Service Providers have the constant challenge of integrating and coordinating the data / alarms produced by multiple monitoring systems like NMSs, SIEMs, APMs with Service Desks, and CMDBs. With NMLinK, all of that manual activity goes away and is replaced with a simple, automated system This 30 minute webinar shows how the new NMLinK solution from...

Quebec-based telecommunications and pay-TV provider Videotron is deploying Ciena’s converged packet optical solution to upgrade its regional and backbone network, supporting its recently announced efforts to offer new services such as 4K TV and colocation solutions. Videotron is deploying packet optical and software solutions from Ciena including the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform, which supports service delivery at 100Gbps and beyond. Combined with Ciena’s WaveLogic 3 coherent optical processors,...

Canada’s largest mobile operator by users, Rogers Communications, has revealed a plan to discontinue the brand of its subsidiary Mobilicity whilst moving all of Mobilicity’s remaining 150,000-plus subscribers to the Rogers budget sub-brand Chatr, reports Canadian website MobileSyrup. Effective 15 August 2016, Rogers will cease activating new Mobilicity connections, whilst sometime in the autumn it will begin migrating Mobilicity customers to Chatr, where they will be offered a ‘comparable’ packa...

Canada’s second-largest mobile operator by users Telus has joined its main nationwide rivals Rogers and Bell in offering voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), although the service is currently only available to post-paid Telus customers with LTE SIM cards in Lower Mainland British Columbia, while device compatibility is initially limited to the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4, writes Canadian website MobileSyrup. The operator plans to expand VoLTE coverage and add more compatible devices throughout 2016. In a sta...

Swedish-based technology giant Ericsson has renewed its agreement with privately-owned Atlantic Canada-based quad-play operator Eastlink to expand and upgrade its 4G LTE and 3G HSPA mobile networks. The agreement is an extension of the two companies’ current contract. Eastlink will continue utilising Ericsson Evolved Packet Core equipment and the Swedish firm will remain as the multi-service cableco’s exclusive supplier for radio access network equipment for an additional three years. Matthew Ma...

Canadian cableco Shaw Communications has agreed to acquire a 100% interest in cellco Wind Mobile for approximately CAD1.6 billion (USD1.163 billion). The takeover, if completed, would be the first foray into the mobile sector for Shaw, which vies closely with Rogers Communications for the title of Canada’s largest cable broadband provider, and previously aborted a planned cellular network rollout of its own, opting to sell its spectrum instead. Shaw’s CEO Brad Shaw declared yesterday: ‘The acqui...

Infosim®, the new leader in network performance management, today announced that it has been selected as the supplier of choice to consolidate the IT infrastructure performance monitoring capabilities at Athenahealth. Following an extensive evaluation of the performance management market, the organization identified StableNet® as the only vendor capable of offering a single comprehensive view of the performance and capacity of its IT infrastructure in one unified solution, and with the highest l...

Canada’s Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) has signed a binding agreement to sell its national long-distance and enterprise telecoms unit Allstream to US-based corporate and wholesale communications infrastructure provider Zayo Group in an all-cash CAD465 million (USD347.6 million) transaction. Zayo says that acquiring Allstream’s fibre and colocation assets will establish it as ‘the only Pan-US/Canada Communications Infrastructure provider’. Allstream has over 9,000 route kilometres of metro fibr...

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) has posted total operating revenue of CAD5.345 billion (USD4.061 billion) in Q3 2015, up by 2.9% year-on-year, while quarterly adjusted EBITDA was up 3.4% to CAD2.187 billion on positive growth across all Bell operating segments, reflecting y-o-y increases of 8.3% at Bell Wireless, 1.1% at Bell Wireline and 0.5% at Bell Media. Q3 net customer additions reached 68,000 in IPTV, 58,000 in fixed broadband and 77,655 post-paid mobile customers, while Bell also reported n...

Rogers Communications, Canada’s second largest broadband provider by subscribers, has confirmed that the rollout of its planned 1Gbps internet service will commence this year in downtown Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Parts of the city earmarked for coverage include: Harbourfront, Cabbagetown, Riverdale, King Street West, Queen Street West, the Financial District, the Discovery District, Yonge & Bloor, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Ajax and Whitby. By the end of 20...

