NL Short Takes

Telus can’t avoid criminal charges in AlbertaAlberta incumbent telephone operator Telus Corp. will face criminal charges over allegations the company ignored a court order to produce cell phone records requested by the RCMP. The company has now complied with the order and handed over the information, but it didn’t come until about five months after the RCMP initially made the request. Telus maintains that its failure to produce the information in a timely manner was the result of a misunderstanding and miscommunication. Vidéotron creates business market divisionQuebec cable company and recent entrant into the telephony market Vidéotron ltée has created a business division, the outfit announced on January 4. Vidéotron Business Solutions will provide a "full line of business telecommunications services" including high-speed data, Internet access, hosting and cable television. The newly minted division will serve the corporate and government markets. Vidéotron Telecom has been providing services to the business market for more than 16 years, but under its new moniker, "the organization now offers a wider range of services to small- and medium-sized businesses," reads a news release. In other Vidéotron news, the company has announced enhancements to its high-speed Internet services. Increased speeds will be rolled out in a phased manner over the next two and a half months with basic Internet service speeds increasing from 300 kbps to 600 kbps and extreme high-speed service jumping to 10 Mbps from 6.5 Mbps. The service enhancements were revealed on January 16. "Today’s announcement confirms our commitment to offering our customers not only the fastest Internet services on the market but also made-to-measure products," said Vidéotron president and CEO Robert Dépatie. "Speed on demand is a good example of the value-added services we have developed in order to meet the changing needs of Internet users. Our service improvements honour our pledge to provide customers with the best possible user experience." CME launches skills gap programCanadian Manufacturers and Exporters (CME) has launched a new program in partnership with Vitesse Re-skilling Canada Inc. aimed at addressing the skills gap challenge. "The overall objective of the pilot is to assist Canadian businesses in developing more effective and efficient means of coping with skills gaps and shortages, finding innovative solutions for addressing their skill needs, and developing appropriate training delivery mechanisms," reads a CME news release. Workshop to explore customer-controlled networksA workshop in Ottawa on May 11 and 12 will explore an emerging trend in the networking space: customer-controlled networks. Increasingly, large enterprises, university research networks and government departments are turning to this type of architecture as a way to control not only the internal network, but also the wide area network. The Applications Controlled Optical Networks (ACON) workshop will focus on new signaling and networking approaches to cope with the application needs in terms of quality of service and flexibility. "The main goal of this workshop is to share the collective experiences of researchers, industry professionals, practicing engineers, network operators, and equipment vendors across many emergent areas in the optical space," reads an notice regarding the workshop. More information on the ACON 2006 workshop is available at http://www.teleinfo.uqam.ca:82/ACON2006/. EXFO to acquire Consultronics in all-cash dealEXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. has inked an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Consultronics Ltd. in an all-cash deal worth approximately $20.4 million. The agreement includes Consultronics’ subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and Hungary. "This acquisition is a highly strategic initiative to position EXFO as a genuine one-stop shop for broadband access and triple-play testing, since it greatly complements our market leadership in the FTTx market," said Germain Lamonde, chair, president and CEO of EXFO, in a news release. "Consultronics’ strong product offering in handheld xDSL, IPTV and VoIP testing, combined with our leadership in portable optical testing, will provide customers with a comprehensive suite of test solutions for triple-play deployments that is unmatched in our industry." Ignition Point posts higher year-end and Q4 revenueVancouver-based Ignition Point Technologies Corp. has recorded higher fourth-quarter and year-end fiscal 2005 revenue compared to levels in the previous year. Total revenue for Q4 2005 was $615,394 compared to $271,631 in 2004’s fourth quarter. Year-end revenue was also up with Ignition Point posting full year revenue of more than 1.6 million compared to 1.06 million for fiscal year 2004. Despite higher revenue, the company continued to post net losses. The fourth quarter net loss was slightly more than $425,000 compared to $364,000 in the previous fiscal year. Year-end net losses amounted to more than $1.7 million compared to slightly more than $1.5 million in fiscal year 2004. BTI Photonics secures US$12 million in financingOttawa-based BTI Photonics Systems Inc. has closed a US$12.25 million round of financing. BDC Venture Capital led the Series C financing which had participation from existing investors Vengrowth Capital, Lucent Venture Partners, Kodiak Venture Partners and BCE Capital. GrowthWorks Canadian Fund participated in the funding as a new investor. "With the exceptional economics that a photonic layer approach can bring to carriers, BTI is capitalizing on the shift in metro network spending to the edge. GrowthWorks is dedicated to investing in singular companies like BTI Photonics Systems, a company that has built a strong business model for the metro edge," Les Lyall, senior VP at GrowthWorks, said in a news release. Ascalade taps into Skype’s incredible user growthAscalade Communications Inc. has signed an agreement with Skype to provide it with cordless VoIP telephones and other telecommunications products. The first product to be shipped as part of the agreement is Ascalade’s Companion series that allows users to access their contact lists, make calls and access their voicemail while away from their computer. "With exponential growth in the number of Skype users, Ascalade is looking to meet a growing demand for innovative Skype products, such as our Companion series of VoIP phones and next-generation Skype products that are currently under development," Ascalade’s president and CEO Edmund Ho said in a news release. Global broadband lines exceed 200 million: Point TopicPoint Topic, a United Kingdom research company, says 2005 ended with more than 200 million global broadband lines worldwide. This is up from the slightly more than 150 million that were operating at the end of 2004. The company noted in a white paper, released at the end of last year, that growth is however slowing in the broadband market. Point Topic indicated that the growth rate had slowed in 2005 to 7.3% from 7.9%. "This big and established broadband countries now have a high take-up and are growing less rapidly while newcomers are not yet growing fast enough to fill the gap," said the research company. DMB to play key role in broadcasting, mobile strategies: ABINew information from ABI Research suggests that digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) will become a key part of both broadcasters’ and telecom providers’ strategies in the future. ABI analyst Andy Bae noted that DMB could become a sub-function of WiBro or WCDMA handsets similar to what has taken place with camera and MP3 phones. "The bottom line is that incumbent telecom operators – faced with falling voice and mobile Internet data revenue – have recognized the opportunity that bundling DMB and other services can bring, allowing them to enter broadcasting territory and generate new service revenue," he said.

NL Short Takes

News | 01/18/2006 5:00 am EST

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