By Ahmad Hathout
Bell announced Monday it has entered into an agreement to buy Ziply Fiber, representing a push by the telco into the United States’s northwest fibre internet market.
The value of the deal, expected to close in the second half of 2025 following regulatory approvals, is $7 billion – $5 billion in cash and $2 billion in Ziply debt. Bell said Ziply – the largest fibre provider in the U.S. pacific northwest serving Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana – is expected to bring in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $400 million next year. Ziply also offers…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telecom services retailer Glentel hired external counsel who advised it that Rogers’s Mastercard offering in its over 200 stores and kiosks may be offside of its distribution agreement because the card is not a “service,” according to new Ontario Superior Court documents.
The advice was then used to notify Rogers on Thanksgiving Day that the retailer — owned equally by Rogers and Bell — would cease carrying the credit card, which is offered only with the cable giant’s telecom services. Glentel said it hired its own counsel after Bell alleged the bundle would be offside…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers has taken telecom services retailer Glentel to court over its decision to stop carrying the cable giant’s credit card bundle, according to an October 15 complaint in the Ontario Superior Court.
Since the filing of the complaint, the court has ordered Glentel to continue selling Rogers’s Mastercard — offered in a bundle with its wireless or wireline services — until it can make a determination on the merits of the case.
Rogers says in the complaint that it learned over Thanksgiving that Glentel, which is owned equally by Rogers and Bell, would stop carrying the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday set the interim rates competitors will pay large telephone companies to use their last-mile fibre network outside of Ontario and Quebec, while adjusting the existing rates for that access in those two provinces. The rates are being received with reception ranging from lukewarm to outright disappointment.
For all provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, the CRTC set Bell’s last-mile interim access rate – which competitors can lease with its middle-mile facilities – at $68.94 per month for between 3 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps and $78.03 for 1.5 Gbps to 3 Gbps. To bulk buy the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers said Thursday it has entered into an agreement to sell to a “leading global financial investor” a minority equity stake in a newly formed subsidiary that will include parts of its wireless traffic transport network from one region of the country.
The minority stakeholder will get paid periodic distributions based on the net income made by that subsidiary. Wholesale fees to use the network will maintain it, while consumer use of the network, which Rogers CFO Glenn Brandt said is in the range of 40 to 50 per cent growth per year, will ensure distribution stability.
The investment,…
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The Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN) and Rogers announced Wednesday that the cable giant’s 32 new 5G towers are now operational to deliver service to parts of eastern Ontario.
5G services, as a result, are available in the Frontenac, Haliburton, Hastings, Lanark, Lennox and Addington, Peterborough, Renfrew, Leeds and Grenville, Quinte West, Prescott and Russell, Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, Muskoka, South Algonquin, Algonquins of Pikwakanagan, Curve Lake First Nation, Hiawatha First Nation, and Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte.
Rogers said since May 1, it has installed the 32 new cell towers and has made an additional upgrade to an existing…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A television network that focuses on Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ communities wants the CRTC to broaden its distribution on basic television, or at least set a base wholesale fee for negotiations with distributors.
When the CRTC came to renew the licence for OUTtv in 2022, it granted the service in the English-language market must-offer status – requiring broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) to carry the channel but leaving it to the subscriber to pay for the service – instead of must-carry status with a guaranteed wholesale fee that is available to all subscribers of the BDU. That status will remain until…
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Rogers said Thursday that it has completed an $8-million upgrade to its 5G network at Rogers Centre in Toronto ahead of a six-night tour stop by singer Taylor Swift next month.
The construction involved 10,000 hours of installing new equipment and infrastructure, including antennas on the roof of the stadium, Rogers said in a press release, which means “faster speeds, lower latency” and three times more capacity, Rogers said in a release.
The increased capacity means the thousands of expected fans should be able to share live moments from the concert without significant delay.
“As the proud presenting sponsor of Taylor Swift…
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By Connie Thiessen
Bell Media has secured a major content and licensing agreement with NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution that will bring the USA Network and Oxygen True Crime cable channels to Canada for the first time.
Starting Jan. 1, existing specialty channels Animal Planet, Discovery Science, and Discovery Velocity, will be rebranded as CTV Wild, CTV Nature, and CTV Speed, respectively.
The moves follow the loss of the Canadian brand and content licensing rights for Warner Bros. Discovery specialty channels to Rogers. Programming from all five rebranded specialty channels is set to be available on linear television, and on demand on CTV.ca, the CTV app, and Bell Media’s Crave streaming service.
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By Ahmad Hathout
Internet service provider Fibernetics is accusing Rogers of undue preference by allegedly refusing to allow the independent telecom to use a third party transport service at the same building it already uses Rogers facilities to haul leased internet traffic back to its own office.
For years, the Cambridge, Ont.-based telecom said it has been leasing, via the third party internet access (TPIA) regime, capacity from Shaw, which was gobbled up by Rogers last year. In that configuration, the telecom hauls the internet traffic using Rogers’s ethernet transport mile to its own Calgary office.
But in a Part 1 application…
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