- October 1st, 2007
- 9:41 am
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has deregulated Vancouver-based telco Telus Communications’ local telephony services for business customers in 35 local exchanges in Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, covering all major metropolitan areas in those provinces. The move follows the deregulation of Telus’s residential local telephony services in various regional markets, which began in July, and similar allowances granted to other incumbent telcos, including the largest fixed line provider in the country, Bell Canada. The regulator’s new rules allow incumbent PSTN operators to apply for deregulation in any community where customers have a choice of service providers and where they can meet specific quality of service measures for six months. Local business services will be deregulated where there is a choice of at least two phone providers with their own network infrastructure. Telus is Canada’s second largest fixed line operator, with 4.5 million local access lines in service and over a million high speed internet subscribers at the end of June 2007.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
- September 18th, 2007
- 8:09 am
Bell Canada has been given clearance by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to set its own fixed line telephony rates for SMEs in 59 large urban markets across Ontario and Quebec, including Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. The incumbent telco’s rates for small businesses in smaller metropolitan areas were deemed by the regulator to lack sufficient competition to warrant deregulation. Recent deregulation in the residential telephony sector has already seen Bell, its sister telco Bell Aliant, and fellow regional incumbents Telus, MTS Allstream and SaskTel, offer discounted prices for home telephone services and introduce options for consumers to bundle landlines with other services, including ADSL internet and TV, for further discounts. The rule changes have allowed the wireline operators to compete more effectively with cablecos such as Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Videotron, Access and Eastlink.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Canadian telco Telus has reported that its EBITDA for the second quarter of 2007 was CAD884.6 million (USD837.3 million), down by CAD12.5 million compared to the same period in 2006, whilst net income decreased by CAD103.5 million year-on-year to CAD253.1 million, on revenues that increased 4% to CAD2.23 billion from a year ago due to continued wireless and internet/data services growth. The results were negatively impacted by increased wireless expenses in the first full quarter of mobile number portability (MNP) in Canada as well as increased wireline expenses from the implementation of a new billing system in Alberta, and Telus’s investment in the failed MVNO venture Amp’d Mobile, which recently entered into bankruptcy proceedings in the US. Darren Entwistle, Telus’s president and CEO, said: ‘I am less than satisfied with these quarterly results. While wireless revenue and subscriber growth of 11% and wireline data revenue growth of 8% remained robust, earnings did not meet expectations. This was largely caused by excess costs associated with the implementation of the new wireline billing and client care system as well as from the introduction of wireless number portability and the commercial failure of the launch of Amp’d.’
Telus’s total wireless subscribers stood at 5.27 million at 30 June 2007, up by 11.3% from 4.74 million a year earlier. High speed internet subscribers increased by 15.9% over the same period to reach 963,000, while total network access lines declined by 3.1% year-on-year to 4.48 million. Wireless monthly ARPU improved by 0.7% to CAD63.65, and data ARPU increased by 48% to CAD6.58, which more than offset the ongoing decline in voice ARPU. Wireline CAPEX in the second quarter was CAD308.7 million, down from CAD311.4 million in 2Q06, and wireless CAPEX was CAD173.1 million (CAD147.4 million).
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Telus had CAD 2.23 billion revenue in Q2 2007, up 4.4 percent from CAD 2.14 billion in the year-earlier period. Adjusted EBITDA was CAD 886.4 million, down 1.2 percent from CAD 897.1 million. Net income was CAD 253.1 million, down 29 percent from CAD 377.9 million. Mobile customer acquisition and retention costs increased by an estimated CAD 47 million largely from the introduction of wireless number portability (WNP), while the implementation of the new system resulted in a negative revenue adjustment and increased operating costs totaling CAD 29 million.
EBITDA was negatively impacted by increased mobile expenses in the first full quarter of WNP in Canada as well as increased wireline expenses from the implementation of a new billing and client care system in Alberta.
Free cashflow was CAD 161.7 million, down 15.3 percent, due to higher mobile capital expenditures and lower operating profit. Capex was CAD 481.8 million, up 5 percent. With the mobile unit, net subscriber additions grew 3.5 percent to 128,200. Mobile revenue was CAD 1.05 billion, up 11 percent. Mobile EBITDA grew 3 percent. Wireline revenue was CAD 1.2 billion, down 0.8 percent. Data revenue rose 8 percent. Long-distance revenue fell 19 percent. Telus added 13,900 net high-speed Internet subscribers, taking the company’s high-speed base to 962,700, a 16 percent increase.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Western Canada’s largest telecoms provider, Telus, has announced the availability of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A mobile broadband services in 49 cities across Alberta and British Columbia. 25 British Columbian cities, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kamloops, Kelowna, Penticton, and Whistler, are covered by the new data platform network, as well as 24 cities in Alberta, including Edmonton, Calgary, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, and Fort McMurray. Telus announced the launch of Rev A services at the end of May 2007 in Southern Ontario, Montreal and Winnipeg; it launched its EV-DO network in November 2005. According to Telus, users in upgraded areas can expect typical upload speeds of 300kbps to 400kbps with maximum possible upload speeds of 1.8kbps; on the downlink, the cellco promises speeds of approximately 450kbps to 800kbps, up to a maximum possible speed of 3.1Mbps.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
The last time this question was asked, it surrounded a quote in the Wall Street Journal given during Walt Mossberg’s review of the device. The review had a single quote about Exchange support if there was a setting allowed by the IT department. This is true because the iPhone supports IMAP email and Microsoft Exchange has a setting that will allow IMAP to function on an Exchange server. The issue that many took, with the press announcements after that review, was that the stories started to get really hyped up because at no time did the review or Apple announce Exchange support.
