The CRTC sent a letter to the national and regional telecoms this week requesting an update on the progress of the MVNO regime that is four years out from sunsetting.
From Rogers, Bell, Telus and Sasktel, the regulator is asking for a list of MVNO agreements entered into with regional carriers. It is asking the same from Quebecor, Cogeco, Eastlink and Iristel, as well as the areas where these regionals are using the wireless capacity to deliver services, where new radio access networks (RAN) have been deployed, the total capital investment to expand into these new areas, the number of…
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Canada’s big banks and the three largest telecoms will be able to share information through a single platform to protect Canadians against fraud.
The Cross-Sector Anti-Fraud Exchange (CSAFE), launched this week, aims to help identify and prevent repeat fraud through the shared platform. Its goal, according to a press release, is to disrupt fraudsters, identify repeat fraud at critical decision points across account opening, authentication and transaction, reduce fraud risks with aggregated insights drawn from a broader set of confirmed events across participating institutions, and facilitate timely sharing of confirmed fraud intelligence so participants can respond.
CSAFE was developed by EnStream,…
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Rogers Sports and Media’s Citytv announced Wednesday the launch of Dateline Canada, the first global expansion of NBC’s Dateline newsmagazine franchise.
Set to debut Thursday, Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv and Citytv+ in a two-hour special, Dateline Canada will be led by award-winning journalist Diana Swain, known for her decades of work as a CBC investigative correspondent, host and producer.
The inaugural episode of Dateline Canada will revisit the disappearance of Elizabeth Bain, a University of Toronto student who disappeared from Scarborough in 1990. The special explores previously unreported evidence that brings renewed attention to the unsolved mystery…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC made final Wednesday Rogers’s new high-speed internet offerings to wholesale competitors.
For the eastern part of the country, Rogers sought last July to introduce speeds of 300 Mbps download and 30 Mbps upload and 300 Mbps/200 Mbps. For the west, it proposed those same speeds plus an option for 75 Mbps/50 Mbps. Because the speeds fell within the existing speed bands with approved interim rates, the cable giant did not propose new costs.
The speeds, introduced to comply with speed-matching requirements, had been in the market since September 2025 after the CRTC approved them…
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Telus and AST SpaceMobile announced Monday they have successfully completed their first integration test between Telus’s wireless network and AST SpaceMobile’s satellite-based network, marking a milestone in their partnership to enable direct satellite-to-smartphone connectivity.
By combining AST SpaceMobile’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation and Telus’s wireless network, this space-based technology will allow Canadian customers to use eligible smartphones beyond the reach of traditional cell towers, helping to close existing coverage gaps and to enhance access to critical emergency services, Telus said in a press release.
“Connecting smartphones directly to satellites…
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Comes after TVA Sports secured NHL rights deal from Rogers
By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s Groupe TVA is stonewalling hotel television service provider Coopérative de câblodistribution Hill Valley over access to TVA Sports, a Part 1 application claims.
Hill Valley claims in the application, made public Friday, that Groupe TVA is still refusing to negotiate for the sports signal, four years after the Federal Court found Hill Valley had, for a time, violated copyright law by projecting a single signal to multiple hotel rooms without authorization.
Still, Groupe TVA allegedly wants nothing to do with Hill Valley, which…
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Rogers announced Thursday that it has closed the acquisition of the remaining 25-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE).
The cable giant, which came to a $4.35-billion agreement in July to buy Kilmer Sports’s holding, now owns 100 per cent of the sports empire, which includes the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Football Club and Toronto Argonauts, as well as the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League, the Raptors 905 of the NBA G League, and the MLS Next Pro team Toronto FC II.
Keith Pelley will remain as president and CEO of MLSE…
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CBC, CTV, Global collectively capture $8M of departmental ad spending
By Linda Stuart
The federal government spent nearly $60 million in the 2025-26 fiscal year across its departments on government ads, with the lion’s share appearing to go toward ad placements on digital platforms, documents tabled last week in Parliament show.
The government’s total ad spend was revealed in a Sept. 21 response to a question from NDP MP Don Davies regarding annual expenditures on government advertising. The MP for Vancouver Kingsway asked for ad expenditures for the last five fiscal years, broken down by campaign, department…
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By Connie Thiessen
Toronto radio veteran Julie James is joining Evanov Communications.
Starting Monday, Oct. 5, James will take on the dual role of Assistant Brand Manager of Evanov’s flagship Top 40/Dance station, Z103.5 (CIDC-FM) Orangeville and Classic Hits/AC format, Lite 92.1 (CKPC-FM) Brantford.
James most recently served as APD for Toronto’s CHFI and was the National Head of Pop Programming for Rogers Sports & Media. Prior to her 15-year run with Rogers, James was a Content Director at Corus Entertainment’s 103.1 Fresh Radio (CFHK-FM) London and the former 92.5 JOE FM (CKNG-FM) in Edmonton. Prior to that, she was the longtime host…
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Videotron claims it is also owed $2.8M in BAI deal; Rogers claims Videotron owes it $4M
By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor’s Videotron is suing Rogers for $151 million over aspects of its acquisition of Freedom Mobile.
Videotron filed a detail-less six-page notice of action in Ontario Superior Court last year that alleged Rogers owed it $91 million in breaches of the Freedom sale agreement, which required Rogers and Shaw to offload the mobile wireless subsidiary to merge. The transactions – Rogers buying Shaw and Quebecor buying Freedom (formerly Wind Mobile) – closed in April 2023.
Since then, Rogers and Quebecor have…
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