NETWORK EXPANSION NEWS
Launches this week:
Shaw to provide public WiFi service for Edmonton
EDMONTON – Shaw Communications announced Thursday that Edmonton city council has given the go ahead to expand Shaw’s Go WiFi network to public areas across the city.
The planned WiFi network will grant wireless in pedestrian-friendly areas of the city, such as LRT stations, facilities and libraries.
The project is expected to take place over the next two years, with new access points being installed continually throughout this period.
www.shaw.ca
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has announced a public debt offering of $300 million in ten-year-term senior secured debentures, Series “4.”
The interest rate of the debentures was set at 4.175% and will be payable semi-annually on May 26 and Nov. 26, with the first interest payment on Nov. 26, 2013. The debentures will mature on May 26, 2023.
The company said the net proceeds from the offering will be used to repay a portion of the amount outstanding under Cogeco’s term revolving credit facilities. The unused amount under these revolving credit facilities will then be…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada and Astral Media say the list of new regulatory safeguards it has agreed to should allay any fears the CRTC has of a combined company – and that the deal should be approved.
In its final written submission to the CRTC filed late Tuesday, the companies say they have agreed to “an unprecedented package of regulatory safeguards relating to terms of trade with all independent producers, the negotiation of affiliation agreements (including tied selling, packaging flexibility, and other terms), the no head start rule, the availability of non-linear content, the timing of the Commission’s dispute resolution…
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GATINEAU – In their final written submissions to the CRTC on the proposed purchase of Astral Media by Bell Canada, various interveners say there are no words, no new rules the Commission can write which will sufficiently protect the Canadian TV system from the market power of a combined Bell/Astral.
That, tied to the fact Bell has told the Commission in no uncertain terms it will not proceed with the merger should it be required to divest any other assets, means the whole deal should be denied, just like the first one was rejected last fall. ( Continue Reading
MONTREAL –? Cogeco announced today that the holding company of the company's founder is privately selling 432,270 of its subordinate voting shares of the company.
Gestion Audem will still retain a 70.8% control of Cogeco, with ownership over 1,809,660 multiple voting shares and 509,810 subordinate voting shares of Cogeco.
Louis Audet, Gestion Audem president and son of Cogeco's founder, the late Henri Audet, said, "This exceptional transaction is being carried out as part of the succession planning following the death of the late Henri Audet. On behalf of all members of the Audet…
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MONTREAL – Spend long enough in a hearing room and you’ll zone out for a bit. Yes, we admit, it’s happened to us. “I wonder if we’ll be done in time for the hockey game… I really have to cut the grass when I get home…”
Then, one or more of the parties says something that makes you say: Did he/she just say that? Sometimes those moments make it into a story. Other times, not. Here are a few of those other times: ************************* DURING ITS INTERVENTION on Tuesday, Rogers SVP of video content David Purdy told commissioners he sees…
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Story and photo by Steve Faguy
MONTREAL – After Telus, Rogers, EastLink, Cogeco and Quebecor, the last word on Bell’s failed relationship with competing BDUs went to the little guys. And they had some eye-opening facts and figures to back up their claims that Bell isn’t playing fair.
“We are not here to engage in regulatory arbitrage,” said Jim Deane, chair of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, which represents about 115 small cable companies across Canada. “CCSA members are fighting for their lives.”
Speaking as one of the final interveners in the hearing over Bell Canada?s proposed purchase of Astral Media, the…
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MONTREAL – In a lengthy appearance before the CRTC commissioners on Wednesday (more than twice as long as either Rogers or Telus the day prior) Cogeco Cable left no doubt where it stood on the question of Bell Canada buying Astral Media: There can be no compromises, no new regulatory caveats that make this deal palatable, and so the merger must be denied. Again.
Cogeco’s argument was similar to the one EastLink made earlier on Wednesday, but the Montreal-based cable and radio firm offered up more detail. CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has asked the opposing interveners Tuesday and Wednesday for…
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Story and photo by Steve Faguy
MONTREAL – Maintaining the CRTC has no alternative but to "categorically refuse" Bell's purchase of Astral Media, Quebecor refused to provide the Commission with a list of assets that the combined company should be forced to divest if the transaction is approved.
"If approved, such a project would inevitably create prejudicial repercussions for consumers, the public interest, broadcasting policy, the Canadian broadcasting system and the Canadian companies that work in it," Quebecor CEO Robert Dépatie told the commissioners on Wednesday morning during its appearance as an intervener. Joined by TVA group president Pierre Dion and…
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MONTREAL – Interveners told the CRTC Tuesday that just because Bell Canada has decided it will spin off a few TV assets with this latest attempt to purchase Astral Media, that doesn’t make the deal any better for Canadians, or for them.
“This second application raises the very same concerns in the English-language television market,” Rogers SVP regulatory Ken Engelhart told commissioners on Tuesday morning. “The acquisition of Astral’s premium pay television services will threaten diversity and endanger the ability of distributors to deliver programming to Canadians at affordable rates and on reasonable terms on multiple platforms.
So for Rogers, the…
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