TORONTO – Just in time for the winter getaway season, Rogers is rolling out a new technology for customers travelling in the U.S. that allows them to access their Canadian wireless plans while they're away.
For $5 a day, the Roam Like Home plan, which will be available November 10, allows customers to use the Internet, make calls, send texts and emails in the U.S. just like they would at home, with their Share Everything plan, which includes shareable data buckets, unlimited talk and text, and various other services. Calls made within the U.S. and back to Canada are also included…
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VANCOUVER – The speech CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais gave yesterday to the Vancouver Board of Trade looked like a plea for Canadians to take a deep breath, step back, and let the Regulator do its work on the TV Policy Review – and to remind all that decisions will be based solely on the hard evidence presented to it.
Blais referenced the beginnings of the satellite TV era in Canada where the incumbent cable companies and others used the term Death Star to describe the potential newcomers. Back then, incumbents spoke of all manner of ruination that would come to…
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MONTREAL – Gains at Bell Wireless helped to power a 74.9% jump in BCE's third quarter net earnings, the company announced Thursday.
BCE operating revenue grew 1.9% to $5,195 million in Q3, reflecting higher revenues at Bell and Bell Aliant. Adjusted EBITDA was up 2.5% to $2,115 million while adjusted EBITDA margin increased slightly to 40.7%, driven by “healthy growth” at Bell that was partly offset by a year-over-year decline at Bell Aliant.
BCE's net earnings attributable to common shareholders jumped 74.9% to $600 million year-over-year, which it said was due to a charge in Q3 2013 for the CRTC tangible…
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TORONTO – Any time members of the Canadian telecom industry gather together for a conference, the age-old debate about just how competitive the market actually is here inevitably emerges. The Canadian ISP Summit held this week in Toronto was no exception.
And in fact, opposing views on the subject, firmly expressed, provided most of the sparks during the conference’s final session on Wednesday, a panel discussion that tackled many of the regulatory issues currently faced by the telecom industry.
Moderated by telecom industry consultant Mark Goldberg (co-founder and organizer of the annual Canadian Telecom Summit), the regulatory panel featured: Dr. Michael…
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OTTAWA and TORONTO – It’s full speed ahead for Wind Mobile after Industry Canada officially approved a plan allowing Globalive Capital to buy back majority control of the Canadian wireless company from VimpelCom.
“Foreign investment transactions are reviewed on their merits and the overall economic benefit for Canada”, said Industry Minister James Moore, in a statement. “In making my determination, I concluded that this acquisition will contribute to a more robust and competitive wireless industry in Canada.”
Industry Canada also approved the transfer of the company’s spectrum licences.
Wind Mobile chairman Anthony Lacavera announced in September that his investment company,…
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OTTAWA – Canadians’ complaints over their telecom and Internet services fell for the first time in the seven year history of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), but Commissioner Howard Maker stopped short of calling it a trend.
“From our examination of other statistics… we are cautiously optimistic that the industry as a whole is becoming more focused on customer issues and on how it addresses customer problems”, Maker wrote in the 2013-2014 annual report, called ‘Driving Positive Change’, released Tuesday.
The CCTS received 11,340 customer complaints in 2013-14, down 17% from 13,692 in 2012-13, and successfully resolved…
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TORONTO – Television Bureau of Canada (TVB) president and CEO Theresa Treutler is leaving the industry association after seven years.
No replacement for Treutler is being named at this time, and she has agreed to stay on until December 31st to ensure a smooth transition, reads Tuesday’s announcement. She will explore new opportunities in the new year.
Treutler, pictured, joined TVB in 2007 after 25 years of broad-based advertising agency experience in both strategic planning and executional disciplines. In her role as president of TVB Canada, Treutler worked with a highly involved board of directors, five committees and a team of…
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TORONTO – Broadcasting exec John Cassaday has been named as the 2015 inductee to the Canadian Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame.
Cassaday will be honoured at the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Awards gala on May 7, 2015 at the Sheraton Centre Hotel in Toronto.
Cassaday has enjoyed a decorated career in the broadcast industry for 25 years. As the founding president and CEO of Corus Entertainment Inc., he has piloted the company to a leadership position in radio, specialty television and content creation in Canada. Corus' diverse portfolio of assets encompass more than 20 television properties including YTV, Teletoon, W Network, CMT and HBO Canada; Nelvana,…
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I FINALLY HAVE A RESPONSE to something CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais asked we reporters – in absentia, mind you – during day eight of September’s Talk TV hearing, the day set aside for accessibility issues.
“I asked others beforehand – now they may be listening elsewhere – but the media table, which was chock-a-block last week, seems to be completely empty now,” chairman Blais said on September 17th. “And I'm struck, because members of the community you serve presumably buy goods and services – goods and services that are made by people that advertise in newspapers and other electronic media.
“Why…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada has approved the transfer of 81 spectrum licences in various regions across the country from NextWave to Xplornet Broadband Inc.
The decision, posted Friday, says the licenced services in question operate in the Wireless Communications Services (WCS) band, and noted the importance of the WCS band as commercial mobile spectrum will increase as the ecosystem for advanced LTE services is expected to emerge in the next few years.
Xplornet holds limited commercial mobile spectrum in the areas under consideration and its holdings will only marginally increase as a result of the transfer, the decision continued.
www.ic.gc.ca
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