Blames pressure on traditional TV on unfair practices
MONTREAL – Quebecor Media's TVA Group announced Wednesday morning it has eliminated 68 jobs in its television group.
“The decision was made necessary by numerous unfair practices that have been undermining the television industry for years. It is the result of government inaction and the failure to modernize the system in order to keep businesses based in Quebec and the rest of Canada competitive,” reads the TVA press release.
"The status quo is crippling our industry, weakening our culture and driving us to the cliff's edge," said France Lauzière, president and CEO, in the…
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MVNOs won't work in Canada
TORONTO – Shaw Communications’ Paul McAleese co-founded and ran a successful MVNO in the United States for a dozen years before coming back to Canada to head up Freedom Mobile.
While he’s still a satisfied investor in i-wireless, which runs the mobile offering of the Kroger chain of grocery stores, he said comparing that company and the U.S. wireless market in general to Canada’s is a mug’s game. First, the American market is just so much bigger, where MVNOs can carve out a living with low margins there thanks to American market scale in a way…
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TORONTO – Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) president and CEO Robert Ghiz used his keynote Tuesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit to drive home a singular message to Canadian policy makers: any changes to Canadian wireless policy must continue to feature facilities-based investments as the bedrock.
Canadian networks are world-leading, he noted in his speech."Not only are Canada’s mobile wireless networks ranked 2nd in the world in terms of download speeds, they are 152% faster than the global average, and 91% faster than the United States. And while speed is important, consistency of speed is equally important. It is little…
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TORONTO – Telecommunications companies had better drop their deceptive and bullying consumer sales practices before they gets smacked by Ottawa, the head of a consumer group warned industry leaders.
"This will continue to be a political issue for you and it may trip up your other businesses because it resonates with the public," John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said Monday during a panel discussion on improving customer experience at the annual Canadian Telecom Summit.
"You guys are too big and too important now to think that what you do for business is your only consideration."
His…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today launched its first call for applications for the Broadband Fund.
CRTC chair Ian Scott made the announcement at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday, saying the Commission is now accepting applications for projects in the the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as satellite-dependent communities in the territories, northern parts of British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and in parts of Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
The Broadband Fund will provide up to $750 million over five years to support projects in regions where there is a great need for improved broadband Internet and…
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TORONTO –Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister Navdeep Bains is expected to reveal the proposed structure of the 3500 MHz spectrum auction on Wednesday and, tapping into his inner Raptor, Scotiabank telecom analyst Jeff Fan said in a report this week he expects Bains to “deliver its version of ‘The Klaw’.”
Using Toronto Raptors’ star Kawhi Leonard’s nickname as a fun hook, Fan set out what he believes will happen to the 3500 MHz spectrum currently co-owned by Rogers Communications and Bell Canada. Like Leonard stripping an opponent of the basketball, ISED will be stripping a lot of that spectrum…
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Opens call for Broadband Fund applications in the North
TORONTO – In a focused speech to Canadian Telecom Summit delegates today, CRTC chair Ian Scott had a strong message for the nation’s telecom carriers: Do Better.
Serve customers better, be more competitive by offering more diverse products and services, lower prices, help cut spam, and close the digital gap, were the themes that Scott drove home.
When it comes to that last one, closing of the digital gap in some of the underserved regions of the country, Scott brought along some news: The CRTC is today calling for…
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TORONTO – Janet Yale, chair of the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel, told the telecom industry on Monday morning that they will have to think far more broadly than their quarterly numbers and short term business plans when her panel makes their final recommendations to the federal government in January.
In a keynote speech at the start of the Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday, Yale said she had initially hoped to bring copies of the panel’s interim report for delegates, but it’s not quite ready for release, so instead she focused her remarks on reminding the telecom folks in attendance…
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OTTAWA – On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tabled bill C-100, An Act to implement the new trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.
This legislation is intended to facilitate the necessary changes in other statutes which will then ensure the ratification of the USMCA. As readers may recall, the Agreement speaks directly to repealing the CRTC’s 2015 decision to ban the simultaneous substitution of TV ads during Super Bowl, as well as to end of the ban on American TV Shopping Channels.
So, Bill C-100 proposes changes to the Broadcasting Act that would…
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OTTAWA – A new report from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says Canadians find it difficult to change their telecommunications providers.
“Consumers are reluctant to try out competitive communications services, despite feeling they can and should,” said John Lawford, executive director and general counsel at PIAC, in last week’s press release. “There are clearly behavioural barriers as well as market barriers to exercising choice in these markets,” he added.
The report says significant barriers to switching in the Canadian retail communications services market were reported by respondents. The retail communications services markets studied include: home Internet access services, home…
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