MONTREAL – Bell Canada today launched an exclusive new app available only to customers with a 5G phone – and who are in a Bell 5G coverage area.
The new TSN 5G View/Vision 5G RDS launched Friday night as the Montreal Canadiens hosted the Vancouver Canucks at the Bell Centre.
The Bell announcement says 5G tech allows it to use the app to take “fans into the rink on their smartphones, rotating around the action supported by 80-plus in-game cameras broadcast live within the TSN/RDS App.”
This is the first Bell Canada-Bell Media co-production under new Bell Media senior vice-president, product platforms…
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By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – Rogers president and CEO Joe Natale surprised more than a few observers on Monday with the announcement his company would purchase Shaw Communications. Not with the deal itself since that had been a rumour for two decades, but with the level confidence he displayed when saying he believes Canadian regulators will, in the end, approve.
That confidence hadn’t wavered when Cartt.ca spoke with him on Wednesday.
The company went out of its way to offer major incentives to Canadians as sweeteners to the deal: A $1 billion broadband fund to deliver broadband to 600,000 un- or…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – Rogers Communications’ proposed $26-billion purchase of Shaw Communications will reduce competition in Canada’s broadband and wireless sector at a time when the industry’s top players are enjoying record profits, and therefore needs to be opposed by the federal government, according to Windsor, Ontario Member of Parliament Brian Masse, the New Democrat critic for telecommunications.
“We need to have strong direction for the industry that buying each other out is not a solution for lowering prices, increasing access for Canadians and bringing greater accountability to consumers,” he told Cartt.ca in an interview.
The federal government should use…
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EEYOU ISTCHEE and JAMES BAY REGION, Que. — Rogers Communications today announced it is providing spectrum to new wireless carrier Eeyou Mobility to support the Cree-controlled provider’s services in the remote Eeyou Istchee and James Bay regions of northern Quebec.
Eeyou Mobility will provide local wireless coverage to nine Cree communities and five francophone municipalities in the region. Rogers customers will be able to roam on the new Eeyou Mobility network when travelling to this northern region of Quebec, and Eeyou Mobility customers will have access to Canada-wide roaming on the Rogers network, says the company’s press release.
“Our customers want…
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Network partners Telus and Bell tie for fastest median download speeds
VICTORIA — When it comes to the best mobile experience for customers in Canada, Telus ranks highest compared to Bell and Rogers, according to a new report from Tutela Technologies, a Canadian crowdsourced mobile network data company.
According to Tutela’s 2021 State of Mobile Experience report for Canada, Telus took the top spot for both excellent consistent quality (achieving a score of 88.4%) and core consistent quality (95.2%). For excellent consistent quality, Rogers and Bell achieved scores of 82.7% and 82%, respectively. For core consistent quality, Bell scored 92.9%, while…
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TORONTO — Rogers Communications flanker brand Fido announced today it is expanding its Fido Payment Program to include accessories, allowing its mobile customers to get headphones and phone cases for $0 down and 0% interest and pay them off over a 24-month term.
The new financing options now include AirPods, Beats, cases, screen protectors, chargers and more. Customers can choose to finance a single item or multiple items starting today by visiting a Fido retail store.
Fido launched its Fido Payment Program in February 2020 and was the first flanker brand wireless carrier to offer this financing option.
With the expanded…
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By Ken Kelley
AS CANADIANS WEARILY commemorate the first anniversary of the Covid-19 crisis, we’ve witnessed companies, schools and other services migrate to the digital world in unprecedented fashion. While the internet wouldn’t be considered a luxury by most Canadians, it is exactly that to a segment of the population facing the rising cost of home internet service while their household budgets are growing increasingly tighter.
On Tuesday, consumer group OpenMedia virtually hosted the Day of Action for Affordable Internet, bringing together more than two-dozen civil society and social justice groups, policy experts, activists and independent ISPs to highlight not…
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And what still stands in their way
By Greg O’Brien
THE PURCHASE OF SHAW by Rogers has been a steady recurrent rumour which would crop up from time to time over the past 23-plus years this reporter has been tracking the industry, meaning Monday’s $26 billion purchase deal by Rogers was a long, long time coming.
In fact, when I first spoke with former Shaw president Peter Bissonnette in late 1997 (so long ago I don’t think he had yet been appointed president), I asked him then about the rumour I heard Rogers would buy Shaw. Too soon. Much too soon,…
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Minister makes draft policy directive public
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a somewhat surprising move, the Heritage Ministry on Thursday decided to share the draft policy directive to the CRTC which is to be delivered to the Regulator once the bill aimed at updating the Broadcasting Act is passed.
The draft direction (as in, not final) was supposed to provide more clarity into what the government expects from the CRTC after the passage of C-10, a bill to modernize the Broadcasting Act. But, to be honest, there isn’t much direction in the directive which hasn’t already been examined during our reportage…
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CALGARY and TORONTO — Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications announced today they have reached an agreement for Rogers to acquire all of Shaw’s issued and outstanding Class A and Class B shares in a transaction valued at approximately $26 billion.
The deal agreement will see Rogers pay $40.50 per share in cash, amounting to approximately $20 billion. The transaction total includes approximately $6 billion of Shaw debt.
The Shaw Family Living Trust has already agreed to vote in favour of the transaction, which still requires the approval of two thirds of votes cast by Class A and Class B shareholders at…
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