By Ahmad Hathout
The Competition Bureau is suing Rogers at the Competition Tribunal for allegedly misleading customers by marketing its mobile wireless data as “unlimited” when speeds are throttled after the data cap has been exceeded.
“Rogers has made, and continues to make, representations to the public that convey the materially false or misleading general impression that Rogers Infinite Unlimited Plans offer unlimited and infinite data, allowing consumers to use as much data as they want, free from data limits,” the bureau claims in its tribunal application, filed Monday. “In fact, Rogers is providing plans whose high-speed data is limited to…
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Application comes after CRTC also said Rogers can’t change Corus channel numbers
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC ruled in a confidential decision last month that Rogers must continue carrying certain Corus channels and refrain from altering their channel numbers, even after the cable giant obtained an Ontario court opinion allowing it to make unilateral changes under its carriage agreements, according to new documents filed by Rogers at the Federal Court of Appeal Thursday.
The CRTC’s rulings on November 18 and 29 resulted from a confidential application filed by Rogers earlier this year that sought to have the CRTC lift a standstill and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The House committee on Industry is calling on the CRTC to launch a “full review of the matter of price certainty and the issue of surprise fees increasing during fixed term contracts” and to take regulatory action on it, according to a report that was delivered to the House floor last week.
The report also urges Industry Minister Francois Philippe-Champagne to “use his available powers in the interim to correct these unfair practices,” expresses “disappointment in Rogers Communications Inc. for not proactively disclosing the true costs of their products and services to consumers,” and “notes the detrimental impact…
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Rogers Communications last week announced it has received clearance from the Competition Bureau to proceed with its acquisition of Bell’s 37.5-per-cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE).
Rogers said the two telecom giants received a “no-action letter” on Dec. 12 from the Bureau, indicating the Commissioner of Competition will not challenge Rogers’s acquisition of Bell’s interest in MLSE, a deal announced in September and valued at $4.7 billion. The acquisition is still subject to league approvals and approval from the CRTC.
MLSE owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto FC and Toronto…
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Bell Media announced Monday the official rebranding and programming slate for its suite of currently branded Discovery channels and Animal Planet, which will sport their new channel names as of Jan. 1.
Bell Media’s Discovery is rebranding as USA Network in Canada, while Bell Media’s Investigation Discovery rebrands as Oxygen True Crime. Both channel rebrandings are a result of a major content and licensing agreement Bell Media recently secured with NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution, giving them the rights to those channel brands in Canada.
In addition, Bell Media’s Animal Planet,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
After five years of injunctions against a host of unlicensed content, Canada’s major broadcasters earlier this week filed a notice to the Federal Court ending their legal action against GoldTV – a case that spawned a new era of court authority over content pirates.
The broadcasters first got an interlocutory injunction against the website in the summer of 2019, which meant GoldTV was ordered by the court to stop broadcasting the unlicensed content of the major broadcasters – in this case, Rogers, Bell, Groupe TVA. That order was renewed in December 2022 for a period of two years.
“At…
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Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) announced Monday a $45-million investment that will support the creation of a 5G testbed and living lab program as part of a $66-million project led by Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN).
Based in Kanata, Ont., CENGN plans to develop eight living labs across Canada and support more than 100 Canadian startups and scaleups through the project, according to a CENGN news release. Living labs will be located in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, and will focus on the validation of 5G and…
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Rogers announced Tuesday morning the launch of Rogers Xfinity Storm-Ready WiFi, what it calls “Canada’s first home internet back-up solution”.
The new product combines Rogers advanced network technology with a device that automatically switches to the Rogers cellular network when there is an internet service or power outage. The product’s extended, rechargeable battery backup allows customers to keep working online and streaming without interruption for up to four hours during an outage. Battery status notifications are delivered via the Rogers Xfinity app.
The launch of Storm-Ready WiFi follows the recent introduction of Rogers Xfinity, a suite of in-home…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A group of internet service providers has filed a petition to cabinet on a precautionary basis asking it to vary the CRTC’s wholesale framework decision from August in case the regulator decides, after its latest consultation, not to ban the three largest ISPs from accessing the regime.
The launch of the CRTC’s latest consultation came at the behest of cabinet, which ordered the CRTC to revisit an interim decision from November 2023 that did not exclude Rogers, Bell and Telus (Big 3) from accessing the last-mile fibre networks of the latter two…
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Fans attending Taylor Swift’s final concert of her Eras Tour at BC Place in Vancouver on Sunday set a new record for the most data used at a single event on the Rogers 5G network, using more than 11 terabytes (TB) of mobile data to share and stream the concert experience, according to a Roger press release.
This shatters the previous record set Nov. 21 at the Taylor Swift concert at Rogers Centre in Toronto, when fans used 7.4 TB of data on the Rogers 5G network in just a few hours.
“Taylor fans use…
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