By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Internet service provider TekSavvy said in court documents filed on Friday that the big broadcasters which were successful in bringing about the first court-ordered site-blocking decision did not put the effort in to use other methods to squash those it accused of peddling unlicensed content on the internet – making it harder to justify the use of site-blocking for that purpose.
In July, Bell, Rogers and Quebecor’s Groupe TVA Inc. brought a motion to ban alleged pirate IPTV provider GoldTV from operating until the outcome of a trial, which was granted by the court in August….
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On February 20th, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology “adopted a motion to study the influx of fraud calls in Canada, including robocalls, ghost calls, and spam calls. The Committee will also examine the successes and failures of the National Do-Not-Call List, and the STIR/SHAKEN measures that will be implemented in September 2020.”
The first meeting, held on Tuesday, March 10th, when Parliament was still running and COVID-19 wasn’t all the news, saw committee members hear two panels discuss the issue.
The first had representatives of the CRTC and the RCMP.
In their opening remarks, both…
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TORONTO — Rogers Communications today announced a series of steps to support its customers and communities during the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.
Rogers Ignite TV and Digital TV customers now have free access to a rotating selection of channels until April 30. This includes popular content for the whole family, since we are going to be spending a lot of time together for the foreseeable future, as well as news channels to stay informed.
Disney, Disney Jr., Family Channel, Family Jr., YTV, Treehouse, Teletoon, ABC Spark, FX, CP24, CTV News Channel, CBC News Network, New Tang Dynasty, TV Asia are all available…
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WHILE THERE WILL surely be more announcements in the coming days, the broadband, telecom and TV industry is responding to the COVID-19 virus in a number of ways.
All have noted in emails their networks are up to the challenge of handling whatever increased traffic that might come from thousands of people working from home rather than the office. During a conference call with financial analysts Thursday discussing its 2019 fiscal fourth quarter, Vidéotron president Jean-Francois Pruneau said, when asked he is “not worried at all about the virus impact on consumption and network capacity.”
Then, on Friday, Vidéotron said it…
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OTTAWA —Canada’s publicly traded television service providers lost a new record number of traditional pay-TV subscribers in 2019, continuing the trend of accelerating TV cord-cutting in Canada, according to new research from Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services Inc.
The continued launch of new Internet streaming services and the growth of such services in Canada, a slowdown in the growth of IPTV, and continued record losses of subscribers of cable TV all contributed to a record cumulative loss by the big Canadian TV service providers of an estimated 278,000 TV subscribers in their respective 2019 fiscal periods…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers Communications announced today its personalized retail service Pro On-the-Go is now available to existing and new Rogers customers in Greater Vancouver (see coverage area above).
Rogers Pro On-the-Go is a customer service effort which delivers the store to customers’ doors. Within hours of ordering a device, a Rogers pro will meet a customer at a preferred time and location with their new device and set it up based on their preferences. The Rogers employee can then walk a customer through plan options, transfer applications, sync contacts, explain its features and offer popular accessories like cases, headsets and…
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OTTAWA — In a decision issued Wednesday, the CRTC has denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) in which they argued Rogers Communications’ proposed balance limit policy for prepaid wireless services violated the Wireless Code.
PIAC-NPF’s Part 1 application, filed with the Commission in February 2018, was seeking clarification and enforcement of rules in the Wireless Code regarding prepaid wireless balances. In December 2017, Rogers began notifying prepaid customers who had unused balances and consumed minimal usage on a monthly basis that Rogers intended to apply a maximum amount of carry-over…
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TORONTO — The 2020 Canadian Telecom Summit advisory board was announced Wednesday. CTS is scheduled to take place June 15-17 at the International Centre in Toronto.
The 2020 CTS advisory board members include:
Roger Perryman, special advisor and advisory board chair, Macgregor Communications
Katherine Winchester, director of operations, Canadian Wireless Technology Association (CWTA)
Samer Bishay, CEO, Iristel
Neel Dayal, director, innovation and partnerships, Rogers Communications
Ibrahim Gedeon, CTO, Telus
Mark Henderson, senior executive/CEO in the telecommunications industry, corporate director, Nomofob
Matt Stein, CEO, Distributel
Namir Anani, president and CEO, Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)
Please click here to learn…
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It’s part of a war on personal financial identity
By Joanne McNeish
Once again a telecommunications company is telling its customers that they will no longer receive a paper bill. This time it’s Rogers.
What seems to some to be a non-issue evokes a strong reaction in others. When Telus eliminated paper bills, customers who prefer paper bills were shamed online. Others expressed solidarity with digitally disadvantaged groups or listed reasons why some consumers need paper bills.
But why do banks and billing organizations feel it necessary to stop sending paper bills and statements? One reason is the cost to print and mail paper….
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By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Shaw Communications plans to push Ontario to make mandatory the municipalities’ co-operation with telecommunications service providers to allow access to their infrastructure quickly for network builds, as urgency to lay the groundwork for 5G picks up.
The Alberta-based company registered lobby files with the province last week that reflect the telecom’s intention to bring the case to ministers that there is an urgent need for telecoms to obtain easy access to city infrastructure “to ensure connectivity can be built in a timely manner,” the registration says. It’s unclear how Shaw would like that co-operation to be…
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