NL Short Takes

Bell, TELUS union battles go in opposite directionsThe seemingly unending collective bargaining battle between TELUS Corp. and the Telecommunications Workers Union continues to unfold. There doesn’t appear to be a resolution in sight with the only possible outcome being a strike by union workers. It could all come to a head on July 22, the date that TELUS has set to impose its most recent contract offer. The TWU has refused to take the contract offer to a vote of its members. With respect to Bell Canada, the company announced earlier this month that it had come to terms with Entourage Technology Solutions Inc. technicians, which have been on strike since March 24. There has been a news blackout on the agreement, which has yet to be ratified by employees. An announcement could come as early as this week. Alberta gov’t inks new deals with Bell and AxiaThe government of Alberta has secured new agreements with Bell Canada and Axia SuperNet Ltd. that the provincial government claims "will ensure successful long-term development of the Alberta SuperNet for rural Albertans." The new deals strike the right balance among, service delivery, cost savings for the government and assurances that rural Albertans and services providers receive a high quality of services and a reliable SuperNet operations. Under terms of the new agreements, the Alberta government will have "full rights of use" for the broadband network. Bell Canada retains ownership of the network infrastructure including fibre and wireless with the government having an option to assume ownership at the end of the contract term. Atlantic Lottery to use Cyberplex for online gamingAtlantic Lottery Corp. will use Cyberplex Inc. to provide SMART application management of its online lottery gaming platform. Atlantic Lottery was one of the first in North America to offer some of its products for sale over the Internet. In August 2004, the company’s online gaming environment PlaySphere was introduced. It provides players within the Atlantic provinces with safe online access to certain Atlantic Lottery products. Axia NetMedia revises Interactive Networks revenueAxia NetMedia Corp. has announced that margins and profit will increase materially within its Interactive Network Services business segment. The company expects that over the next two quarters ending Sept. 30, revenue will jump to exceed $38 million. Gross profits at the division are expected to be approximately $15 million, equal to margins of about 39%. For the third quarter, ended March 31, Interactive Networks reported revenue of $9.7 million and yielded margins of 56% or a gross profit of $5.5 million. "Fiscal 2005 has been our turnaround year. Axia is now well positioned with a reliable earnings base and an attractive strategic position in the next generation network sector, so we can assess new opportunities that present themselves," Axia chair and CEO Art Price said in a news release. Shift Networks customer base tops 1,000-markShift Networks Inc. has announced that its customer base has surpassed 1,000. Riding the wave of continued accelerating quarterly growth, the company signed up 483 new VoIP subscribers in the second quarter, ended June 30. This is a 45% increase over the 333 subscribers, Shift inked to contracts in the first quarter of this year. "This is a significant milestone for Shift during this phase of commercialization of our services," Shift president and CEO Trent Johnsen said in a news release. "Shift’s customer growth this spring clearly positions us as a North American leader of hosted business class VoIP services and it is our intention to continue to open and grow new markets." Shaw Communications nears 25,000 VoIP customersShaw Communications Inc. has announced that it had 22,450 installed and pending local telephone lines at the end of the third quarter, ended May 31, . The company notes in a news release that initial response to the service has been positive. With service available in Calgary and Edmonton, Shaw can offer telephony services to more than 25% of homes passed. The company also announced that it signed up more than 27,000 new Internet customers during the third quarter. Cogeco off to good start with telephony servicesCogeco Inc.’s president and CEO Louis Audet said during a recent conference call that its recently launched local telephony service is proceeding well. "I think we all recognize that this is going perhaps a lot better than a lot of us had even hoped for. The mood is one of guarded optimism," he said. The company has yet to release any telephony subscriber figures, but will do so at the end of its next quarter. Cogeco forecast earlier this month that it would add between 500 and 1,000 telephony subscribers in fiscal 2005 and between 7,000 and 8,000 in fiscal 2006. Audet said the forecasts were conservative. Canadian telecom firms get "good" ratingRogers Communications, Bell Canada and TELUS Corp. all received a "good" rating from The Customer Respect Group in its Second Quarter 2005 Online Customer Respect Study of Canadian telecommunications firms. Firms that score eight and above are considered to have excellent customer service and those with a score below four are considered to be lacking on the customer service front. 