Rhythms offers DSL in Quebec
Toronto-based Rhythms Canada Inc. started serving the Quebec City metropolitan region DSL market in January after investing more than $2 million in the construction of nine switching centres located in Charlesbourg, Saint-Cyrille, Saint-Real, Ste-Foy, Beauport, Aiguillon, Ancienne Lorette, Loretteville and Levis. Rhythms markets its high-speed access services through channel partners. Its DSL services are backed by service-level agreements that guarantee access speeds and a four-hour mean time to repair windows. Rhythms is a joint venture between Axxent Corp. and Rhythms NetConnections Inc. The company is rolling out high-speed services across Canada.
Cisco adds new designation
Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose, Calif. created a new designation for companies delivering hosted services based on the Cisco customer contact software platform. The Cisco Powered Network Contact Centre Services designation was announced at the Call Centre & CRM Solutions Conference & Expo in Dallas, and recognizes eCRM (customer relationship management) application service providers, outsourcers and service providers deploying Cisco Intelligent Contact Manager (ICM) or the Cisco Network Applications Manager (NAM) software. In order to gain the designation, a company also needs to undergo a complete assessment of their end-to-end network architecture. There are currently over 400 members of the Cisco Powered Network program worldwide in 49 countries.
AT&T Wireless, Sierra amend agreement
An agreement between AT&T Wireless and Vancouver-based Sierra Wireless has been amended to take into account AT&T Wireless’s announced plans to deploy General Packet Radio Services (GPRS). Under the amended terms of the agreement, AT&T Wireless will purchase and resell Sierra Wireless GPRS products, which are now in development. The original agreement was written in December 1999 and included a $30 million minimum volume purchase agreement for Sierra Wireless to deliver EDGE wireless data devices to AT&T Wireless. With the amendment, the agreement now includes GPRS products.
Bell launches b-to-b portal
Bell Actimedia launched BellZinc.ca in January as a business-to-business portal for small and medium businesses. Developed by Organic Canada, an Internet professional services firm, BellZinc.ca was designed to be a comprehensive on-line trade directory. It was built on a Unix platform using BEA WebLogic Commerce Server and Personalization Server, Interwoven’s content management suite and a marketplace and RFP system created using Ariba software. Actimedia says the site will be constantly updated with feature articles, business information and news feeds in English and French, and is expandable to accommodate a high amount of traffic. Organic also assisted BellZinc.ca to create a training strategy for BellZinc’s customer service staff. Organic has also worked on projects for the Bank of Montreal, DaimlerChrysler, Plazmic Inc. and eHarlequin.com.
Entrust runs into a Blockade
Blockade Systems Corp. of Toronto has enabled its OS/390 security server to operate with Entrust Technologies’ getAccess secured e-business portal management solution. The OS/390 security products for authentication, authorization and auditing are integrated with the getAccess portal management software through a Pluggable Authentication and Authorization Module (PAAM). According to Blockade, Entrust customers using OS/390 security can leverage their existing IT infrastructure while extending applications to the Internet and e-commerce transactions. As a member of the Entrust Alliance Developer Program, Blockade says it is working on new PKI-based enterprise security applications, including mainframe authentication for self-serve PKI registration using Entrust/AutoRA software, bulk enrolment of existing mainframe users for enterprise PKI deployment, user ID mapping between PKI and mainframe user IDs, user account synchronization between Entrust/PKI and Blockade-Synchronized user IDs and the integration of Blockade’s Web Single Sign-on (SSO) with Entrust digital certificates and authorization through mainframe security.