By Connie Thiessen
Rogers Sports & Media is shuttering its CityNews radio operations in Ottawa, citing low audiences, revenue declines and a restrictive regulatory environment for AM radio.
CityNews will go off the air on both the AM and FM band at 1 p.m. ET today with a Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson telling Broadcast Dialogue that resulting layoffs were in the single digits.
The company will return the licence for 1310 (CIWW-AM) to the CRTC, and restore its Country format station to 101.1 on the dial, following a series of December 2020 moves that saw Country 92.3 debut on CJET-FM in…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Monday it has turned on 5G service in the busiest sections of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway system for transit riders who are customers of all major Canadian wireless carriers.
Starting Oct. 2, subway riders who subscribe to any of the country’s major wireless providers are now able to connect to 5G and talk, text and stream in the core parts of the TTC’s underground system, including all stations and tunnels in the so-called “Downtown U” plus Spadina and Dupont stations on Line 1, and 13 stations on Line 2…
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Rogers says it is fully compliant with MDU rules
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Fibre service provider Beanfield is asking the CRTC to prohibit Rogers from signing bulk service agreements with residential buildings that it alleges serves to limit competition.
Bulk service agreements are multi-year contracts one service provider has with the developer of a building to provide default internet service to all tenants of the building, meaning the residents pay for a single provider’s internet through their rent or fees.
In a Part 1 application dated September 20, Beanfield argues that while those Rogers agreements don’t prevent other service providers from accessing…
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VANCOUVER – Rogers Communications announced Thursday it is investing in industry-leading wildfire detection and prevention technology and will use its national network and technology partnerships to help fight climate change-related events in communities across Canada.
Rogers is currently testing satellite-connected IoT sensors, using SpaceX’s low-bandwidth Swarm service, to better predict wildfires in remote areas of British Columbia without wireless networks, explains a press release.
Rogers is also introducing Pano AI cameras on the Rogers 5G network that can detect smoke up to a 20-kilometre range, according to the release. The AI cameras will be located…
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Cogeco hopes for mobile wireless launch by this time next year
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Tuesday that Freedom’s competitive mobile wireless offers ahead of the back-to-school season didn’t have a “material impact” on its market share in Ontario.
“They launched a few, I would say, price points didn’t have a material impact on the market, frankly,” Staffieri said during the BMO telecom conference.
“So one of the things we’ve gotten a lot better at is to let the competition do their thing, we’ll do our…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced Monday the new Rogers red Mastercard offering customers cash back rewards and lower monthly payments on new phones.
“With the Rogers red credit card, customers can buy the latest phone with no mobile contract and 0% financing over 48 months on an Equal Payment Plan. This cuts monthly device payments by up to half, compared to 24-month financing at full price. Rogers is the only wireless provider that offers this affordability and flexibility,” reads a Rogers press release.
Starting Sept. 21, the new Rogers red Mastercard, which…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CALGARY – Calgary has issued a notice to the public Thursday indicating its interest in entering a contract with Rogers to include a cohort of residents in the cable company’s Connected for Success low-income services program.
The pilot agreement would involve providing the city’s Fair Entry-eligible households with access to price-reduced services from Rogers, including internet, TV or wireless, for one year with an option to extend into the long term.
The city’s Fair Entry program does an income and residency assessment for residents to assess their eligibility for fee-reduced programs, which currently include property tax,…
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Quebecor CEO asks, ‘Should we be surprised…?’
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell has sent a letter to the Federal Court of Appeal backing Rogers’s appeal of the CRTC’s decision to choose Quebecor’s price to access the cable company’s national wireless network.
“The proposed appeal raises crucial issues relating to the ‘just and reasonable’ standard pursuant to which the CRTC sets the rates for a wide range of regulated telecommunications services, including the facilities-based MVNO access service mandated by the CRTC in 2021,” Bell, which isn’t a party to the matter, said in a letter dated August 31.
“These issues include the ability…
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OTTAWA – The Competition Tribunal has ordered the Commissioner of Competition to pay Rogers and Shaw a little more than $9.7 million and $3.2 million, respectively, to compensate for their costs associated with the Competition Bureau’s legal challenge last year of the companies’ merger.
In a decision filed Tuesday, the Tribunal says Rogers is to be paid $414,720 for counsel fees and $9,298,152.58 as reimbursement for reasonable disbursements, plus any applicable HST. Shaw is to receive $416,187 for legal costs and $2,836,920.30 to compensate for reasonable disbursements, plus applicable HST.
Quebecor’s Videotron,…
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OTTAWA and BRAMPTON, ON – Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) and Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) today announced the Ontario Cybersecurity Excellence Initiative (OCEI), a $10-million program “to drive Ontario’s cyber competitiveness and resilience in six key sectors: advanced manufacturing, automotive, life sciences, mining, law enforcement and smart infrastructure,” according to a press release.
This initiative is being supported by $5 million in funding from the Ontario government’s Critical Technology Initiatives program. Rogers Communications is providing $3.8 million to Brampton, Ont.-based Rogers Cybersecure…
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