NL Short Takes

Local lines jump for Sprint Canada, increases revenueCall-Net Enterprises Inc. reported strong financial and subscriber additions in the second quarter ended June 30. The company noted in a July 28 news release that its Sprint Canada Inc. subsidiary added 35,200 local telephony lines in the quarter, showing 18% and 4% revenue growth in the consumer and business market segments, respectively. Of those local line net additions, 27,300 came in the consumer segment with the remaining on the business side. Call-Net attributes much of the company’s growth to its increasing use of bundles to attract new customers. "Our focus on selling bundles using our home phone service as a foundation continues to be the right growth strategy. 60% of consumer services revenue now comes from customers who purchase more than one product from us compared to 45% in the same quarter last year," Call-Net president and CEO Bill Linton said in a news release. During the quarter, the company introduced local phone services to a number of new communities in Southern Ontario and in the Greater Montreal Area, bringing the total number of municipalities served to 31. Sprint Canada now has an addressable market of more than 7 million home and business lines. In other Sprint Canada news, the company launched on July 22 its Internet phone service, starting at $19.95 per month. Sprint Canada provides the IP gateway for $75, which includes four months of basic service. The company also notes that traditional telephone features such as 911, 411, 711, call waiting, call display and voice mail are available. Sprint Canada says the service can be purchased as part of a bundle that includes local home phone and Fido wireless services. Other items of interest noted during the company’s July 28 conference call included projections on business data revenue and plans for high-speed Internet services. Linton said that business data services revenue will overtake business long-distance services revenue some time over the next two years. As well, the company hopes to finalize plans concerning its high-speed Internet strategy later this year. Wireless additions in the quarter were low and Linton attributed that to a lack of promotions currently in the market. Vidéotron Telecom to launch VoIP next yearThe telecommunications unit of Quebec’s largest cable company Vidéotron ltée will launch a residential Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service in the province during the first half of next year, the company announced on July 29. The firm said that capital investment to launch the service, excluding customer acquisition costs, are estimated to be in the $80 million range over the next four years. The cost of acquisition per customer is expected to be approximately $250. More details of the service will be announced later this fall after the company has completed technical trials of Internet telephony over its province-wide network. Ontario gov’t-owned O.N. Telecom changing nameO.N. Telecom, the Ontario government-owned telco, is changing its name to Ontera. The company filed proposed revisions to General Tariff 25520 and 25300, noting the name change. "Ontera is proposing to replace the existing company names that are on each individual tariff page with the new company name when the individual tariff pages are filed with the commission during the normal Tariff Notice process that is used to file applications for changes to existing tariff pages," reads a July 22 letter to the CRTC. CRTC approves reclaiming of 330 telephone numbersThe Canadian Numbering Administrator (CAN) has been granted approval by the CRTC to reclaim the 330 central office code in area code 819 (Telecom Decision 2004-52). The July 29 decision solves a local dialing plan conflict that exists in the Moose Creek, Ottawa/Hull and Cornwall exchange areas. Telephone numbers with that prefix were originally assigned to AXXENT Corp., which went out of business in 2001. A number of former AXXENT subscribers had ported their numbers to Bell Canada, but the CNA proposal would affect only three subscribers. The commission considered reassigning the numbers to another service provider, but determined that wouldn’t solve the numbering conflict. As a result, Bell Canada will provide those three subscribers with new telephone numbers and explain the current situation. CRTC approves Shaw 911 interconnection agreementThe CRTC has approved an application by Shaw Telecom Inc. to provide 911 services as a CLEC between it and TELUS Communications Inc. The decision (Telecom Order 2004-243), issued on July 21, states that the proposed agreement between the two parties contains terms and conditions similar to those in other 911 interconnection agreements between CLECs and ILECs. SaskTel EMI forbearance application approved by CRTCThe CRTC has approved an application by SaskTel requesting forbearance of its electronic messaging and information (EMI) services (Telecom Decision 2004-51). The incumbent telco filed its application last December requesting the commission forbear from regulating its EMI services, stating that technological changes had rendered its Fax Overflow Services (FOS) nearly obsolete because they relied on fax machines attached to telephone networks and not on the Internet as is now commonplace. The CRTC found that since there are other methods of delivering a similar service particularly through the Internet, the market is sufficiently competitive to warrant forbearance. Nortel Networks hosts VoIP meeting on Capitol Hill Representatives from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S. Senate and Nortel Networks Corp. met on Capitol Hill on July 21 to share their views on how voice services in an IP environment should be regulated. Senator John Sununu, author of The VoIP Regulatory Freedom Act of 2004 (s. 2281), said VoIP deserves a light regulatory approach, empowers consumers and disrupts traditional regulators’ mindset. FCC competition policy chief Michelle Carey said what is important is to not apply legacy regulations that were designed in a time of monopolies. Nortel’s VP and GM of carrier VoIP Ken Pecot said: "As the industry moves from traditional circuit-switched telephone networks to those based on IP technology, it will be critical that policy makers eliminate regulatory uncertainty as quickly as possible in order to accelerate the deployment of VoIP and multimedia service in the United States and spur economic growth. This is no small challenge." Peer 1 Networks introduces new productVancouver-based Peer 1 Network Enterprises Inc. has expanded its product line. The company introduced on July 28 Global Load Balancing (GLOBAL), a new software application that allows customers’ traffic to be routed to the nearest server. "By securing servers in two or more Peer 1 Network co-location facilities and signing up for GLOBAL, Peer 1 customers will be able to give their end-users the benefit of taking the shortest route from the Internet to their servers," reads a news release. The company notes that there are many providers of load balancing services and there are others that have multiple data centre locations, but this technology has been built specifically for its network. "Customers in such latency-sensitive markets such as audio/video streaming and online games will find this service critical in the increasingly competitive environments they now find themselves," the news release states. Ontario court dismisses suit against BCI and BCEThe Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed two class action lawsuits brought against Bell Canada International (BCI) and Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) by BCI common shareholders. The Ontario higher court upheld two lower court rulings, issued on January 5, dismissing the lawsuits "as failing to disclose a reasonable cause of action." Any further appeal by the plaintiffs would first need Supreme Court of Canada permission to proceed. Aliant reports lower local, long-distance revenue in Q2Aliant Inc. has posted a 1.6% increase in second quarter revenue from the same quarter last year. Lower revenue in its local and long distance businesses was offset primarily by substantial increases in the company’s wireless and Internet segments, 16.8% and 14.1% respectively. Total revenue for the quarter topped $525 million and reached $1.03 billion for the first six months of the year.

NL Short Takes

News | August 4, 2004

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