Apple said in many interviews about the iPhone that there would be a move to support business in the future. It appears that the future is sooner than many first thought, as soon as the third quarter of 2007; IT departments might start allowing the iPhone on the network. Why will this happen? Because of a little publicized news release from Visto over the weekend.
Visto enables email for the mass market, targeting enterprises, small businesses mobile professionals and consumers. The company’s patented Visto Mobile platform with ConstantSync technology works in real time with POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange and IBM’s Lotus Domino email platforms “Visto’s customized, brandable solutions are available through mobile operators worldwide including Elisa, Rogers Wireless, Qtel, SmarTone, SFR, Softbank Mobile, Sprint-NEXTEL, TELUS, Turkcell and the Vodafone Group,” the company said.
On Friday, Visto announced that they would offer the same level of services and support to Apple and by proxy their iPhone customers. Through Visto, iPhone users will experience secure mobile access to current and legacy versions of both Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino corporate messaging platforms. Visto said that their mobile platform would enable access that is easy to implement and administer and will alleviate IT concerns regarding security and reliability.
“The iPhone and other devices to follow will continue to accelerate demand for secure mobile access to corporate data including email, contacts, calendar and other important information sources,” said Brian Bogosian, CEO of Visto. “To be useful to business users, it must easily and securely provide access to corporate email - and that’s where Visto adds value and functionality for end users as they consider the iPhone over BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile devices as their single converged device to support both their personal and business needs.”
Visto Mobile will directly offer secure and easy-to-use mobile access to corporate and personal email for the iPhone in the United States. Additionally, Visto Mobile offers iPhone users peace of mind by securing their personal information using end-to-end security. For IT departments, this means that they can encrypt and protect sensitive corporate data without making any changes to their existing security infrastructure.
Visto Mobile for the iPhone will be available in late Q3 2007. iPhone users will be able to take advantage of a free sixty-day trial of the Visto Mobile service.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
The bidding may not be over for the parent of Bell Canada, which over the weekend agreed to a buyout offer of $35.1 billion from a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board in the biggest Canadian takeover ever.
The group led by the pension plan beat out several other bidders including New York-based Cerberus Capital Management with billionaire Hong Kong-based Canadian citizen Richard Li’s Pacific Century Group, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board with backing from American buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Telus, Canada’s second largest telecom, pulled out of the bidding for Bell Canada parent BCE, Canada’s biggest telecom company.
But Telus CEO Darren Entwistle told the Globe and Mail his Vancouver-based company hasn’t ruled out taking a run at Bell Canada.
“It’s been a hallmark of our company that we do not close doors,” Entwistle said, without signaling which way he was leaning. “We keep our options open and this is no exception.”
Bell Canada CEO Michael Sabia acknowledged the possibility of a hostile bid when he told reporters that the company’s board “has a fiduciary obligation to continue to be open to superior proposals.”
A source close to Cerberus as saying they have not given up on acquiring Bell.
In the deal for BCE, Thomson estimates that the buyers would also take on about $12.1 billion in net debt.
The deal will require approval from shareholders as well as federal government regulators. Sabia said he expects the deal to close in the first quarter of 2008.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Sigma Systems, a global leader in service management solutions for broadband service providers, has recently announced that Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR), third largest publicly traded cable operator in the United States, has selected Sigma to provide enterprise-wide Operation Support Systems (OSS) for Charter Telephone® and Charter High-Speed® Internet services. The agreement provides Charter with an integrated next-generation platform for service provisioning and activation, and resource management across all service domains.
Charter selected the award winning Sigma Service Management Platform (SMP), to seamlessly integrate its business, operational and network management systems, and to provide end-to-end automation of residential and commercial telephone and high-speed Internet service.
“Using Sigma SMP, we expect to enhance the customer experience while improving our operational efficiency,” said Marwan Fawaz, Chief Technology Officer for Charter Communications. “SMP will enable us to cost-effectively consolidate several back office systems and Internet protocol (IP) service networks on to a common platform through multi-service provisioning automation.”
