TORONTO — Rogers announced it is the first national carrier to allow smartphone customers to finance the entire cost of their devices, by extending its financing options to include taxes on phones.
With its new device financing option, Rogers is letting customers get every phone for $0 down with 0% interest and no taxes paid upfront.
In July, Rogers announced its Edge Financing options that allowed customers to get the latest smartphones such as the Samsung Note 10 and iPhone XS at $0 down, 0% interest, with the retail price of the device paid through equal monthly payments over 24 months….
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TORONTO – Expect network investment to plummet, the growth of the digital economy in Canada to stall and an invasion of well-heeled foreign broadband resellers if the recent CRTC decision on third party internet access wholesale rates is not overturned, says a report published this week by TD Securities.
While saying he expects the decision to be challenged and overturned or at least revised, TD telecom and media analyst Vince Valentini pulls no punches in his analysis, saying the Commission-set wholesale rates and retroactive rebates are bad for the incumbent carriers, their customers and Canada as…
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23 jobs cut
MONTREAL — As Breakfast Television is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Toronto, Rogers Media is making cuts elsewhere, including cancelling its Montreal morning show entirely, and having some content at its Vancouver and Calgary shows sourced out of Toronto.
Staff in Montreal were informed after Thursday's broadcast that it would be their last. Eight jobs were eliminated by the cancellation in Montreal, leaving 41 people employed in Montreal between CityNews, OMNI and sales. Four jobs have been cut in Vancouver and 11 in Calgary.
"This decision was very difficult, but at the end of the day, the show…
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TORONTO – TeraGo announced Wednesday morning that it has hired a new VP whose goal will be to accelerate the company’s efforts to commercialize 5G fixed wireless commercial services in Canada utilizing 5G mmWave spectrum.
Irv Witte, who has over 20 years of experience in wireless communications, most recently with Rogers, has been hired as vice-president of 5G at TeraGo. Witte was most recently involved in Rogers’ 600 MHz auction and in network product management. He also oversaw the initial launch of the chatr wireless brand, and has B2B experience when he was VP of Rogers Wireless business marketing.
“As…
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GATINEAU – On Friday, the CRTC launched the review it said was coming over the 36-month device financing plans certain service wireless providers recently launched, which it told those carriers to stop doing in early August.
The Commission wants to ensure the provisions of its Wireless Code, which effectively make any sort of carrier service contract longer than two years illegal (there can be no break fee beyond 24 months for a customer to pay when they leave a carrier), are upheld. The carriers which launched the new 36-month plans, first from Rogers this summer, say…
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LONDON – Non-profit regional broadband project SWIFT has issued its first round of RFPs for the design and construction of high-speed broadband networks within the 20 municipalities it covers.
Prequalified Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been invited to submit network proposals aimed at connecting business facilities, public buildings and residences within the counties underserviced areas, says the company.
Actual construction dates and network designs will be provided by the ISPs in their proposals and SWIFT says it anticipates releasing implementation plans later this Fall, including detailed construction timelines.
SWIFT also announced 13 new additions to its Vendor of Record (VOR) list…
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TORONTO – Broadcaster Asian Television Network says it is continuing to feel the sting of piracy as its revenue continues to decline, but that it is hopeful the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review Panel might have a lifeline for it come January.
For the second quarter, ended June 30, operating revenue came in at $2.9 million, down from $3.9 million in the second quarter of 2018. Net loss for the period came in at $941,000, more than double Q2 2018’s $426,000.
“Declining revenues are predominantly as a result of increased internet piracy and consumers shifting towards illegal digital IPTV set-top…
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CEO Pruneau wants it to be the in-home hub for Quebecers
MONTREAL — Vidéotron has officially joined the IPTV family, announcing Tuesday its Helix platform is available to the general public as of now.
Using Comcast's X1 technology, which is also deployed by Rogers (Ignite) and Shaw (BlueSky), it includes features like cloud-based DVR, restart of missed live TV programs, voice-controlled remote, intelligent Wi-Fi and combined search of live TV, video-on-demand and three streaming apps: YouTube, Netflix and Videotron's own Club Illico.
But those three apps are it for now. No Amazon Prime Video, or Bell's Crave, or DAZN, or Radio-Canada's Tou.tv,…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec are now taking applications from community television organizations to hire a journalist under the Local Journalism Initiative.
The LJI was announced by Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez on May 22 (when he announced the government bailout of large newspapers) and is meant to fund “civic journalism” in “underserved communities”, to address the gaps in local news coverage that have arisen in the wake of community newspaper closures, and the outflow of local ad dollars onto international platforms such…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Canada has granted Bell Media, Groupe TVA, and Rogers Media an interim injunction against GoldTV.biz and GoldTV.ca, ordering GoldTV to disable its IPTV services pending a final decision on what is gearing up to be a test case for the big broadcasters efforts to require all Internet service providers (ISPs) to block unlicenced web sites they say are pirating their content.
In addition, the injunction forbids the as yet unknown individuals or entities operating the services, called John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 in the documents filed with the court, from transferring "access,…
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