WOODSTOCK, N.B. – Satellite and wireless broadband provider Xplornet Communications said Monday it will provide homes and businesses with internet download speeds up to 25 Mbps to 100% of the rural population by 2016.
“CRTC and Industry Canada have forged a vision and an action plan to ensure all Canadians have equal access to high speed broadband,” the company noted in a press release. “Xplornet has embraced this vision and is executing a plan to provide customers outside big cities with the most attractive Internet experience that technology can provide. Xplornet has started rolling out a new Long Term Evolution…
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TORONTO – Though he was just coming off an announcement of hundreds of management layoffs, and numbers showing a 24% drop in net income, fewer cable TV subscribers and flat revenue, Rogers CEO Guy Laurence put an optimistic face on his company’s financial outlook on Thursday.
Wireless, by far the biggest contributor to Rogers’s bottom line, saw a 1% drop in revenue, which the company attributed largely to its new simplified plans (bundling in fees like voicemail and caller ID) and changes like lower-priced roaming plans (as it did three months ago). But the drop in…
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GATINEAU – It will surprise no one that the cost of sports television are front and centre for so many of the submissions to the CRTC’s TV Policy Review
Telus, for example, called the amount of cash being sent to various leagues and teams for the rights to live games “irrational” and has requested the CRTC address the soaring price of sports services and eliminate penetration-based rate cards in sports packaging.
Lined up on the side of Telus, are Shaw Communications, Cogeco and Canadian Cable Systems Alliance members, distributors who own no sports channels. While vertically integrated companies like Rogers and…
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MONTREAL and HALIFAX – BCE is buying the stake in Bell Aliant that it doesn’t already own and will take the regional telco private, the company announced Wednesday.
The deal, valued at approximately $3.95 billion, has already been recommended by independent Bell Aliant directors. BCE already controls Bell Aliant and is acquiring the remaining approximately 127.5 million common shares that are owned by the public minority shareholders.
Bringing Bell Aliant wholly into BCE simplifies the company's structure, eliminates redundant public company costs and will increase overall operational efficiency, the company said. BCE expects annual run-rate free cash flow accretion after common…
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OTTAWA – The federal government is moving ahead with plans to bring high speed Internet to some 280,000 Canadian households that are currently without Internet or with slower access.
Industry Minister James Moore said Tuesday that between now and 2017, the government will invest up to $305 million to extend access to broadband Internet at speeds of 5 Mbps to 98% of Canadian households, mainly in rural and remote communities, and speeds of 3 to 5 Mbps in the remote, satellite-dependent communities of Nunavut and Nunavik in Canada's North.
The program, dubbed Connecting Canadians, will provide incentives for the private sector to invest in wireless…
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GATINEAU – Independent broadcasters are telling the CRTC that they will lose their spots on the broadcast dial if the Commission decides to eliminate genre protection rules and access rights for certain types of programming because the big Vertically Integrated (VI) media and carriage companies have the incentive to muscle their way in with copycat channels, causing “significant harm to the system.”
Genre protection has been a staple of the Canadian broadcasting system for many years, giving niche services the opportunity a protected space in which to build audience share along with a stable source of subscriber revenue, but also…
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TORONTO – Primus Telecommunications Canada unveiled its new leadership team under CEO Michael Nowlan, as the alternative telecommunications service provider undergoes a self-described “transformation”.
Nowlan, who joined Primus in January after 12 years as president and CEO of Marketwired, said that new team “will fundamentally change the way Primus goes to market and does business”.
That team includes:
– Walter Andri, senior vice-president, Sales: Andri is an experienced senior sales leader and business transformation specialist with a proven track record of leading global B2C and B2B businesses in the technology, telecommunications, retail and food and drug sectors. Prior to joining Primus,…
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TORONTO – Cogeco Data Services has finalized a five-year partnership with Quebec-based Laurentian Bank to manage its corporate telecommunications program, the companies announced Tuesday.
Cogeco Data Services has pledged to increase the bank’s data capacity across Canada through a secure and privately hosted network, plus upgrade its entire telecommunications network and the technology infrastructure that supports Laurentian’s 225 offices and 425 ATMs.
"As a company that processes millions of transactions for clients across the country every year, industry-leading technology infrastructure is essential to Laurentian Bank's operations”, said Tony Ciciretto, president and CEO of Cogeco Data Services and Peer 1 Hosting,…
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GATINEAU – Canadian prices for wireline, wireless and Internet services are generally competitive when compared to other G7 countries and Australia, with the exception of entry level mobile wireless service and high-speed Internet, according to an annual report commissioned by Industry Canada and the CRTC.
Prepared by Ottawa’s Wall Communications, the 2014 update Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions is an annual telecom services price comparison study that combines and averages wireline, mobile wireless, broadband Internet, and mobile Internet service rates, as well as bundles of these services along with basic digital TV…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable said late Wednesday that it has written down its IPTV overlay project in Canada to the tune of $32.2 million in its third quarter, and will offer TiVo to its customers in Quebec and Ontario starting next year.
In its third quarter financial results, Cogeco said that it recognized an impairment of $32.2 million of property, plant and equipment, capitalized wages and borrowing costs related to an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) solution project on which its Canadian operations had worked. “As a result of the unexpected performance issues encountered with the platform, it had to be…
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