President and CEO of Aliant Inc. Jay Forbes will be leaving the company effective July 31. Forbes has held the position since March 2002. His departure coincides with the anticipated reception of regulatory approvals necessary for the creation of the new Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund.

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Meriton Networks captures another tier 1 carrier
Ottawa-based network developer Meriton Networks Inc. has been contracted to deploy KT Corp.’s next generation I-WDM (Intelligent WDM) network, featuring the Meriton Agile Optical Networking (AON) architecture. The agreement with KT, formerly Korea Telecom, adds another tier 1 carrier to Meriton’s portfolio, which includes Verizon Communications Inc., BT and Telecom Ottawa. "KT is seeing phenomenal broadband growth, which is driving the need for additional capacity in its metro network," said president and CEO of Meriton Mike Pascoe in a news release. "KT’s selection of our Agile Optical Network solution is a strong indicator of the market traction our proven solutions are enjoying among some of the largest network operators in the world."

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Cost, coverage and bandwidth must all be balanced by telephone companies choosing how to build their IPTV networks. And while competition from cablecos in the voice market has forced the telcos into television, they still have to decide which considerations initially warrant the most weight.

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Ask Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications Inc., about the $10 fee his company charges customers to ensure that the Internet phone services they use work as well as possible, and he’ll sound bemused.

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Utility telecoms (utelcos) have found themselves at a crossroad: expand into the highly competitive consumer market, or stay the course and remain in relative obscurity. At this point, taking on the big players in the consumer space is going to most likely happen with either wireless access or broadband over powerline.

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Canada’s two largest incumbent telephone companies continue to work through their plans to extend broadband to rural and remote areas – investments that were set out in the CRTC’s deferral account decision (Telecom Decision 2006-9).

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