TORONTO – While there are no Canadian carrier CEOs on the speakers’ schedule this year, those executives not in attendance will certainly be paying attention to next week’s Canadian Telecom Summit when it opens Monday morning.
(Ed note: For long-time CTS attendees, this year it is being held at the International Centre, which is just up Airport Road a ways from its former Congress Centre home.)
The event kicks off with an interview on stage with Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada (the questions, however, are coming from another Cisco-ite, Ian Campbell, the company’s CTO, service provider mobility and automation, so…
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TORONTO – While a wide range of hopeful competitors have backed a mandated MVNO, or some sort of variant on it, regime from the CRTC, CFOs from two of Canada’s Big Three Telecoms – Glen LeBlanc (Bell) and Telus’ Doug French – insisted last week such a move would be irresponsible of the Commission to implement.
Speaking at TD Securities Telecom and Media Forum in Toronto last week, the executives, in separate presentations, touted their respective company investments in having built the infrastructure that now serves Canadians from coast to coast. (MVNO =…
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OTTAWA – Wireless carriers will have to provide more granular data to the CRTC, after all.
As part of its submission to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services, the Competition Bureau wants to, among other things, do a detailed study on what happened locally (not just in provinces and nationally) when new wireless competitors to the Big Three (Rogers, Bell and Telus) were introduced. To do that, the Bureau needs far more detailed data than the CRTC has asked for in its original requests for information upon the proceeding’s call.
The wireless carriers and…
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GATINEAU – So much work and hope was dashed yesterday for those hoping to replace Rogers Media’s OMNI on the TV dial.
The CRTC has decided Rogers will continue to operate its must-carry national ethnic language TV channel after renewing its license for OMNI Regional for three more years until August 2023. Its current license expires next summer.
This means the Commission has denied all of the other hopefuls, each of whom had rather interesting proposals for a new channel to serve the ethnic market.
“The new service, which will succeed Rogers’ existing OMNI Regional service, will be available on all digital…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has decided Rogers will continue to operate its must-carry national ethnic language TV channel after renewing its license for OMNI Regional for three years until August 2023. Its current license expires next summer.
This means the Commission has denied all of the other hopefuls, each of whom had rather interesting proposals for a new channel to serve the ethnic market (see links below).
“The new service, which will succeed Rogers’ existing OMNI Regional service, will be available on all digital basic television packages throughout Canada,” reads the CRTC press release. “The new OMNI…
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Bell also asks for return of long-term contracts
GATINEAU – Competition in the Canadian wireless market is already heated and getting hotter, resulting in an overall and ongoing decline in wireless prices while new competitors continue build out new facilities and take customers from them, so why upset that momentum now, and just at the dawn of 5G, Rogers, Bell and Telus have asked in their submissions to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services.
It will surprise no one that the submissions largely hit many of the same themes, especially in their stance against mandating mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs),…
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TORONTO – Rogers is launching Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network technology in Ontario this year in what it calls a “strategic step” in its multi-year technology plan to bring 5G to Canadians.
NB-IoT is ideal for IoT devices that generate and receive small amounts of data, have low power requirements, and/or have a long life cycle, such as stationary asset monitoring, industrial automation, smart meters, and smart city applications. The technology also enables consumer IoT applications such as personal SOS devices and trackers.
The Rogers NB-IoT network will be available in Ontario later this year and deploy additional sites on…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC’s decision on who will get, or even whether to grant, a mandatory carriage TV licence under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act for a national, multilingual and multi-ethnic television service, will come on Thursday at 11 a.m.
The Commission held a four-day hearing at the end of November to hear from Rogers, which owns the existing 9(1)(h) license under the OMNI brand until August 2020, as well as applications from Ethnic Channels Group (Voices), an ATN/Telelatino partnership (CanadaWorld), Bell Media (OurTV), Corrcan Media Group (no name), ICTV (Tele1/Tele2), Amber Broadcasting (Amber News Network), and Multicultural Described…
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HALIFAX – Rogers Square, a new outdoor event space in downtown Halifax, officially opened to the public on Friday at an event attended by three levels of government, members of the local business community and Rogers’ officials.
Housed in the middle of the Nova Centre, the open-air space and can hold more than two thousand people at a time and is available for organizations and community groups to use on its own or as an extension of activities hosted inside the building.
“We are proud to be an important part of the fabric of the Halifax community and to provide a…
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GATINEAU – When the CRTC launched its review of mobile wireless services earlier this year it stated: “This proceeding will focus on three key areas: Competition in the retail market; The current wholesale mobile wireless service regulatory framework, with a focus on wholesale MVNO access and the future of mobile wireless services in Canada, with a focus on reducing barriers to infrastructure deployment.”
This focus on Mobile Virtual Network Operators sure did not fall in deaf ears – and some players jumped right in with strong support since the high cost of entry into the wireless business means many players…
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