1 Rogers 7.52 Bell 7.33 TELUS 7.34 Fido 6.95 Shaw 6.86 Vonage 6.87 Aliant 6.78 Sprint Canada 6.79 Cogeco Cable 6.510 Allstream 6.011 Primus 6.012 Vidéotron 4.9 Industry Avg 6.6 New survey reveals online security importantResults of a new survey from Rogers Cable Inc. and Yahoo! indicate that 79% of respondents believe that it is extremely important to protect their home computers from potential Internet and security threats. Of those polled, 57% feel "held back from exploring the Internet". Additionally, 86% have installed and upgraded their anti-virus software in the past six months. With respect to children surfing the ’Net, 80% feel that it is extremely important or very important to "protect their children from exposure to inappropriate content on the Internet." McAfee joins anti-spyware consortiumMcAfee Inc. has joined the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) to help drive industry standards and definitions dealing with spyware and potentially unwanted programs, commonly referred to as PUPs. The ASC is an industry group focused on helping consumers and enterprises gain control over the growing problem of spyware and PUPs. "While there are some apparent efforts to reduce intrusive and deceptive behaviours, malware authors are continuing to exploit the adware business model by downloading and installing adware to compromised machines in order to generate revenue. McAfee is pleased to see the industry unite in this effort to define spyware and to create a clear gap between what is considered to be legitimate and non-legitimate behaviour," director of operations for McAfee’s AVERT Joe Telafici said in a news release. Raritan inks distribution deal with Tech DataRaritan Computer Inc., an IT equipment provider, has officially announced a distribution agreement with Tech Data Canada, a deal that has been in place since March. Leveraging an existing distribution relationship in the United States, Raritan said it jumped at the chance to have its product line offered throughout the Canadian market when Tech Data expanded into Canada in 2004. "Raritan realizes its core competence is to design, manufacture and support their switches and management solutions. Tech Data’s role is to add value to the reseller by providing logistics and inventory, as well as access to information on Raritan products through various marketing initiatives," Tech Data’s director of product marketing Ray Gonsalves said in a news release. March Networks signs deal with Wachovia BankOttawa-based March Networks has inked an agreement to supply digital video surveillance systems to Wachovia Bank, the fourth largest financial services company in the United States. It has 3,500 financial centres in 15 states and Washington D.C. Wachovia will deploy March’s digital video recorders, enterprise management software and banking assistant software modules. March says this is a very significant win for the company. The two companies began working on a phased equipment deployment earlier this year. Mitel’s continued R&D spending paying offMitel Network’s decision to continue to spend significantly more than its competitors on research and development is beginning to pay off. The company’s CFO Steve Spooner recently said it is "being invited to the table" by customers which have taken notice of the R&D expenditures. Discussing recent financial results, Spooner estimated that two-thirds of the company’s fourth-quarter revenue came from IP-enabled products. Paymentech offers IP point-of-sale systemOne of North America’s payment processing companies, Paymentech has introduced the Omni 3750, a new reliable and cost-effective payment solution for retailers and restaurants. Developed by VeriFone Holdings Inc., the system is well suited for both high-speed and dial-up connections. Nomad sends out units for final U.S. testingNomad International Inc. sent to select customers in the United States a number of Nomad Pro dial-up Voice over IP units for final testing. Additional units are expected to be shipped in the near future. The Nomad Pro is a small office, home office (SOHO) and residential one-port dial-up or one-port broadband session initiation protocol (SIP) gateway. The company says that one of the keys to its success in the market is its ability to address both the dial-up and broadband customer with the same unit. Nomad notes in a news release that there are 200 million Internet users in the United States and that only 40 million of them are using broadband connections; "dial-up therefore represents approximately 80% of the entire Internet connectivity market." IBM to open fourth software lab in CanadaIBM Corp. plans to open a fourth software lab in Canada as part of a deal to acquire PureEdge Solutions Inc. of Victoria. PureEdge develops electronic forms, which help simplify business tasks. Announced earlier this week, the agreement is part of IBM’s strategy to increase its stake in software and services, which offer greater operating margins. IBM recently sold its personal computer business to Lenovo Group Ltd. of China for US$1.25 billion.

NL Short Takes

News | July 22, 2005

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