Canadian quadruple-play operator Shaw Communications has entered into a definitive agreement with Videotron's parent Quebecor Media to acquire 700MHz and 2500MHz wireless spectrum licences in seven regional markets in Canada for CAD430 million (USD324 million). The Quebec-based multi-service cable/mobile operator is selling 2×5MHz blocks of 7...

 Quebecor, the parent of Quebec-based quadruple-play network operator Videotron, has announced the sale of Videotron's Advanced Wireless Services (AWS-1) 1700MHz/2100MHz mobile spectrum licence in the Greater Toronto region to Rogers Communications for approximately CAD184 million (USD137 million), pursuant to a transfer option on the frequenc...

Network visibility is a crucial aspect to improving network security and optimizing network monitoring capabilities. At the same time, it is an evolving technology. In this blog, I'm using some interesting data that Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) captured in a survey they conducted for Ixia in late 2016. This data is great because it allows...

Vision Edge 100 & Vision Edge 40 ​Expanding your hyperscale data center? Adding microscale data centers to provide a better experience for end users? Be sure to see everything, in every cluster—whether it is a part of your core infrastructure or a remote site—with the latest in Ixia's Vision Portfolio of network packet brokers (NPBs). Ixia has ...

Over 100,000 Bell-MTS mobile customers in Manitoba will receive letters in the next two months informing them if they have been selected to transfer to rival Canadian operator Telus, as a knock-on condition of Bell's recent takeover of MTS in the province. Canadian website MobileSyrup reports that the process is beginning its first phase this week,...

 Bell Canada is launching a 'no-frills', budget app-based live TV service named 'Alt TV' enabling customers to watch regular TV programming on smartphones, computers and other streaming devices. Alt TV is being offered initially to Bell's internet subscribers in Ontario and Quebec, with the Atlantic provinces and Manitoba scheduled for launch ...

Ice Wireless, which operates in Canada’s far northern regions – Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut – has launched commercial LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network services, initially in Yellowknife. According to Ice Wireless CEO Samer Bishay, quoted by MobileSyrup, customers can expect real-world LTE-A mobile data speeds of around 40Mbps, whilst he added that the carrier plans to switch on additional LTE-A base stations throughout the summer. Simultaneously, Ice revamped its post-paid packages, wit...

Canadian rural broadband specialist Xplornet Communications has announced the launch of an upgraded internet service supported by the EchoStar XIX satellite, now available to new and existing customers. Xplornet says that, combined with the scheduled launch of the ViaSat-2 satellite on June 1, its satellite internet capacity is being tripled, resulting in ‘more speed and data at affordable prices’ for its users. Xplornet’s newly launched satellite internet service offers speeds up to 25Mbps...

Continuous network interactive performance monitoring, looking for any delays, misconnections, or slow functioning in the network, is vital. Servers enable all the client computers in your network to work. They are the source of necessary operating system support and connectivity. If servers fail, even briefly, the fault will cause disruption over your entire system. The rest of the network (the client computers and peripherals) are like disk drives and extra I/O interfaces in the system.&n...

  This webinar from InfoSim discusses the challenges we face when we need to monitor industrial IoT devices, SDN and IT infrastructure.   Industrial IoT devices is the use of Internet of things (IoT) technology in collecting sensor data in the many area’s that companies need to collect data.  The use of this technology can result in serious technical challenges, in monitoring 10 of 1000’s of devices. When we asked end users some of the specific challenges they face we receive...

Provincial Canadian full-service telco SaskTel, controlled by the Saskatchewan government, is now permitted to sell 49% of its shares under a new law which was passed last week. The legislation (via ‘Bill 40’) allows the provincial government to sell up to 49% of any ‘Crown corporation’ (including SaskTel) without triggering a public referendum. However, CTVNews quotes Dustin Duncan, the minister responsible for SaskTel, as saying: ‘SaskTel is not for sale, but Bill 40 would allow the potential ...

  The Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has begun a consultation to hammer out the details of its planned CAD750 million (USD551 million) five-year broadband fund for rural and underserved areas, which will ultimately be designed to supersede Canada’s existing basic telephony subsidy scheme. Interested parties should make initial submissions to the consultation by the end of June, with final submissions scheduled for the end of November. Thanks to TeleGeog...

April 25, 2017  Bell Canada claims that its network is the first in North America capable of delivering quad-band LTE Advanced (LTE-A) services, which it says will deliver mobile broadband speeds of up to 750Mbps with the addition of 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) technology. Bell CTO Stephen Howe said: ‘Bell delivered North America’s first tri-band LTE-A mobile service in 2015, and we’re proud to announce today that we’re first to successfully implement not only quad-band LTE-A ...

21 Apr 2017 The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) yesterday issued its latest judgement upholding the principles of net neutrality, ruling that cableco/mobile operator Videotron must desist from offering unlimited online music streaming from Spotify, Google Music and other selected providers to its wireless customers without it counting against their data allowances (a practice known as zero-rating) by 19 July. As reported by Reuters, Quebec-based Videotron argue...

  According to Forrester Research, Customer Experience (CX) is the number one priority for business and technology leaders*.  This eBook was developed to assist organizations in their quest to deliver a better customer experience.   Where the challenge of delivering an omni-channel service, in a multi-channel world, has never been more complex.  We look at these 5 areas What is the age of the customer?Enter the e-contact center.Achieving a 360° customer view.Four keys to...

Canadian cableco Shaw Communications’ cellular division has renamed itself from Wind Mobile to Freedom Mobile, whilst disclosing that it will launch a 4G LTE network on 27 November. Freedom’s revamped website says that Toronto and Vancouver will receive its LTE services first, whilst it will upgrade all its other existing 3G network coverage areas to 4G by autumn 2017. ‘Complete’ LTE coverage of the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver area is scheduled for spring 2017, whilst national and US L...

{jcomments on} Detecting Phantom Devices on Your Network So you run a network discovery and you notice devices that you are not familiar with. A phantom device is a device that is unmanaged that should be monitored by your Network Management System (NMS) It seems these devices show up even though you have processes in place to prevent this type of behavior. These could be devices connected to the wrong network, printers, BYOD etc. A phantom device is invisible to you so you are unaware of the de...

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...

Spectracom has released version v5.4.1 for SecureSync and 9400 Series Time Server. This update is mandatory for all units running v5.0.2 learn more Release v5.4.1 includes some the following features: Enhanced support for multi-GNSS constellation: BeiDou + future firmware update to Galileo (hardware dependent)Ethernet monitoring allows the user to observe network traffic across portsNTP peer preferenceVarious improvements in software performance and clock discipliningAdded support for NTP Anycas...

The increasing density, complexity and expanse of modern networking environments have fueled the ongoing debate around which network analysis and monitoring tools serve the needs of the modern engineer best - placing Packet Capture and NetFlow Analysis at center-stage of the conversation. Granted, both can be extremely valuable tools in ongoing efforts to maintain and optimize complex environments, but as an engineer, I tend to focus on solutions that give me the insights I need without too much...