Regulators have a real option to improve canada’s mobile wireless marketplace
by Marie Ginette Lepage
WHEN IT COMES TO THE future of our nation’s mobile wireless telecommunications market, Canadian regulators are fast-approaching an important crossroads. Recent debate, seen on Cartt.ca and elsewhere, has been focused on the idea Canada’s regulators face a terrible trade-off, in which the only way to provide consumers with more competition and choice is to do so at the expense of further investment and expansion of networks.
That would certainly be a difficult choice to make, particularly in a country like Canada, where many rural and…
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MONTREAL — Cogeco Inc. today announced Michel Lorrain (above, left) is departing as president of its radio subsidiary, Cogeco Media, to pursue personal interests.
A recruitment process for his successor has been launched and, in the meantime, Richard Lachance (right) will assume the position of interim president. Lachance is currently a special advisor to Cogeco and the former president of Cogeco Media (2013-2018).
“On behalf of my colleagues and the entire Cogeco team, I wish to thank Michel for his 13 years of dedication to the company, his numerous contributions and his leadership,” said Philippe Jetté, president and CEO of Cogeco Inc….
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$4.3-million Grey County broadband project now underway
SIMCOE and GREY COUNTY, Ont. — In two separate announcements last week, Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) announced the awarding of funding to support $41.1 million in broadband upgrades for Simcoe County and $4.3 million in upgrades for Grey County, both located in southwestern Ontario.
In Simcoe County, six fibre-to-the-home projects (three by Bell, and one each by Vianet, Cogeco and Rogers) will expand broadband services to 12,700 households and businesses. SWIFT has awarded more than $18.6 million in federal and provincial funding to service 500 kilometres of underserved roadway to connect more than…
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MONTREAL — Cogeco Communications today announced its Cogeco Connexion subsidiary has completed its acquisition of rural telecom service provider DeryTelecom, once the third-largest cable operator in the province of Quebec.
When the acquisition was announced in October, Cogeco pegged the purchase price at $405 million. With the close of the transaction, Cogeco Connexion expands to more than 200 municipalities in Quebec, including in the Estrie, Lanaudière, Montérégie and Laurentians regions, adding approximately 100,000 customers.
In the short term, DeryTelecom will continue to operate under its current name and trademark, says Cogeco’s press release announcing the acqusition has been finalized.
“We…
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By Peter Nowak
IMAGINE, FOR A SECOND, someone making fun of you for being too skinny. Then they take all your food away.
Got that image in your mind? Okay, good. You’ve just pictured what trying to grow a telecom business in Canada is like.
For years, that’s essentially what big companies such as Bell, Rogers and Shaw and their armies of lawyers, lobbyists and hangers-on have been doing to TekSavvy and other independent service providers.
They’ve argued that the only good telecom company in Canada is one that builds its own networks head-to-toe, from the poles that hold the wires in the…
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By Denis Carmel
QUEBEC – Former CRTC Commissioner, Suzanne Lamarre is heavily involved in the government of Québec’s effort to speed the deployment of high-speed internet in rural and remote regions funded through the Québec Branché program.
We first heard of this when Bell issued a news release on October 30, announcing new measures to simplify the process of having access to its support structures. The same day, the CRTC announced potential regulatory measures to make access to poles owned by Canadian carriers more efficient.
“To accelerate the implementation of funded projects and meet deadlines, the Quebec government has set…
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OTTAWA — Consumer complaints to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) decreased 19% this year compared to last, according to the organization’s 2019-20 annual report released this morning.
This is the first year-over-year decline in the number of complaints reaching the CCTS since the 2015-16 fiscal year, says this year’s report, which covers the period from August 1, 2019 to July 31, 2020.
In total, 15,868 complaints were filed this year, with 89% of them being successfully resolved by the parties following CCTS’s intervention. These complaints raised almost 43,000 issues, with the most common complaints related to billing problems,…
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MONTREAL — Cogeco Connexion, Videotron and Quebec municipal ISP Maskicom are banding together to demand that Bell implement “real solutions” to resolve major problems with access to its telephone poles, saying previously announced measures fall short.
“Bell’s anti-competitive and unfair practices are significantly limiting the ability of ISPs to deliver high-speed Internet expansion projects to rural communities in Québec,” says a press release jointly issued today by the three Quebec ISPs.
“Cogeco Connexion, Maskicom and Videotron do not believe the ‘seven regulatory easements’ announced by Bell on October 30 will solve the current problems in any way, as none of…
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MONTREAL — Cogeco and Cogeco Communications today announced the appointment of Zouheir Mansourati (above) as senior vice-president and chief technology officer for both companies, effective immediately.
“Zouheir’s years of experience in telecommunications combined with his drive, leadership and collaboration skills make him an ideal candidate for this highly strategic role at Cogeco,” said Philippe Jetté, president and CEO of Cogeco and Cogeco Communications, in a press release announcing Mansourati’s hiring. “In this role, he will further Cogeco’s technology and innovation strategy from vision to execution, and lead our plans for emerging technologies. I am excited to have him join…
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And why there’s much more to rural connectivity than funding
By Lynn Greiner
AN ADDITIONAL $1.75 BILLION for rural broadband, which the federal government announced this month, is certainly a good step, albeit delayed, in the right direction. But, it’s not enough.
“It’s not a silver bullet,” said Telus vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel Stephen Schmidt during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual Regulatory Blockbuster session on Wednesday. “It won’t work on its own… In our view, complementary spectrum policy reform is an essential companion piece that will ensure that the networks that get built with or without public…
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