HALIFAX – Unionized workers with Bell Aliant have ratified a new four-year collective agreement.
Members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Atlantic Communications Council (CEPACC) ratified the deal, which was reached on June 26. They will get raises of 2.0% in each of the first two years and 1.75% in each of the last two years.
“We believe this agreement balances the needs of our employees, our company and our customers in today’s highly competitive environment and we are extremely pleased that the proposed agreement has now been accepted by our employees,” said Frank Fagan, Chief…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Competition continues to grow for Canadian companies in the telecommunications industry, the CRTC says in its 2007 telecom monitoring report.
Total revenues for the industry as a whole grew in 2006 by 4.5% to $36.1 billion, while EBITDA rose 5.3% to $13.1 billion.
But the big story is the continuing bite that competitors are taking out of the traditional telcos’ business. Competitors grabbed an additional 3% market share, rising to 38% of total revenues in 2006, the report says. Competitors’ revenues rose 12% from the year before to $13.7 billion, mainly because of cablecos recording an impressive…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is deregulating the first residential telephone markets in Canada, in Fort McMurray, and parts of the Maritimes.
The ILECs, TELUS and Bell Aliant, will no longer need to get the commission’s approval to set local phone rates or introduce new services and packages.
The systems in Fort McMurray, Fredericton, Charlottetown, and Halifax are the first of likely many to get approval in the coming months. The CRTC says it’s received enough applications for deregulation to cover more than 60% of the residential phone lines in Canada.
The commission says it’s considering the other applications and…
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TORONTO – VisionTV has vowed to never again air lectures by an Islamic preacher with self-professed “radical” views after some viewers complained bitterly of a recent broadcast.
The network has pledged to review its standards and procedures after it aired another program by the same lecturer the day after publicly promising not to give airtime to those who preach violence and hatred.
Some Jewish groups were upset when VisionTV aired an episode of Dil Dil Pakistan over a week ago that featured a lecture by Israr Ahmad. Though the broadcaster points out that Ahmad never made any statements about…
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COMING OFF A SUCCESSFUL free trial that saw 43,000 subscribers sign up for its OneZone WiFi service in downtown Toronto, Toronto Hydro Telecom moved to a subscription-based service in late April. Toronto Hydro Telecom president David Dobbin (pictured below) spoke to Cartt.ca contributor Linda Stuart about OneZone, the upcoming wireless spectrum auction, and the competitiveness of Canada’s mobile communications industry.
Linda Stuart: The OneZone service has been offering subscription-based services for a couple of months now. How has uptake on the subscription service gone so far?
David Dobbin: Better than we expected. We originally projected a 10% month-over-month conversion…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s telecommunications companies have launched an agency to hear complaints from consumers that can’t be resolved by the telcos or the CRTC.
The office of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) opened its doors in Ottawa on Monday. It was created in response to a request from Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that telephone service providers work together to create an independent, industry-funded agency to handle complaints that fall outside the CRTC’s jurisdiction and that consumers and small businesses have been unable to resolve directly with their service provider. The request was tied with the federal…
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FOR SALE: ONE SMALL, independent cable company. Reasonable price. Best offer.
Kaslo Cable is one of a very few remaining independent cable systems. It’s an older system that doesn’t offer high speed Internet nor digital cable to its 300 or so customers – which is part of the reason they want to sell, says co-owner Kul Nijjar. She wants to see a new owner foot the bill for the expensive upgrades needed to go digital.
In lieu of a classified ad explaining the company is for sale, Nijjar (pictured below) chatted with Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien on…
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Dear Greg,
I agree with you on a lot of stuff, but I couldn’t disagree with you more on this one.
Canada is an act of political will. If we want to be a separate nation with a modicum of cultural sovereignty in a global economy we have to do some things to preserve the instruments of nationhood. Maintaining ownership and control of communications infrastructure is one way to do that. And let’s not kid ourselves, there’s no easy way to allow foreign ownership of telecom without affecting broadcasting.
We already have a massive challenge ahead. All the major…
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VANCOUVER – Over 1,000 Canadians have clicked through to the CRTC asking that Canadian media companies get no bigger or become more concentrated says the group behind the letter clicking campaign.
"Our campaign to stop the big media takeover is striking a chord with Canadians from coast to coast," says Steve Anderson, co-ordinator of Canadians for Democratic Media. "It’s clear that there’s a lot of dissatisfaction, especially about news coverage. The situation in Vancouver-Victoria, where CanWest Global owns three daily newspapers and two TV stations, is a particular source of anger."
Canadians for Democratic Media are hoping Canadians…
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WINNIPEG – Consolidated revenues at CanWest Global communications increased by 7% to $738 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2007, ended May 31st, consolidated EBITDA rose 13% to $122 million but consolidated net earnings were $8 million or 38% lower than last year’s same quarter, the company announced this afternoon after the close of trading.
CanWest, of course, owns Global TV as well as other electronic media assets in Canada and abroad as well as the largest number of Canadian newspapers in the country.
"Results for the third quarter were positive, led by continued growth in publishing revenue…
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