99.99, and includes an ADSL router with four micro-filters, a power supply, wireless PCMCIA card and various cables. Access will cost $39.95/month for the first 12 months, and $44.95/month thereafter. A media release notes that the new wireless-in-a-box offering can save customers as much as $150 per year. Alcatel intros triple play suiteAlcatel has launched what it dubs a fully integrated Open Media Suite, a middleware product to deliver rich media in a triple play service mix of voice, data and video. Using Open Media Suite, service providers can deliver end-to-end customized broadband entertainment offerings through the creation, delivery, provision and management of broadcast television, video-on-demand, personal video recording, electronic program guides and email. North American companies cite network security as crucial issueMultinational corporations in Canada and the United States both rank network security as their top critical communications challenge, according to research by The Yankee Group. In Canada, firms cite business continuity and disaster recovery as their second biggest communications hurdle, while multinationals in the U.S. say containing costs is more important. Among network issues, both Canadian and U.S. enterprises cite connecting remote users and offices, and improving network performance as their most difficult challenges. After those issues, improving applications performance ranks as the third most important challenge faced by multinational corporations in Canada. FCI Broadband launches marketing campaignOn April 27, FCI Broadband announced a new television and radio campaign to aggressively market its local and long distance telephone services, as well as its high-speed Internet access service to businesses and homes in Toronto. The spots feature celebrity spokesperson John Derringer, a host on Toronto’s Q107 radio station.

NL Short Takes

News | 04/28/2004 4:00 am EDT

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