Thoughts on why Canadian prices are so high
THE CRTC'S RECENT REPORT on Canadian telecom prices (prepared by Nordicity) shows that we pay some of the highest rates in the world.
According to the National Post:
“Canada won gold for the most expensive low-end wireless telephone service and landed silver for premium mobile phone services that include more minutes and data, according to the ninth-annual international telecom price comparison study commissioned by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
It also landed in the Top Three for the most expensive broadband Internet, bundled services and mobile data, which…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada informed its customers last month that it is dropping a number of TV channels from its lineup.
While everyone is dropping ichannel because the parent company, Stornoway Communications, shut it down August 15, some of Bell’s other channel cuts are somewhat surprising.
As of September 1st, Bell is dropping Gusto and on September 27th it has told customers it will remove The Shopping Channel, CNBC, MSNBC, Nickelodeon and Sundance. (See screen cap of the note to customers below. Click it to enlarge.)
The Shopping Channel is a Rogers Media retail channel while American news channels MSNBC and…
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TORONTO – Bell flanker brand Virgin Mobile Canada is now offering home Internet service to its Ontario customers.
On Tuesday, the company launched two plans – 300 GB for $50 per month or unlimited for $65 per month. Both plans have no activation fee or long term contract, and require one of Virgin’s modems, which the company says provides Wi-Fi with download speeds of up to 25 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10 Mbps.
Potential customers must fall within Virgin's coverage map in the province.
The move follows Rogers' flanker brand Fido, which launched home Internet…
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MONTREAL – A Quebec Court of Appeal ruling could result in a class-action lawsuit over excessive international roaming fees charged by the country’s biggest wireless providers.
According to a Globe and Mail report, Rogers, Bell and Telus could be on the hook for millions of dollars for allegedly charging high international data roaming fees to Quebec customers that used their smartphones in the U.S. and other international destinations after January 8, 2010.
The potential lawsuit stems from a complaint made by a Rogers’ Fido customer in Montreal who was billed $250.81 in extra charges for using 40.82 megabytes of data…
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Shaw write-down, content pauses, fuel talk of new, or no, partnership
IN JULY, SHAW COMMUNICATIONS wrote down the value of its 50% stake in the shomi streaming service to nil. That move, plus the fact shomi emerged from spring’s annual Los Angeles TV screenings with no new content purchases, has led many in the industry to wonder aloud about the future of the Rogers-Shaw joint venture.
At the time of the write-down, Shaw CFO Vito Culmone told analysts the $51 million accounting charge taken after it had sold its traditional media assets to Corus Entertainment did not "say anything more about…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has found in favour of Toronto-based local exchange carrier Beanfield Technologies Inc. after it claimed that it was denied timely access on reasonable terms and conditions to provide services in certain multi-dwelling units in that city.
Beanfield filed a complaint with the Commission dated December 22, 2015 alleging that Toronto Standard Condominium Corporation No. 2322 denied it access to the multi-dwelling unit (MDU) buildings located at 65, 75, and 85 East Liberty Street (the East Liberty Street MDUs) in downtown Toronto.
Noting that Bell Canada, Coextro, and Rogers Communications are permitted to offer services to residents at those…
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PETERBOROUGH, ONT. — Capella Telecommunications announced this week company founder Norm Slater is retiring after a career in the cable and telecom industry that spans 40 years, including 23 years as Capella’s president.
Slater helped found Capella Telecommunications in 1993 with a focus on providing technical solutions to the broadcast, cable TV and telecom markets. During the 23 years that Slater served as Capella’s president, the Peterborough, Ont.-based company has evolved with the Canadian industry and continues to offer solutions as a full-service distributor and system integrator of video, voice and data products. Under Slater’s leadership, Capella expanded its business…
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WATERLOO, ONT. — Canadian broadcasters in Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympics are using video distribution technology from Waterloo, Ont.-based Dejero Labs to manage their coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
This marks the first deployment of Dejero’s Live+ Multipoint video distribution network at a Summer Games, the company said in a news release on Monday. Dejero said its technology simplifies access to high-quality, live-streamed video for Canadian broadcasters CBC, Bell Media (TSN) and Rogers (Sportsnet), as well as several international broadcasters present in Rio.
Live streams are distributed from a source location to multiple broadcasters simultaneously….
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MONTREAL — While BCE’s Bell Wireless division continues to sign up significant numbers of postpaid wireless subscribers, net new customer additions to Bell Wireline’s Fibe TV and high-speed Internet services have slowed compared to this time last year. That was some of the news that came out of BCE’s release of its second quarter 2016 financial results on Thursday morning.
Overall, BCE reported 113,000 net new subscriber additions to its postpaid wireless, IPTV and high-speed Internet services in the second quarter of 2016. However, Bell Wireless postpaid net additions accounted for 69,848 of these new customers, which represents a 14.4%…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said today it has received a letter from the CRTC indicating the Commission is deferring consideration of almost 60 complaints filed against community TV channels until their cable licence renewals this fall.
The complaints were filed by CACTUS in partnership with community groups earlier this year, and were concerned with cable community TV channels operated by Eastlink, Cogeco, Shaw and Rogers. According to CACTUS, the channels either fail to air adequate local content (generally 60% of the program schedule) or adequate citizen-generated content (generally 50% of the schedule)…
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