Search Results for: scotia

In just over 3 months, The 2013 Canadian Telecom Summit will be under way, the 12th annual edition of Canada’s premier gathering of stakeholders in the communications and information technology sectors.

Each year, we try to ensure that fresh perspectives are brought forward, and this year’s event has already confirmed some new faces with different perspectives for our delegates. This is especially true on our closing day, Wednesday June 5.

That day will be starting out with a keynote presentation by Sandy Carter, IBM’s Vice President of Social Business Evangelism. She is a best selling author and she has been recognized as one of the most influential women in Web 2.0 technology. She will be followed by a panel looking at Building an Innovation Economy, moderated by Namir Anani of the ICT Council, with a powerful line-up of executives bringing a variety of perspectives:

• Warren Jestin, Chief Economist at Scotiabank
• Chris Hodgson of Google
• Ron Styles, CEO of SaskTel
• John Weigelt, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Canada

Following coffee, Wednesday morning continues with a CIO/CTO Roundtable, moderated by Mark Kummer of Cisco and joined by:

• Dave Codack, VP & Head, Employee Technology, Network and Contact Center Services for TD Bank Group
• Eugene Roman, CTO at Canadian Tire
• Bill Sayles, EVP Business Transformation at TELUS

Kirstine Stewart, EVP of English Services at CBC will be delivering a keynote address to round out our Wednesday morning program.

Wednesday afternoon, Rita Trichur from the Globe and Mail moderates a session called Unplugged: The next generation of wireless. With the news last week that the auction for the 700 MHz block may be delayed until late 2013¹, this session will explore the spectrum crunch, impacts of the ever growing world of wireless connectivity and more.

Our Tuesday afternoon programme has a fresh look as well. Roberta Fox is moderating a session that looks at how customers get to speak out, with consumer advocates for individuals and small business owners as well as the leaders of agencies that seek to protect consumers.

That afternoon will conclude with a look at The Revolution of TV: Content Anywhere and Anyhow, featuring top executives from the broadcasters, distributors, creators and the technologies that enable the range of delivery methods we enjoy today.

The 2013 Canadian Telecom Summit features what may be our strongest program yet. Our panels on opening day, Monday June 3 cover a range of issues with top thought leaders, including:

• Business Transformation;
• Devices, Screens & Apps;
• Network Transformation; and
• Business Models in a Converged World.

Tuesday June 4 includes the always popular Regulatory Blockbuster. Check out the complete conference agenda.

The 2013 Canadian Telecom Summit runs from June 3-5, 2013 at the Toronto Congress Centre on Dixon Road (near the airport). You won’t want to miss it.

Early bird prices are in effect through the end of February. Have you registered yet?

---

¹ In an interview on CBC’s Power and Politics on February 20, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said that the auction would take place by the end of the year [check the 28:30 mark on this video]. Prior statements had put the date in the first half of 2013.

It has been a slow week for news from the CRTC, so I happened to take a little extra time reading the notice at the top of “Today’s Releases” on the Commission website:

The Government of Canada is replacing Access Key with two new cyber authentication programs: Sign-In Partners and GCKey. After September 22nd, 2012, Access Key will no longer available and users will have to register with one of the two new cyber authentication programs. Visit Cyber Authentication Renewal Initiative Frequently Asked Questions for additional information.

On that page, I thought I would read about a new federal initiative for cyber authentication. Of course, one might think that such an initiative would be part of an overall national digital strategy, but we have written extensively about the embarrassingly long delays in getting that consultation completed.

What I found was somewhat surprising.

“[T]he Government of Canada is leveraging these investments made by financial institutions for secure online environments.” In other words, it appears that the government is going to outsource its online authentication to the banks, starting initially with TD, BMO and Scotia.

For users of SecureKey Concierge, the identity of the financial institution will not be shared with the Government of Canada. Similarly, no information about the government service being accessed by the user will be shared with the user’s bank.

Apparently, the banks will not be charging a fee to users – “this is part of the service your bank offers its customers.”

