TORONTO — In a climate where the prevailing feeling is wireless prices in Canada are still too high, a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) suggests Canadians spend less on wireless services than their counterparts in other countries.
In its new report, Understanding affordability of consumer mobile wireless services in Canada, PwC compares wireless spend in Canada to the U.S., Australia and the U.K. for what it calls a “high-level relative wireless affordability comparison against Canada.” When looking at the percentage of income spent on wireless in each of the countries, PwC found that, in 2016, an average Canadian household…
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TORONTO — Healthy uptake and migration to its Rogers Infinite unlimited data plans helped drive the fourth quarter of 2019, Rogers announced as part of its year-end fiscal report on Wednesday morning.
Among the highlights for its Rogers Infinite business, the company said approximately 60% of its existing customers who migrated to these unlimited wireless data plans have upgraded to higher-priced plans and only 40% had downgraded. In addition, these migrated customers, on average, are using more than 65% more data than they had previously used, Rogers says.
Data overage fees have historically represented approximately 5% of Rogers Wireless service revenue…
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TORONTO — To celebrate the Lunar New Year, OMNI Television is bringing audiences its annual variety special on Sunday, January 26.
Celebrating the Year of the Rat will be produced in Toronto in front of a live studio audience and will air Sunday at 6 p.m. (in Mandarin) and 7 p.m. (in Cantonese).
Hosted by Wei Lee and Jie Yang in Mandarin, and Kenneth Li and Karen So in Cantonese, this year’s variety special will include traditional dances, cooking, comedy and music, including performances by Northern Lights Southern Fists, Bamboo Kung Foo, Toronto Happy Laughing Association, the Toronto Chinese Youth Orchestra, Starlight…
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LONDON — Non-profit regional rural broadband project SWIFT (Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology) made a slew of announcements Monday that will see $19 million in provincial and federal funding invested to increase access to broadband services in several Southwestern Ontario communities.
SWIFT is making the investments through the New Building Canada Fund – Small Communities Fund (NBCF-SCF), a joint federal and provincial infrastructure funding program, and in partnership with its member municipalities.
Starting with its announcement for Wellington County, SWIFT has signed agreements with Cogeco Connexion, EH!tel Networks and North Frontenac Telephone Corporation (NFTC) to expand high-speed broadband infrastructure access to…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – When the Competition Bureau filed in November its intervention to the CRTC’s wireless policy review, it was expected that the reactions would be spirited, and they are.
First, some objected because the Bureau (and its specially commissioned Matrix Report) reached conclusions based on confidential information and asked that some information be shared. In that regard, Bell and Rogers got what they wanted while CNOC and Telus are still waiting for word from the Commission when it comes to that data. Telus has warned the Bureau’s intervention should be deleted from the record for…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Quebecor is demanding the CRTC order CBC/Radio-Canada’s Tou.tv Extra paid streaming service to “cease its activities” because it goes outside the mandate of the public broadcaster and is an unfair competitor against Videotron and other regulated television service providers.
The CRTC isn’t about to go that far, but it has decided to look into whether there is an undue preference case to be made, in particular with a deal Radio-Canada has with Telus that provides Telus’s Quebec customers “exclusive” free access to the service.
Tou.tv Extra is the $7/month paid version of Tou.tv, which offers premium video…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Cogeco is closer than ever to launching a wireless service, but it still requires regulatory change before it can do so properly, company CEO Philippe Jetté told journalists on Wednesday as the company held its annual shareholders meeting in Montreal.
It’s one of several dossiers where Cogeco is seeking to either change the rules or fight to maintain them depending on their business interests.
Jetté (pictured, standing), who took over from controlling shareholder Louis Audet (seated) as CEO in 2018, said he is looking forward to presenting his company’s proposal for a “hybrid mobile…
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TORONTO — Rogers said Wednesday it is starting to roll out its 5G network in downtown Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, the same day it was announced as the exclusive Canadian member of a newly formed global 5G Future Forum, created to accelerate the delivery of 5G and mobile-edge computing solutions around the world.
Rogers said in its news release it has started its 5G network rollout in anticipation of 5G devices becoming available this year, and it plans to expand the network to more than 20 additional markets by the end of the year.
The Rogers 5G network initially…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) has revealed some of its lineup of speakers scheduled to participant in panel sessions at Prime Time in Ottawa later this month.
With panels focused on production, packaging, partnering and financing, Prime Time 2020 will provide the intel needed to bring projects — and careers — to the next level, organizers say.
Some of the featured panel sessions and their participants include:
Produce Your Career, Not Just Your Content
Jennifer Twiner-McCarron, CEO, Thunderbird Entertainment and Atomic Cartoons
Christina Jennings, founder, chairman and CEO, Shaftesbury
Sophie Ferron, president, founder and executive producer, Media Ranch
Amy…
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All is not so dire, says Deloitte’s annual predictions
TORONTO – Deloitte is predicting the prevailing sentiment of doom for traditional TV will actually be muted in the immediate future, as high over-the-air television viewership (it’s free!) is expected to hold steady in the wake of cord-cutting.
This year at least 1.6 billion people globally, representing 450 million households, will “get at least some of their TV from an antenna,” said Deloitte’s annual Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Predictions report, officially released Tuesday at an event in Toronto. That data is taken from 83 countries with a combined population of 6.6 billion…
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