KENORA and SCUGOG, ON – The federal government is forging ahead with its Connecting Canadians program, announcing Thursday that it is helping to bring faster Internet speeds to 17 more communities in Ontario.
Bell Aliant will receive over $2 million to connect nearly 2,500 homes in the District of Kenora, which includes Dryden, Ear Falls, Ignace, Kenora, Lac Seul, Machin, Osnaburgh, Pickle Lake, Rat Portage, Red Lake, Sabaskong Bay, Sioux Lookout, Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, The Dalles, Wabaseemoong and Whitefish Bay. The DSL-fibre technology infrastructure project, which will offer Internet services speeds of 15 Mbps, is expected to be completed in part by…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – A new partnership between Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) and Canada's Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN) aims to address the pressing need for more robust networks that can handle the exchange of vast quantities of information at great speeds.
The two organizations pledged to support up to 10 projects with $2 million in funding, coming from both OCE and CENGN in addition to matching industry contributions, in order to accelerate the commercialization of cutting-edge Ontario-based communications technology research. The projects will be focused in areas including SDN and NFV, networking, internet of things…
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CALGARY – The announcement yesterday that Shaw Communications plans to roll out U.S. cable giant Comcast’s X1 platform shows how the company is continuing an extensive internal makeover.
Last quarter, it told analysts it was moving away from bundling home phone in with all of its products because it no longer makes business sense and wasn’t particularly customer-friendly. Shortly before that, it restructured its TV business to move away from old silos and towards thinking more completely like a digital media company.
This quarter, during its Q3 conference call,…
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OTTAWA – Canadians in every region of the country now have a choice between four wireless providers as a result of Wednesday’s spectrum licence transfers between Rogers, Shaw, Mobilicity and Wind as part of Rogers’ acquisition of Mobilicity.
As a result, says Industry Canada, new wireless companies now hold approximately 25% of the total wireless spectrum available, up from only 2% in 2006.
"The approval of these spectrum licence transfers is a win for Canadian consumers. A new wireless competitor has secured valuable spectrum it needs, and high-quality spectrum that went unused for almost a decade will now be…
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TORONTO – Mobilicity has accepted, and Industry Canada, the Ontario Superior Court and late Wednesday the Competition Bureau, have blessed, Rogers’ proposal to acquire 100% of Mobilicity’s ownership for $465 million, the communications giant confirmed Wednesday morning.
The announcement also said Rogers will buy Shaw's unused AWS-1 spectrum for $100 million, in addition to the down payments made when an option agreement was originally announced in January 2013, and will then divest some of that spectrum to Wind Mobile. Specifically, Rogers and Wind will undertake an AWS-1 spectrum swap in Southern Ontario to create contiguous spectrum for Rogers, and Rogers will also divest certain…
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TORONTO – After close to two years in creditor protection and having had a pair of prior sales to Telus rejected by the federal government, Mobilicity and its creditors believe it finally has its suitor.
The company and its creditors will file this motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Wednesday morning to approve and authorize the sale of the company to Rogers Communications for $465 million, a deal which was accepted yesterday by the shareholders, according to the court documents. That is substantially more than what Telus offered ($380 million) in June of 2013, before the…
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TORONTO – TSN has teamed up with sports retailer Sport Chek on a new broadcast-ready studio located in Toronto’s Maple Leaf Square, adjacent to the Air Canada Centre.
The new Sport Chek Studio will host onsite broadcast hardware with the ability to air live video feeds, while also allowing consumers to experience live segments and broadcast interviews with athletes, sports personnel and industry experts while they shop. The studio and second floor of the store will be open to the public later this summer.
The in-store studio includes a nine-foot broadcast desk equipped with studio lighting, microphones, and four cameras; a sports…
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OTTAWA – To cap or not to cap, that is the burning question in comments to Industry Canada’s proposals for its upcoming auction of unassigned AWS-3 and 700 MHz band spectrum. This is an argument that has played out many times in previous spectrum auction consultations, only this time, one of the large incumbents has switched sides.
Both Bell Mobility and Telus argue that new competitors now have enough spectrum in their holdings resulting from the previous spectrum auctions.
“New competitors have now secured both low-band (700 MHz) and higher-band spectrum (AWS-1, AWS-3 and 2500 MHz). It is now…
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TORONTO – As both a broadcaster and a premium content producer with a 4500-episode library of kids shows, Corus Entertainment, while facing many challenges, is still poised to flourish in an ever-changing media landscape, according to CEO Doug Murphy.
“Premium branded content has never been more valuable than it is today,” he said, speaking to the CTAM Canada leadership conference on Thursday in Toronto at Corus’ Queen’s Quay headquarters, and with so many more ways to monetize content, “we’re beginning to get feedback loops in ways that we’ve never had before,” leading to more TV show popularity and increasing international…
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TORONTO – Amidst reports that Rogers and Telus are battling to acquire Mobilicity, the owners and employees of the struggling wireless provider said Monday that have made an offer to Industry Canada and the federal government to acquire Mobilicity’s current subscribers, dealers, and partial infrastructure by setting up a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) relationship with any potential acquirer.
Obelysk Inc., the holding company of Mobilicity founder John Bitove, issued a statement saying that it wants to maintain the Mobilicity brand in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa where it currently operates, retain its 155,000 subscribers and current dealer network of…
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