Sigma’s OSS solutions are based on 11 years of broadband IP deployment experience and provide Charter with fully automated order management, business support system integration, self-care integration, resource management, customer service provisioning and network activation. Inter-carrier gateway integration, call feature management and voicemail provisioning are provided for telephone service, along with management of high-speed Internet, email and web hosting.
“Communication service providers have critical need for end-to-end automation for broadband IP services which will allow them to scale business and operational processes, and meet their objectives for customer satisfaction. Our significant deployment experience is a key differentiator, gained from 25 VoIP deployments and 50+ broadband deployments globally,” explains Tim Spencer, President and COO, Sigma Systems. “We are honored to be selected as the foundation for Charter’s next generation OSS architecture. With choosing Sigma, Charter will benefit from our proven and trusted product portfolio; which provides a common OSS infrastructure for all future broadband IP service offerings.
The first phase of this enterprise-wide deployment is now completed, setting the stage for end-to-end automation of telephone and high-speed Internet services. Future service support for broadband IP services have been subsequently planned and are being implemented at Charter through the remainder of 2007.
About Sigma Systems
Sigma Systems is a premier provider and leader in the design, development, and deployment of OSS service management solutions. A global company, we automate Communications Service Providers’ (CSPs) business and operational processes enabling them to define, activate, manage and diagnose subscribed, on-demand and real-time IP broadband and wireless services. Sigma All Play Solutions provide the “Intelligence Behind Converged Services Delivery”.
Sigma’s proven software provides CSPs with industry leading solutions for voice (circuit switch, VoIP, SIP, cellular voice), video (IPTV, DTV, ITV, VOD, PPV), data (DSL, DOCSIS, 2-way satellite, mobile and WiFi/WiMax data), and IMS-based services.
Sigma has 11 years experience using a proven implementation methodology that provides rapid deployment integration and turn-up in multi-service, multi-technology operating environments. Today, we manage over fifty (50) deployments for communications service providers, such as Cox Communications, TELUS, Rogers Communications, TVCabo, Shaw Communications and @NetHome, and others with a combined total of over 25 million subscribers managed on our platform, across North America, EMEA, CALA and APAC.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Canada’s two largest telecommunications companies, BCE and Telus, are discussing the possibility of combining their businesses as Canadian pension funds and foreign investors bid for BCE.
BCE disclosed the talks with its Western Canadian-based rival in a news release.
BCE, the parent of Bell Canada, is Canada’s largest telecom company; Telus is No. 2.
Telus said the combination would be an all-Canadian solution as foreign investors circle its rival.
Montreal-based BCE has three other potential bidders that are vying to take it private in what would be the biggest corporate takeover in Canadian history.
Those suitors include buyout groups led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board and US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
Analysts say it could sell for 32 billion Canadian dollars ($30 billion).
BCE has a market capitalization of about $29.45 billion, while Telus has a market cap of about $20.31 billion.
Telus had annual revenue of 8.8 billion Canadian dollars ($8.2 billion) last year and over 31,000 employees. It has 10.8 million customer connections including 5.1 million wireless subscribers, 4.5 million wireline network access lines and 1.1 million Internet subscribers.
BCE had annual revenue of 17.7 billion Canadian dollars ($16.4 billion) in 2006 and over 54,000 employees.
BCE said it has agreed with Telus to a mutual nondisclosure and standstill agreement on a non-exclusive basis while their talks proceed.
A proposed combination of Vancouver-based Telus and BCE would likely raise antitrust concerns that the combined companies would face scant competition from a small number of rivals.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
BCE, parent of telcos Bell Canada and Bell Aliant, has confirmed that it has entered merger talks with its principal fixed line rival Telus. Quebec-based BCE said late yesterday that it is in discussions with western Canadian incumbent Telus to ‘explore the possibility of a business combination.’ The two companies – which together have a combined market capitalisation of more than CAD50 billion (USD46 billion) – have entered into a non-exclusive agreement, BCE added. A merger deal would likely raise anti-monopoly issues. Recent media reports quoting sources close to the company said Telus was unlikely to bid for a stake in BCE unless it has a clear signal from the government that it would not block a merger. Three groups interested in a takeover of BCE have come forward in recent weeks, led by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board (both with US private equity backing), and US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. BCE has reportedly asked the consortia bidders to submit their offers for the company before 1 July. While private equity bids have dominated takeover speculation so far, BCE CEO Michael Sabia said at the company’s recent annual meeting that a private equity takeover is not the only option available to the firm, leading to speculation about other possibilities such as a massive share buyback or a merger with Telus.
Wireless Mobile Telecom Wireless News
Telus’s business telephony services deregulated (Canada)
