OTTAWA – The big players in Canada’s wireless broadband space have told Industry Canada that it should avoid adopting the U.S. plan for the 2500 MHz band and instead opt for the international band plan. They say the economics resulting from such a decision are much better for the Canadian wireless sector.
“Harmonization of the Canadian band plan with the globally adopted band plan will be essential if Canadians are to benefit from the global ecosystem for wireless network technology and consumer devices that are already developing for the band,” Inukshuk Internet tells Industry Canada in comments filed…
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MONTREAL and WINNIPEG – In a move that has the industry scratching its collective head, Quebecor Media announced Wednesday morning that Kory Teneycke has left the company.
Teneycke, formerly Prime Minister Harper’s director of communications, was named VP of Development and head of Sun TV News channel back in June. Quebecor said that Sun TV News will now be the responsibility of Luc Lavoie.
"We would like to thank Kory for the excellent work he has performed for our company, and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavours", said Quebecor president and CEO, Pierre Karl Peladeau, in a brief statement.
While…
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TORONTO – Bell and Telus could be the winners when the 700 MHz wireless spectrum hits the auction block, predicts one industry analyst.
Responding to Cartt.ca’s report that Industry Minister Clement may accelerate the 700 MHz mobile spectrum auction in Canada, Canaccord Genuity managing director and head of Canadian research, Dvai Ghose, told investors Monday that the two big telcos appear to have an advantage over Rogers because they share spectrum, while Rogers does not have a national spectrum sharing partner.
“We also believe that the 700 MHz auction poses a key risk to cash flow and dividend growth for…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada’s announcement this morning that it will spend $1.3 billion for all of CTV looks like a bid to protect and power a lot of its asset engines with a lot of superb oil and fuel.
The deal comes with $1.7 billion in debt, and factoring in Bell’s 15% ownership of CTVglobemedia, places a total value of $3.2 billion on CTV. The Globe and Mail newspaper has been carved out, as the Thomson family will take majority ownership of the paper.
If approved (and this doesn’t look to ring any Regulatory warning bells) the new company will…
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MONTREAL – Videotron officially launched its own wireless service Thursday morning in a glitzy, televised press conference held simultaneously in Montreal and Quebec City.
Its new "3G+" service is available immediately in the greater Montréal and Québec City areas. With multiple plans and a dozen handsets, Videotron will bundle the wireless service with Internet and cable, offering unlimited contracts that allow customers to opt out at any time. Customers will also be able to make unlimited local calls and watch selected television channels on their mobile devices with a branded mobile content portal called illico mobile – an extension of the company’s…
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GATINEAU – Leave it to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein to set the record straight.
In a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail on Wednesday, von Finckenstein strongly denied that the Prime Minister’s Office was in any way trying to pressure the CRTC on a decision around Quebecor’s application for its SunTV News channel.
“I would like to categorically state that no one at any level of government has approached me about the Sun TV application, the appointment of the CRTC’s vice-chair of broadcasting, or my own mandate”, he wrote. “Quebecor’s application is being treated according to the CRTC’s…
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MONTREAL – Let the battle for Quebec’s mobile customers begin.
Quebecor Media and Videotron will unveil its new 3G+ wireless network this Thursday, the company said Tuesday. President and CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau along with Videotron president and CEO Robert Depatie will make the official announcement at 10:00 ET on September 9 simultaneously in Montreal and Quebec City.
The press conference will be broadcast live on VOX (channel 9 or 609) and on the web at webcast.videotron.com. Cartt.ca will have full coverage.
www.quebecor.comwww.videotron.com
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TORONTO – Canadian author Margaret Atwood is contributing to the hype around Quebecor’s proposed new Sun TV news channel – whether she means to, or not.
Earlier this week, Atwood tweeted that she’d signed a petition called “Stop Fox News North” at avaaz.org, and encouraged others to join her. The petition, among other allegations, accuses Prime Minister Harper of “trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves, and make us all pay for it”, and calls on him to “immediately stop all pressure on the CRTC on this matter”.
This sparked a swift, and sharp, opinion-editorial piece…
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GATINEAU – On November 19th, the day after the CRTC is set to wrap up its look at the DTH satellite TV policies, the Regulator will hear Quebecor Media’s request for a SunTV News category two digital specialty service license.
With much fanfare back in June, the company made public its plan for a new news channel featuring “hard news” during the day and “straight talk” at night. In its original submission to the Commission, QMI proposed to shutter its money-losing SunTV station in exchange for a category one digital license, which would make the channel a must-offer…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Most stakeholders agree that the CRTC’s new community TV policy did little to lessen cable’s firm grip on the country’s community channels. But even some of the country’s biggest cable companies appear to have some concerns.
“The closed captioning component is going to be a challenge”, said Colette Watson, VP of Rogers TV, in an interview with Cartt.ca. “As of December 31st, the funding is frozen to the levels we’re at now for four years. That’s fine, we’ll make that work. The issue then becomes, if in that same time frame we have to caption 100%…
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