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Mark Evans

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Archive for May, 2004

Michael Sabia's Core Strategy

Over the past two years, BCE CEO Michael Sabia has pursued a strategy focused on core telecom network assets. In pulling a u-turn away from predecessor Jean Monty's ambitious multi-billion dollar convergence agenda, Sabia has returned BCE back to its roots. From buying the 20% stake back from SBC Communications and privatizing Bell Mobility to [...]

VON Canada

Jeff Pulver's VON roadshow rolled into Canada for the first time last week with a lineup that featured Skype Technologies CEO Niklas Zennstrom. VON's debut was timely because VOIP is just starting to gain momentum in Canada with Primus and Vonage offering service, while Yak Communications, AOL Canada and Telus planning to start later this [...]

Nortel: The Beat Goes On

So Nortel paid its senior executives cash bonuses in January even though its books were being examined by its indepedent audit committee. You have to wonder if the company's senior management had any clear about how far they had wondered off the track. This was a company just starting to get back on its feet [...]

Cool VOIP technology

For anyone who's read this blog, one of my hobby-horses about residential VOIP is the need for it to become more user-friendly. Right now, it's mostly the domain of tech-savvy pioneers who live in single-phone households. That said, it always find it interesting to stumble across companies with technology to make VOIP easier to use. [...]

Nortel: Now the fun begins

With the Attorney General in Dallas asking Nortel for all kinds of documents, Nortel's accounting troubles look like they are headed toward the criminal arena. Can anyone say fraud? It is impossible to tell who the authorities have targeted but you have to believe that no one is going to go down by themselves. Once [...]

Telus-Microcell: An Unholy Union?

Just when you thought Telus was about to make a hostile bid for Allstream Inc., it catches many people off-guard with a $1.1 billion deal for Microcell Telecommunications. The deal doesn't make much sense from a technological basis because Telus uses different wireless technology - CDMA - than Microcell - GSM. So, it's not like [...]

Nortel Comes Out of Hiding

Nortel finally unveiled its highly-secretive Neptune router yesterday - and even invited the media to its facilities in suburban Ottawa. You would think with this kind of hoopla for a new product, the company would have some of its senior executives on hand to provide a little Carol Merrill-like presentation skills. Nope. Newly-appointed CEO Williams [...]

Is Entwistle telling the truth?

On a recent conference call with analysts, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle reiterated the position his company's interest in Allstream Inc. is not “on the radar screen”. With Allstream's shareholders scheduled to vote this week on the company's acquisition by Manitoba Telecom Services, Entwistle's comments seem to rule out the possibility Telus will make a last-minute, [...]

Call-Net's cautious approach to VOIP

If you listen to Call-Net Enterprise CEO Bill Linton, the emergence of Internet telephony may not be as rapid as many people believe. In announcing plans to roll out a VOIP service later this year, Mr. Linton said he does not think it will been seen as a replacement for the company's traditional circuit-switch offering. [...]

VOIP in Canada

It seems the New York Times has discovered that VOIP is alive and well in Canada. In an article today, the paper's Canadian business corresponent Bernard Simon talks about how Canada's incumbent carriers are facing a “serious threat to their long-entrenched dominance”. At best, this assessment is overly optimistic when you consider that Internet telephony [...]

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