NL Short Takes

CEP wants end to secret trade talks on foreign ownership of telcosThe Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, the country’s largest union of telecommunications and media workers, is calling on the Harper government to end secret trade talks that would open up the domestic telephone industry to foreign ownership. Brian Payne, president of the 150,000-member union, spoke in reaction to a leaked document from the General Agreement on Trade in Services talks in Geneva which shows Canada has signed on to a "plurilateral request" for World Trade Organization member nations to essentially do away with foreign ownership limits in telecommunications. "If our trade bureaucrats at the GATS talks have decided on their own to use telecommunications as a bargaining chip, they are doing so contrary to existing Canadian law and should be ordered to stop," said Payne at a news conference on Parliament Hill. Because telecommunications and broadcasting are essentially one industry, says Payne, removing foreign ownership restrictions of one would be the same as doing so for both. The CEP is urging Prime Minister Harper to publicly express support for existing restrictions on foreign ownership in both industries. Added Payne: "This sector is of fundamental importance to sustaining and expanding both national and regional economic development. Who in their right mind would want to turn it over to foreign interests?... And if that happens, nothing less than Canada’s cultural sovereignty is at risk along with literally thousands of well-paying jobs." VoIP revenues rise, telco revenues shrink; JuniperAccording to a study from Juniper Research Ltd. Voice over IP services in the business sector will reach $18 billion by 2010. As a direct result, lost telecom service revenues will total $36 billion per year in 2010. The report says that the tipping point for adoption of VoIP by business services will be reached soon, but will be slowed in some countries by difficulties in network readiness and the regulatory structures. Other predictions include small business broadband connections reaching 40 million lines and hosted VoIP business revenues climbing to $7.6 billion by 2010. Uptake will be driven by the replacement of circuit switched networks, VoIP’s lower cost, massive growth in China, and the efficiency of carrying voice and data on one network. Open Text adds to email management suiteWaterloo-based Open Text Corp. has expanded its suite of email management solutions, adding new compliance features to help customers in industries such as financial services meet email regulations. Open Text’s Livelink ECM (Enterprise Content Management) solutions now fall under two sets: Email Management, which includes archiving and capabilities to manage email as corporate records; and Email Monitoring, which offers search and e-discovery across the entire chain of an organization’s email communications as well as review capabilities for inbound and outbound emails. "The risks of email and its overwhelming volume are among the biggest concerns for our customers," said Mark Portu, VP of compliance solutions at Open Text, in a news release. "We’re giving customers comprehensive solutions they can apply to a broad range of requirements, including government regulations, litigation e-discovery and internal policy mandates." Auto-acknowledgment email response decreasing, JupiterJupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corp., has found that of the 92% of websites offing email as a customer support option, only 41% are currently acknowledging customer email with an automated response. The report "US Customer Service & Support Metrics 2005," also found that industries such as finance and travel showed the greatest decreases in auto-acknowledgment response performance. Email responses are also continually failing to meet the 24-hour threshold, with only 45% of sites resolving inquiries within 24 hours, including 39% that did not respond within three days or at all, according to Jupiter. In a news release, Zachary McGeary, an analyst at JupiterResearch, says an increase in unresponsive companies is damaging to customer loyalty and retention. "Failure to resolve requests via email is driving continued use of cost-intensive telephone work, negating any potential cost savings from handling inquiries via email," added David Schatsky, senior VP of research at JupiterResearch. Lucent and Alcatel talk merger againLucent Technologies and Alcatel have confirmed rumors that they are in merger talks. If combined, the two companies would have had sales of $25.1 billion (Alcatel: $15.7 billion. Lucent: $9.4 billion) in 2005, which would put them just behind Cisco Systems’ $26.2 billion in the telecom equipment market. Although the companies described the discussions as being about a "potential merger of equals," many in the industry are reporting it as an acquisition of Lucent by Alcatel. On top of the differences in their sales, Alcatel has 58,000 employees and Lucent 30,200. The two companies attempted to merge in 2001 when they were closer in size, but the deal fell apart because Alcatel wanted to have more power in the combined company. In their joint statement the companies said: "There can be no assurances that any agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated." They are not commenting further until they’ve reached an agreement or terminated discussions. AboveNet enhances communications services with Nortel optical solutionUS provider of fiber connectivity solutions for business AboveNet Inc. is using an all-Nortel optical solution to support its high-performance data centre to data centre connectivity service for its business customers. The AboveNet dcXchange uses the dense wavelength division multiplexing capabilities of Nortel’s Optical Metro 5200 platform to allow customers to connect two or more data centres across a metro area. The flexibility of the Optical Metro 5200 platform allows AboveNet to offer their services using a variety of transport protocols, including Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, SONET, Fibre Channel and managed wavelengths up to 10 Gbps. Emergis licenses e-invoicing patent to NuVoxEmergis Technologies Inc., the US-based subsidiary of Montreal’s Emergis Inc., has entered into an agreement to license its electronic invoicing payment technology patent to NuVox Communications of Greenville SC. "More companies using electronic bill presentment and payment in North America recognize the strength of our patent," said executive VP of Emergis Marc Filion in a news release. "This new licence agreement is part of our continued efforts to realize the full value of our electronic bill presentment and payment patent." While Emergis no longer offers its electronic invoicing and payment service, it has retained ownership of the patent. Rogers to deliver high-speed IP VPN network to LCBOThe Liquor Control Board of Ontario has selected Rogers Communications Inc. to supply and manage a high-speed Internet protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) that will enable point-of-sale processing at all 600 of its Ontario stores. "The Rogers high-speed network was installed in several of our busiest stores just in time to handle a record volume of sales in December of last year," said the LCBO’s senior VP IT, Hugh Kelly, in a press release. "Our point-of-purchase processing times have improved significantly enabling us to process higher sales volumes and also improve our response time for the placing of orders and online product searches." Installation of the network is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of this fiscal year. Nortel is changing the way people use TVs for entertainment, communicationsAt its Ottawa IPTV labs, Nortel is demonstrating the delivery of IPTV services over its IMS infrastructure, including mobile-to-TV picture sharing, on-screen instant messaging and presence, and click-to-call functionality. "IPTV is more than simply delivering television services over an IP network," said Walt Megura, general manager broadband networks for Nortel, in a news release. "The real power of IPTV is in the merging of entertainment and communications, the integration of telephone features into your television experience, and the mobility of video services that follow the user anywhere, anytime." IPTV over the IMS network is the first step towards creating personalized IPTV services across wireless and wireline networks.

NL Short Takes

News | 03/29/2006 5:00 am EST

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