Additional deal would have seen Rogers get Canadian ops for $4.9 billion
By Greg O’Brien
NEW YORK – It was a fast news cycle for Cogeco on Wednesday.
The day opened with the announcement Altice USA, which owns broadband and cable providers Optimum (formerly Cablevision) and Suddenlink, among other assets, offered to buy Cogeco Inc. (CGO) and Cogeco Communications Inc. (CCA) for C$10.3 billion. It submitted the offer to Cogeco on Tuesday after the close of markets and announced it had done so before they opened on Wednesday morning.
Altice also said it entered into an arrangement to sell all of Cogeco’s Canadian…
Continue Reading
PETERBOROUGH and MONTREAL — Suppliers Lindsay Broadband and Belgium-based Accelleran announced today Cogeco Communications is testing their one-box small cell solution for LTE deployments in hybrid fibre coax (HFC) networks with DOCSIS backhaul, as part of a multivendor field trial on Cogeco’s network in Quebec.
Lindsay and Accelleran have partnered to deliver a one-box solution (the LBSCS-A1-EA, pictured) comprising an LTE small cell operating in the 3.5 GHz band, an industrial-hardened DOCSIS 3.1 modem, and a surge-protected power supply system (40-90 VAC cable plant input is converted to DC and Power over Ethernet).
This solution is generally intended for deployments in…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. reported solid third quarter results late on Wednesday, recording a 1.4% increase in revenue to $626 million and adjusted EBITDA of $298.4 million, an increase of 2.9% compared to the same quarter of 2019.
While the company did take a hit on the radio side as advertising has plummeted during the Covid-19 crisis, its press release said “the situation had various impacts on our business during the last quarter. However, these Covid-related impacts did not have a material effect on our results.” Cogeco’s cable, ISP and telecom businesses in southern Ontario and Quebec and in the…
Continue Reading
By Ken Kelley
TORONTO – Cogeco president and CEO Philippe Jetté said Wednesday he believes the company’s own network advancements are the key to helping fend off Bell’s fibre expansion throughout southern Ontario.
Jetté (above) told the TD Securities Telecom and Media Conference (held online), the company isn’t yet seeing any material impact stemming from Bell’s Fibe rollout in cities like Hamilton, where the two are in direct competition with one another.
“In terms of overlap, Bell isn’t moving fast,” Jetté said. “We’ve seen them take 1% of the fiber-based network. We aren’t too concerned about their progress in these areas, as…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU — The CRTC has accepted Cogeco Connexion’s request for final offer arbitration with Bell Media regarding a dispute between the companies over wholesale rates for distribution of Bell’s French language youth channel VRAK.
In a letter dated May 21, the Commission asks Cogeco and Bell to file their final offers for the linear and multiplatform wholesale rates for distribution of VRAK by Cogeco. The final offers are due by June 5, 2020. After examination, the Commission will select one in its entirety and the decision will be binding on the two companies (unless of course they come to…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Communications has appointed Frédéric Perron as president of Cogeco Connexion, effective September 1, 2020. He will be based at the division’s Ontario headquarters in Burlington.
Perron (pictured in his LinkedIn photo) has over 20 years of managerial experience at international telecommunications and financial services companies such as T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Capital One. He replaced Ken Smithard, who retired earlier this year.
“Frédéric is a strong leader, who excels in combining strategic vision, commercial management and operational efficiency and I look forward to him joining our organization and sharing his breadth of experience,” said Philippe Jetté, Cogeco’s president and…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Communications today announced it has signed a deal to acquire iTéract Inc., a telecommunications service provider in southern Quebec.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
iTéract uses a combination of fixed-wireless and fibre-to-the-home technologies to serve approximately 2,000 customers in large rural regions south of Montreal and Quebec City.
“Given the exceptional circumstances due to the Covid-19 crisis, the parties will work to ensure an orderly closing of the transaction, which is expected in the coming weeks,” says the press release. For the time being, it will continue to operate under its brand name, Internexe.
As part of the transaction,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — Cogeco TV customers in Quebec now have access to Hollywood Suite’s four HD channels of commercial-free movies, as well as Hollywood Suite On Demand and the Hollywood Suite Go streaming app.
Already available on Cogeco TV in Ontario as well as BDUs across the country, Hollywood Suite launched yesterday in Quebec on Cogeco TV channel numbers 705-708 (TiVo and legacy). Cogeco subscribers in Quebec can take advantage of a 30-day free preview of Hollywood Suite until May 21.
“We are thrilled to work with Cogeco to bring Hollywood Suite to the Québec market,” said David Kines, president and co-founder…
Continue Reading
HALIFAX — To help entertain families while socially distancing at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, kids channel Toon-A-Vision announced Tuesday it is launching on Cogeco and will be available free to all Cogeco customers on channel 729 as of April 22, 2020.
“Toon-A-Vision’s newest partnership with Cogeco means more Canadian families will have access to fresh new shows they’ve never seen before,” says Adam Mimnagh, president of Toon-A-Vision, in the news release. “We provide safe, but funny content that isn’t available in Canada on other children’s networks, or streaming services, which gives us that special something that we think families…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL — Cogeco Connexion reported Tuesday it has seen a significant increase in traffic on all of its services over the past month as teleworking and greater use of online educational and digital entertainment platforms have caused peaks in network utilization during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the news release, Cogeco has experienced the following network traffic increases in the last month:
Approximately 60% greater use of its Internet services during the day and about 25% at night;
40% increase in traffic for its video-on-demand services and growth of between 20% and 40% for other video streaming services, including…
Continue Reading