Western Canada’s largest telco Telus Communications has announced a plan to invest an additional CAD1 billion (USD760 million) to connect the majority of homes and businesses in the city of Vancouver directly to the company’s fibre optic network over the next five years. In a release on the quadruple-play operator’s website, CEO Darren Entwhistle said that the rollout in the British Columbian city would add more than 400,000 homes, businesses, hospitals, community centres and municipal offices t...

Bloomberg reports that Canadian rural broadband specialist Xplornet Communications is working with Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada on an initial public offering (IPO) planned for this year, according to anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter who added that the New Brunswick-based fixed-wireless ISP has not yet decided on the stake size or price range. In May Xplornet’s management expressed the desire to examine new ways to continue growing, including a potential IPO, after reve...

Nationwide operators Telus and Bell Canada were declared winners of residual AWS-3 (2100MHz/1700MHz) 4G spectrum licences at the end of August in the ‘leftover’ concession auction run by Industry Canada. Telus paid CAD58 million (USD43.8 million) for six additional AWS-3 licence blocks covering Manitoba and Saskatchewan, while Bell secured another nine AWS-3 concessions (three in each of the Far North territories: Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut) costing CAD206,000. The two national ope...

Canadian nationwide rural fixed-wireless broadband provider Xplornet Communications has agreed to acquire 100% of Calgary-based WiMAX network operator Platinum Communications for CAD0.16 (USD0.12) per share in cash. Platinum operates a wireless broadband network offering internet and digital phone services to residents and businesses across the province of Alberta, catering primarily to rural and near-urban areas that are often beyond the reach of traditional (fixed) internet providers. Bernard ...

Bell Canada claims it is the first in North America to roll out commercial tri-band LTE Advanced (LTE-A) network technology, giving customers in Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville and Halifax access to mobile data downlink speeds up to a theoretical maximum 290Mbps from 21 August 2015, when the new Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 smartphones become available. Expected average mobile data speeds are 12Mbps to 87Mbps. Bell will expand its new tri-band 290Mbps LTE-A network – based on 700MHz, 210...

Canada’s fourth largest cellular operator by subscribers Wind Mobile has won approval from the telecoms ministry Industry Canada to transfer its unused AWS (1700MHz/2100MHz) spectrum licences in the Prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the two regions’ respective incumbent telcos Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS Allstream) and SaskTel, which will each add the frequencies to their existing 4G LTE bandwidth. SaskTel CEO Ron Styles said in a press release: ‘Our 4G LTE network in the nine...

Bell Canada has announced it is launching 1Gbps fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services under the Gigabit Fibe banner, initially for 50,000 homes and businesses in Toronto during summer 2015, with a target of eventually delivering 1Gbps services to 1.1 million premises across the city. Bell will also launch Gigabit Fibe in selected locations in other cities in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces before the end of 2015. Services will initially offer a maximum 940Mbps speed but will rise to the p...

Canada’s two largest mobile operators by users, Rogers and Telus, have recently tabled takeover offers for financially struggling smaller cellco Mobilicity, although any potential deal is subject to federal government approval under strict wireless spectrum transfer rules aimed at preserving competition, the Financial Post reports. According to sources quoted by the paper, a group of creditors and directors of Mobilicity met over the weekend to assess offers from both national operators exceedin...

Xplornet Communications, Canada’s leading rural high speed internet specialist, has launched its new 25Mbps LTE-based fixed-wireless broadband service in the province of Alberta, it announced on its website. Xplornet says it will continue to roll out upgraded speeds to other rural communities across Canada, aiming to make 25Mbps internet available nationwide by 2017. Last month Xplornet – which operates hybrid WiMAX/satellite and TD-LTE broadband platforms – acquired 42 blocks of 2500MHz spectru...

Canada’s Competition Bureau has approved a transaction under which Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and its national quadruple-play telecoms rival Rogers Communications will take 50% equity each in retailer Glentel (Canada), following the latter’s acquisition by BCE which is set for completion on 20 May. Glentel will continue to sell mobile products from both operators at its 494 retail locations across Canada (which are run under names including WirelessWave, Tbooth wireless, Wireless Etc and Targ...