NL Short Takes

Inukshuk takes lion's share of MCS licences; SaskTel wins tooIn an unexpected move, Industry Canada has awarded Inukshuk Internet Inc 12 of the 13 regional MCS licences across the country. The company is owned by Look Communications Inc and Microcell Telecommunications Inc. The one remaining licence — for the province of Saskatchewan — went to SaskTel. A complete report of the decision can be found in the April 3 edition of Report on Wireless.MTS pays off debt to province, completes reorganizationManitoba Telecom Services Inc has finished paying off its $427 million debt to the provincial government, an obligation that was owed as part of its move from a crown corporation to a private concern. MTS has now applied for a certificate of continuance under the provincial corporations act.In other news, the company has signed a US$1.2-million contract with Alta Telecom/US West for telecommunications related services in Seattle. Telus and Pcsupport.com sign deal for portal supportWestern telco Telus has signed an agreement with Pcsupport.com Inc of Mountain View CA to provide a support system for the Burnaby-based company's Internet portals. Telus operates MyBC.com and Alberta.com for customers in those provinces.Group Telecom buys fiberlink from Moffat for $118 millionGT Group Telecom Inc of Toronto has bought the access provider business of Winnipeg's Moffat Communications Ltd for $118 million. The deal gives Group Telecom 600 route km (21,800 fibre km) of fibre in Edmonton and Winnipeg, as well as Moffat's 240 on-net buildings.Norigen enters into agreement with BrookfieldToronto-based CLEC Norigen Communications Inc has secured $122.5 million in financing from Brookfield Properties Corp and its e-commerce subsidiarye-ffinity properties inc. Brookfield has also agreed to grant Norigen access to its properties in order to offer bundled telecom services to tenants.CRTC sides with Bell in high radio frequency decisionThe CRTC has ruled in favour of Bell Canada's proposal to withdraw remote high frequency radio service in northern Ontario, provided that Bell reimburse subscribers $1,000. The money is to be put towards the purchase and annual fees of an alternative service. The telco decided to turn off the service because usage had declined by 50 per cent over the past four years, and the equipment had become obsolete. Some of the customers wrote in comments that the money simply isn't enough, but the commission sided with the incumbent telco and ruled that $1,000 was sufficient. The approval of Telecom Notice 6416 is based on the specific circumstances of this case and does not affect Bell's obligation to serve.Aliant becomes Canadian partner in broadband forumAtlantic Canadian telco Aliant Inc is among the 30 companies that have joined with Nortel Networks Corp to form the Broadband Content Delivery Forum. The BCDF seeks to break open the high-bandwidth services market. Other partners include AT&T Broadband, Telstra, and Universo Online Ltda.Newtel expands service to rural NewfoundlandSt. John's NF-based ILEC Newtel Communications has upgraded its technology in rural Newfoundland. Residents of Mount Carmel, St. Anthony, Main Brook, Griquet, Bay L'Argent and Rushoon will benefit from the improved service, which will be delivered by Nortel's DMS technology.Sprint runs toll-free service into residencesCall-Net Enterprises Inc, parent company of Sprint Canada Inc, is introducing toll-free service for home offices and for home use. The small office/home office system is called Ascenda Toll-Free while the residential service is called It's Easy Home 800. Calls from Canada will cost 15 cents per minute, while US calls will cost 22 cents a minute.Bell Nexxia signs network agreement with stox.comOn-line brokerage Stox.com has adopted Bell Nexxia's IP/broadband network to deliver its trading platform and private label applications. Stox.com is based in Vancouver.InfoInterActive enters into pact with GTEInfoInterActive Inc (IIA) of Bedford NS has signed an agreement with GTE Internetworking, a division of American telecom giant GTE Corp. IIA will act as ASP to sell its Internet call management services to reseller and end-user clients. It will also take over management of GTE's existing ICM customers.Intasys goes back to collegeMontreal-based Intasys Corp is spending US$4 million to acquire a 30 per cent stake in CampusLink, a British company that provides telephone service, data connections and cable TV to university dormitories. CampusLink has 36,000 rooms wired in 20 schools in the UK.Nortel outsources services to PricewaterhouseCoopersNortel Networks Corp, Brampton ON, has outsourced its day-to-day corporate operations to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The contract calls for the organization to take over such sectors as payroll, employee training and accounts payable.TrizecHahn assumes majority interest in "carrier hotels"TrizecHahn, a Toronto equity investor, has purchased a two-thirds interest in European telecom Global Switch International Ltd in partnership with Chelsfield Plc. The firm will proceed to develop telecom operations buildings, known as carrier hotels, throughout the world. TrizecHahn previously announced it is selling its Canadian office real estate interests. Among the buildings it owns is Place Bell, home to the telco and to Decima Publishing, owner of Network Letter.Deaf persons in Brandon get TTY pay phoneManitoba Telecom Services has installed a TTY pay phone at the Brandon Shoppers Mall. The phone has a retractable keyboard that permits users to connect with other TTY customers or with a message relay service operator located in Winnipeg.Ontario utility providing high speed Internet accessThe Public Utilities Corp, Cobourg ON, is joining with Bell Canada to form Cobourg Networks Inc. The new company will provide high speed Internet access to residents of the community, which is just east of Toronto.APG deal falls through for NetgrapheQuebec Internet portal Netgraphe, a division of Le Groupe Vidéotron ltée, has stopped negotiations to buy APG Solutions and Technologies Inc (NL, March 27/00). The company says it's still seeking other acquisitions. In other news, Netgraphe has lost two domain names to an unhappy customer. Martin Boyer was not permitted to use Netgraphe's toile.com or toile.qc.ca portals to list his personal web site because it had links to pornographic sites. He registered toiledu-quebec.com and toileduquebec.qc.ca and posted his site there. He is offering to sell the names back to Netgraphe for $250,000.Rogers makes deal for Internet pagerResearch In Motion Ltd will supply Rogers AT&T Wireless with its handheld Blackberry Internet pagers. As part of the agreement, Rogers AT&T Wireless placed an initial order for 10,000 BlackBerry Internet Editions. The BlackBerry Wireless pager allows easy mobile access to retrieve, create, forward, print and archive email, including attachments from any web-enabled PC.In separate news, Rogers AT&T also signed a deal with Excite Canada to send news head-lines, weather reports, daily horoscopes and real-time stock updates to cellular phones, two-way pagers and palmtop computers.Canada pushes for global standard for e-commerceCanada is among the countries pushing for an international standard for e-commerce, in hopes that it will encourage more Canadians to embrace online shopping. On March 29, Industry Minister John Manley released the Canadian Standards Strategy, which outlines, in general terms, the direction Canada should take in developing standards for protecting health, safety and the environment, as well as promoting trade and economic competitiveness. Of interest to industry is a suggestion in the document that standardization - particularly voluntary standards - can help reduce the costs of regulation. In announcing the strategy, Manley singled out e-commerce as one area where Canada hopes to persuade other countries to adopt international standards. The Standards Council of Canada will work to develop an implementation plan, which will outline how the strategy is to proceed.

NL Short Takes

News | April 10, 2000

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