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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Business Watch

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 07/10/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

LTE coming to 'Peg

ROGERS Communications says it is bringing LTE wireless service to Manitoba by the end of the year.

When it launched in Ottawa a year ago, Rogers was the first company to bring the highest-speed wireless infrastructure to Canada.

The company said it will spend close to $500 million to bring LTE to the majority of Canadians by the end of 2012. LTE has download speeds that can be as much as four times faster than 4-G networks.

Rogers and MTS partnered in a provincewide 4-G network that was launched last year.

MTS is also launching LTE service in Winnipeg by the end of the year.

Boeing snags $7-B deal

FARNBOROUGH, England -- Boeing Co. clinched the first big deal of this year's Farnborough Airshow on Monday with a firm order from Air Lease Corp. for 75 of its redesigned 737 aircraft worth $7.2 billion.

The order is a big win for the Chicago company at the opening of the week-long air show, south of London, and is the first order for the MAX, a new version of its bestselling 737 aircraft, by a leasing company.

"They are an ideal partner to help establish the 737 MAX in the leasing market," said Ray Conner, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive.

Biotech OLT downsizes

VANCOUVER -- Canadian biotechnology company QLT Inc. is cutting its workforce by two-thirds, leaving it with 68 employees after a downsizing brought in by new leadership following a proxy battle waged by some of its shareholders.

Among those leaving is Robert Butchofsky, who has been QLT's president and chief executive. He has agreed to stay until July 31.

The Vancouver company (TSX:QLT) had been one of Canada's most successful biotechnology firms based on its treatment for a common form of age-related blindness.

But sales of Visudyne have fallen and QLT has struggled in recent years to find another commercially successful product.

Barclays lowball denied

LONDON -- A senior Bank of England official denied Monday he had given any hint to Barclays it should manipulate reports of its borrowing costs.

Paul Tucker, the Bank of England's deputy governor, also told U.K. lawmakers no one in government had leaned on him to put pressure on Barclays to "lowball" its reporting.

Barclays has been fined $453 million by U.S. and British agencies for feeding false data that went into calculations of the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR), a key market index that influences the costs of a wide range of financial instruments, including home mortgages.

Windows 8 launch: Oct.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Computers running on the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system will go on sale in October.

Microsoft Corp. announced the time frame for Windows 8's mass-market release Monday in Toronto. A specific sales date in October wasn't provided.

Most industry analysts expected Windows 8 would go on sale in the fall to ensure that the machines running on the operating system would be available for the holiday shopping season. Consumers and businesses who don't want to buy new computers will be able to buy Windows 8 and upgrade their systems.

AT&T ditches $1-M suit

IPSWICH, Mass. -- AT&T Inc. says it's dropping its legal fight against a Massachusetts businessman whose company was on the hook for a fraudulent million-dollar phone bill.

The telecommunications company said in a statement Monday it is no longer pursuing its claims against Michael Smith of Ipswich, "though we are entitled by law to collect the amounts owed."

Smith said the offer depends on his dropping a countersuit. He'll meet with his attorney about it on Tuesday.

Smith says someone hacked into his small manufacturing company's phone system in 2009 and made nearly $900,000 in calls to Somalia.

AT&T sued Smith for $1.15 million to recover the cost of the calls plus interest.

-- from the news services

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 10, 2012 B7

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