MONTREAL – Louis Audet knew what was coming – and Friday’s Cogeco Cable conference call to explain the company’s $658 million purchase was set up as best he could to assuage the fears of investors.
Financial analysts who follow the company had been warning Audet for the better part of a year that they thought the European expansion strategy Cogeco was pursuing was a bad idea – and once Friday’s deal to buy Portuguese cable outfit Cabovisao was announced, the markets responded by pummeling the cable company’s stock price. It ended Friday at $24.36, down 16.9% on the…
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OTTAWA – With re-comments re-due today on the CRTC’s reconsideration of its 2005 decision on voice over IP telephony regulation, three of the four largest Canadian MSOs came down on the side of the Commission in a joint submission filed this afternoon.
Last month, the Federal Cabinet told the CRTC it had to re-think the decision it made on VOIP telephony and have a decision – again – within 120 days of the May 7th announcement. The cabinet edict was in response to appeals filed by all but one of Canada’s incumbent telephone companies.
Cogeco Cable, Quebecor Media’s…
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MONTREAL – As has been rumored since last summer, Cogeco Cable has agreed to buy Portuguese cable company Cabovisao-Televisao por Cabo S.A.
Cabovisao is owned by Cable Satisfaction International Inc. (CSII), Catalyst Fund Limited Partnership I.
CSII has been in bankruptcy protection and looking for a buyer for the cable company it built since 2003.
The 464.9 million Euro (C$658 million) purchase price includes all the shares of the second largest cable operator in Portugal as well as the purchase of senior debt and reimbursement of certain other liabilities of Cabovisao. The agreed-upon purchase price for the shares…
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ON THE SURFACE OF IT, allowing customers to pay one subscription fee for Star Choice satellite service at their home and cottage is a very consumer-friendly idea.
Most folks, Star Choice is assuming in offering this deal, generally aren’t in two places at once and are instead watching TV at home during the week and then at Lake Whatsit on Saturday and Sunday. Why not offer to let those consumers pay just one subscription fee? It’ll engender loyalty after all, because who doesn’t like to pay less?
But it’s never that simple, is it?
Videotron named the practice…
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MONTREAL – Today, Cogeco Cable launched its digital phone service in Fort Erie, Ontario.
Currently, 47% of homes passed in the company’s territories (primarily in areas of southwestern Ontario and southern Quebec) have access to Cogeco’s local phone service. Service will continue to be rolled out to most cities in Cogeco Cable’s territories by the end of 2006.
www.cogeco.ca
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MONTREAL – According to a published report out of Europe, Canadian MSO Cogeco Cable has pulled out of bidding for a group of cable companies in Belgium.
According to Telecom Paper (subscription required), Cogeco "is no longer interested in acquiring the group of eight cable operators in Wallonia (the southern, French-speaking half, of Belgium).
"(E)ight Belgian operators, owned by local municipalities and Electrabel, are looking for a partner to help develop new services, such as Internet, digital TV and telephony," says the brief story.
There are three remaining European bidders, according to the story.
This could be the…
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OTTAWA – Told by Cabinet on Friday, Public Notice on Wednesday.
The CRTC issued the required public notice today on the rethink it’s been told to do on last May’s voice over IP decision. The new federal government told the Commission on Friday that it was to reconsider last year’s decision, in light of the current telecom market conditions and the Telecom Policy Review Report filed in March.
The CRTC’s decision determined that VOIP is voice and that existing regulations covering telecom would stand. That largely means that the incumbent telcos still had to file for…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable this week launched its digital phone service in Ancaster, Dundas and Port Colborne, Ontario.
Currently, 44% of homes passed in the Corporation’s territories have access to digital phone service. Service will continue to be rolled out to most cities in Cogeco Cable’s territories by the end of 2006.
www.cogeco.ca
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QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – Canada’s smaller independent cable companies lost their voice in Ottawa this year with the closure of the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association in February.
Because its 94 member companies still want to be heard by government and the CRTC, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance decided at a board meeting on Thursday it will re-enter the regulatory arena, albeit on a far smaller scale than what the CCTA offered.
The CCSA has retained Harris Boyd as its new regulatory advisor. Boyd was a long-time executive with the CCTA and was its senior vice-president, industry relations, when the association…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable keeps moving down the Queen Elizabeth Way with its voice service, launching in Welland this week (It launched in Stoney Creek and Grimsby in April and we bet St Catharines is coming pretty soon).
Currently, 43% of homes passed in the company’s territories have access to digital phone service. Service will continue to be rolled out to most cities in Cogeco Cable’s territories by the end of 2006.
Also this week, Cogeco added WWE 24/7, a new subscription video on demand service. WWE 24/7 is available to Cogeco Cable Ontario digital cable customers starting immediately…
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