TORONTO – There were no federal politicians that we could see in the audience at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday and just a handful from the CRTC and Industry Canada, but the message sent by new Quebecor CEO Pierre Dion was certainly meant for the ears of those in charge in Ottawa:
If the CRTC moves to dramatically lower the roaming rates the Big Three extract from smaller wireless newcomers to roam on their networks in Canada – and if Industry Canada can fix the tower sharing problems with better rules, Vidéotron will be that fourth national wireless company…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile Canada has never been so candid, or detailed, about its numbers.
During his luncheon keynote Tuesday, Wind CEO Tony Lacavera released subscriber, ARPU and various other metrics that make Wind, now with about 740,000 Canadian customers, look like a growing, viable, business – despite the hundreds of millions in debt owed from 2008 spectrum purchases and its network build since then.
But there’s a method to that data dump. Wind needs investors. With its foreign backer Vimpelcom having written Wind Canada’s value down to zero, that gave license to pundits, analysts and competitors…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) have filed a joint application challenging the wireless device deposit programs offered by Rogers and Telus.
According to the press release, the Rogers “NEXT” and Telus “T-Up” programs require subscribers to pre-pay a monthly fee in addition to their usual service charges for at least 12 months. These payments, which range from $17 to nearly $30 a month, claims the application, go toward the partial cost of a new cellphone. If the customer stays subscribed and returns their old phone and signs a new two year contract,…
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GATINEAU – Quebec lawyer Yves Dupras has been appointed as a full-time member of the CRTC, designated for the Quebec Region, for a five year term effective August 11, 2014.
Dupras has been a senior business and securities lawyer with the Montreal law firm Spiegel Sohmer Inc. since 2010. He has over 30 years of experience in the areas of business, entertainment, media, communications, and strategic and regulatory affairs, and served on the CRTC as a part-time member in 1992 and as a full-time member for the Quebec Region from 1993-1998.
"I am pleased that Mr. Dupras is joining the CRTC…
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TORONTO – Wholesale wireless service continues to be a prickly topic between wireless incumbents and new entrants, and quickly became a dominant theme Tuesday morning during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual regulatory blockbuster panel, moderated again this year by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien.
Bell, Rogers and Telus remained steadfast in their collective belief that increased regulation on wholesale wireless services will result in decreased network investments. Ken Engelhart, SVP regulatory for Rogers Communications, got that ball rolling early in the 90 minute panel, raising the matter in his opening “trite observations”.
“Wholesale regulation inevitably leads to a reduction in investment,…
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TORONTO – There are some conference organizers from whom you never hear a word, discouraging or otherwise. Not so for Michael Sone and Mark Goldberg, the owners and organizers of the Canadian Telecom Summit, now in its 13th year.
They generally set the overall tone for the conference with a punchy opening speech, delivered in tag-team format and this year was no different when they opened the gathering Monday morning.
“While wireless services flourish with new gadgets and a never-ending stream of new apps and services raising connectivity and instantaneous communication to new heights, the promise of new competition in mobile…
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OTTAWA – Content providers, regulators, policy makers, and industry experts are invited to attend this year’s IIC Canada 2014 Conference in Ottawa on October 21 – 22, 2014.
The Canadian communications industries are being re-shaped by major changes in technology, industry structure, government and regulatory policy. Now that the federal government has released its long-awaited Digital Strategy and the CRTC's Let's Talk TV proceeding is well underway, the question is: what comes next?
The conference will bring together leading communications sector players to explore what the future will look like for Canadian consumers and providers of communications services and…
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BANFF – One of the funkiest sessions at Banff was titled "Consumers and Choice: What Works And What Doesn't". In the context of the federal government’s Throne Speech promise to unbundle cable packages, and the CRTC's current "Let's Talk TV" process, it was neatly provocative.
The speaker was Dilip Soman, professor of marketing and Corus Chair in Communications Strategy at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.
It turns out that, across a range of reputable research on several continents, people aren't very good at predicting their future behaviour or making rational choices.
Take the drink Snapple. Fifteen years ago there…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC’s National Do Not Call List levied $3,050,595 in fees in the 2013-14 fiscal year.
In a public notice this week, the Commission said that this amount represented the actual fees payable by those persons who subscribed to the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) and paid the CRTC’s component of the fees. The Regulator also estimated its telemarketing regulatory costs for fiscal year 2014-15 at $3.3 million.
The Unsolicited Telecommunications Fees Regulations came into force on April 1, 2013 and prescribe fees that will be assessed in order to recover the CRTC’s costs associated with…
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TORONTO – Last week the three largest private English language broadcasters all laid down their cards and showed their hands for the upcoming fall TV season.
While some of what we heard and saw was predictable (Rogers is hockey mad, Shaw’s Global is drama-happy and Bell took a shot or two at the amount of money Rogers spent on hockey…), there were some surprises, as well. The biggest is that Rogers has compressed what it considers Citytv’s prime time from 8 to 10 p.m. only, leaving the 10-11 hour primarily to CTV and Global (and CHCH, too).
What’s the deal at…
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