TORONTO – When Guy Laurence came to Canada nearly three years ago to take the helm at Rogers Communications, he was not shy about telling people his first goal was to tackle a mountain of customer service problems.
It was a widely acknowledged failing.
Even the fellow who stamped Laurence’s Canadian work visa back then wasn’t shy about telling him “Your service sucks,” the CEO recalled when he met with members of the media last Thursday to launch the company’s new self-service wireless bandwidth management tool.
Laurence set to work when he was…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC took matters in to its own hands Thursday, throwing out the wholesale high-speed access rates proposed by the country’s large cable and telephone companies in favour of its own.
In its decision, the Commission said that the proposed rates from incumbent carriers “were not just and reasonable” and that they were therefore revised downwards. It also expressed “significant concern” that that some of the companies have not conducted their cost studies in accordance with well-established costing principles and methodologies, and disregarded the CRTC provided Regulatory Economic Studies Manuals .
“Competitors that provide retail Internet services to Canadians using…
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TORONTO – It’s a little complicated (and raises the spectre of the long-gone iCraveTV), but a Bell Canada injunction says VMedia can’t apply the BDU regs to its new OTT vice service.
Bell says that the independent ISP and BDU is in the wrong by claiming it can distribute CTV and CTV2 as a retransmitter under section 31 of the Copyright Act.
“There is nothing in the Act, or otherwise at law, that permits VMedia to do so,” Bell writes in an October 3 injunction filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against the Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Six home-improvement companies have been fined $420,000 for making non-compliant telemarketing calls to Canadians, the CRTC said Tuesday.
Spurred by complaints, the Commission said that an investigation by its chief compliance and enforcement officer found that the companies called Canadians whose numbers were registered on the national Do Not Call List (DNCL). In addition, certain companies had failed to register with or subscribe to the national DNCL, made calls to Canadians during restricted hours, and used inaccurate versions of the list.
The companies and the penalties are:
– Just Energy Corp.: $240,000
– Green Planet Home Services Inc.: $90,000
– 4140800 Canada…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has upheld an $18,000 fine against a Toronto-area restoration business over violations to Canada's telemarketing rules.
Robert Gendron, carrying on business as Dynique Restoration and Victorian Restoration, was ordered to pay administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) for 18 violations at $1,000 per violation, for a total amount of $18,000.
The Commission said that it issued a notice of violation to Gendron on November 30, 2015 after investigating telemarketing complaints between December 4, 2013 and February 13, 2015 for initiating telemarketing telecommunications to consumers whose numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) while he (i) was…
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GATINEAU – Channel Zero's Bloomberg TV Canada is asking the CRTC for a broadcasting licence, just weeks ahead of its one year anniversary on the air.
The Commission confirmed Monday that Channel Zero’s application is one of eight that it will consider at a hearing scheduled for December 7 in Gatineau. Interventions are due before November 2, 2106.
The Canadian business and financial news television channel launched November 17, 2015, but was exempt from licensing until it hit the 200,000 subscriber mark, in keeping with Broadcasting Order 2010‐689, Appendix 1.
“The service is filing this application since it has exceeded…
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MONTREAL – Videotron, Bell and Cogeco were quick to jump on the CRTC-commissioned broadband report that determined that Internet service providers (ISPs) largely meet or exceed their advertised download and upload speeds.
In a statement, Videotron noted that the report found that its actual download speeds averaged 106% of its advertised speeds between March 15 – April 14, 2016, when the data was collected, and upload speeds were 103% of the advertised speeds.
"Videotron has been an Internet trailblazer: we were pioneers more than 20 years ago and were among the first to offer high-speed service in Québec. Year after year,…
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TORONTO – SiriusXM Canada is back in the black after reporting an 837% jump in profits for its 2016 fiscal year.
For the year ended August 31, 2016, net income was $49.7 million compared to last year’s $6.8 million net loss, while revenues increased 4.7% from $325.9 million to $341.3 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $84.4 million, up 6.5%, from $79.2 million year-over-year.
Sirius XM Canada saw self-paying subscribers grow 4.3% from 1.93 million last year to 2.00 million in FY2016, resulting in a total subscriber base of 2.83 million.
For the fourth quarter, revenue was up 4.4% to $87.4 million year-over-year, net income grew 73.9%…
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GATINEAU – The full results of a first-of-its-kind independent, national study on broadband performance in Canada shows that Internet service providers (ISPs) largely meet or exceed their advertised download and upload speeds.
Participating ISPs in the survey (announced last year and for which preliminary results were made public in the spring), conducted by SamKnows and which was commissioned by the CRTC, included all the main wireline service providers in Canada, with the exception of Sasktel, which declined to participate, said the CRTC in a press release this afternoon.
The data collected will…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canadians who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired now have a new way to communicate thanks to Wednesday’s launch of the new national video relay service (VRS).
This made-for-Canada service enhances the ability of Canadian’s whose first language is American Sign Language (ASL) or Langue des signes québécoise (LSQ) to conduct calls via video relay service with hearing people through a professional ASL or LSQ interpreter.
VRS calls are placed using a high-speed Internet connection through a computer, tablet or smartphone and an operator facilitates the conversation between the two parties by relaying the conversation between sign…
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