It has some genuine appeal. After all, there are all sorts of “Know Your Customer” rules in place for the banks which have required bank employees to verify that the person standing in front of them is really the person they claim to be. The banks have zillions of pre-screened online banking users. In effect, the government’s SecureKey Concierge program is catching a free ride on the back of bank investments in personal authentication. It isn’t a bad idea, but it is yet another tactical move made without a clear statement of a cohesive digital strategy.

I just hope your online banking password is really, really secure.

Seeing Sandvine CEO Dave Caputo at yesterday’s Scotia Capital event reminded me that I have not yet written about the most recent Global Internet Phenomena Report. The Fall 2011 edition is based on September 2011 Internet traffic statistics from a cross-section of Sandvine’s customer base.

This edition provides interesting analyses of different geographies and internet access technologies:

• North America, Fixed Access
• North America, Mobile Access
• Asia-Pacific, Fixed Access
• Asia-Pacific, Mobile Access
• Emerging Markets (Eastern Europe, Brazil and Africa), Fixed Access

Within North American fixed networks, Real-Time Entertainment applications are the primary drivers of network capacity requirements, accounting for 60% of peak downstream traffic, up from 50% in 2010. Furthermore, subscriber usage is becoming increasingly concentrated in a smaller band of the evening, driving up network costs despite relatively constant per-subscriber monthly data consumption.

Sandvine also reports that North American fixed access networks have entered a post-PC era, defined by the majority of Real-Time Entertainment traffic being destined for devices other than a laptop or desktop computer. Game consoles, set-top boxes, smart TVs, tablets and mobile devices being used within the home combined to receive 55% of all Real-Time Entertainment traffic.

Sandvine’s report is a must read information source for trend analysis. Be sure to register and download your copy.

Statistics Canada released an interesting variant on its Internet Use Survey yesterday. Unlike its release from May which examined household use, yesterday’s numbers provide an indicator for individual usage for Canadians aged 16 and older. Both reports are for the same period.

Many of the stories I read focused on the regional differences in internet adoption – a phenomenon we have explored before for internet [such as here] and for mobile services.

There are subtle differences between the individual and household data that raised some interesting questions for me. For instance, in May we learned that 97% of households in the top income quartile had internet access, but yesterday we learned that only 94% of individuals in that quartile use the internet. On the other hand, 59% of individuals in the lowest income quartile use the internet, despite only 54% of the households having access. What is causing these discrepancies? Fewer individuals per household are on-line in upper income homes; the opposite in lower income households.

For the non-users, I like to read the excuses with a critical eye:

A majority of non-users (62%) said they did not use the Internet because they had no need or interest, did not find it useful, or did not have time. Over one-fifth (22%) mentioned a lack of skills or training, or that they found the Internet or computers too difficult to use. Limited access to a computer (12%), cost of service or equipment (9%) or age (9%) were other reasons cited for not going online.

In my view, almost all of these are euphemisms for “it’s the money.”

Yesterday’s report indicated that 88% of individuals in Halifax are online, versus 79% of Nova Scotia as a whole. Since the Halifax Census Metropolitan Area represents about 40% of the province, this means that the rest of the province has only about 73% of individuals using the internet. Why?

It is always important to look at the data and ask lots of questions. How do we increase adoption across geographies, ages, incomes, education and other demographic factors?

It’s Canada Day. A day for barbecues, picnics and fireworks.

It is also the day that a three month grace period ends in Quebec for drivers using cellular phones without a hands-free kit.

Violators can attract a fine of $115 plus 3 demerit points and penalties apply even if the drivers are simply spotted with a cellphone in their hands, whether or not there is an active call.

Quebec is the latest province in a trend flowing west from the Atlantic. In 2003, Newfoundland was first to enact a hands-free law, with fines of $400 plus demerit points. Nova Scotia’s legislation came into force April 1 with fines of $165 for a first offence.

All of us are going to need to get used to listening to speakerphone background noise. Will stylish headsets be seen on the runways this fall?

Technorati Tags:
cellular, hands-free