OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied an application by Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC) challenging the early upgrade programs offered by Rogers and Telus.
The Commission said Thursday that the programs, known respectively as Rogers “Next” and Telus “T-Up”, do not violate the Wireless Code, as the two consumer groups alleged in their complaint filed in June 2014. Rather, the CRTC continued, the programs are consistent with the Wireless Code’s contract cancellation and extension rules, and are “examples of innovative plans and services that respond to the needs of consumers who value…
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TORONTO – Rogers and Shaw’s streaming service shomi is is now available on Apple TV and Google Chromecast.
Chromecast, a thumb-sized media streaming device, is plugged into HDMI ports on TVs, allowing shomi subscribers to cast the streaming service’s content from the app on their mobile device, tablet, or computer directly to a TV.
"Even before we launched, Chromecast was on our shomi roadmap as a must-have for our service and I'm delighted that we're now able to deliver this experience to our members," said Ann Tebo, shomi’s director of product management, in the news release. "With Chromecast, Apple TV, and…
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OTTAWA – The merging of the statutes governing the communications industry has been addressed a number of times in the past. The first panel session at this year’s Communications Law and Policy Conference attempted to put some meat to the bones of whether having unified communications legislation would be good, or bad, for the sector and even if it’s doable at all.
Former CRTC commissioner Tim Denton provided a pretty succinct argument as to why the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act are essentially incompatible, can’t be unified and be effective at the same time. On one hand, the Telecom Act…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC is calling for volunteers to help it measure the performance of Internet services provided by major Internet service providers (ISPs) across the country.
The Measuring Broadband Canada program, announced Thursday, will see the Commission work in collaboration with ISPs and broadband testing firm SamKnows to measure broadband performance and test parameters associated with the broadband Internet connection, including download and upload speeds.
The CRTC is recruiting up to 6,200 Canadians who will receive a device known as a 'Whitebox' that they will connect to their modem or router. The Whitebox will periodically run measurement tests when users…
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BURNABY, BC – BCE has completed its acquisition of Glentel, the Canadian-based multi-carrier mobile products distributor.
The deal, first announced in November 2014, sees BCE acquire all of Glentel's common shares for a total consideration of approximately $594 million. Further to an agreement reached last December, BCE divested 50% of its ownership interest in Glentel to Rogers Communications Inc. following closing of the acquisition.
Glentel sells wireless products and services from Bell Mobility, Chatr, Fido, Rogers Wireless, SaskTel and Virgin Mobile at 359 locations across Canada.
www.glentel.com
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a complaint lodged by some of Canada’s biggest wireless service providers over a deadline date in the CRTC’s Wireless Code of Conduct.
In a decision issued Tuesday, Justice Denis Pelletier dismissed a challenge filed by Bell, Rogers, Telus, MTS and SaskTel over the June 3, 2015 final implementation date of the Code, referred to as “the drop-dead date”, whereby all existing wireless contracts fall subject to the Code.
Noting the high number of three-year wireless contracts that would not yet have matured by that date, the telcos claimed that they would be…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada and Larry Tanenbaum's Kilmer Group are jointly acquiring the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts from sports entrepreneur David Braley. Financial terms of the transaction, expected to close on December 31, 2015, were not disclosed.
The team will begin leave the Rogers Centre and begin playing at BMO Field beginning with the 2016 CFL season. Located at Toronto's Exhibition Place and operated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, BMO Field is also home to MLSE-owned Toronto FC of Major League Soccer.
Bell Media's TSN and RDS sports networks have exclusive media rights to all CFL pre-season and regular season games,…
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HAMILTON, ON – Cable 14 has been honoured with a Media Award of Distinction by the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) for its live broadcasts of a variety of McMaster University sports, as well as OUA postseason and Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship events.
The Hamilton-based community channel, co-owned by Cogeco Cable and Rogers (formerly Shaw and Source Cable), began airing McMaster sports on tape delay in the early 2000's. In 2008, with the addition of a fibre link to the Ron Joyce Stadium building project, Cable 14 began live broadcasts from the McMaster campus on a consistent basis.
Since then, Cable…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a demand by Rogers Communications to revise the Wireless Code and exclude certain wireless service contracts for corporate individual plans and employee purchase plans.
The Commission said Friday that it is denying Rogers’ application to review and vary Telecom Decision 2014-528 (referred to as the Corporate Plans decision), as the big media company “failed to demonstrate” that there is substantial doubt as to the correctness of that decision. In that decision, the Regulator (a) reiterated that the Wireless Code applies to retail mobile wireless voice and data services provided to individuals and small…
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TORONTO – SaskTel has once again ranked highest in wireless customer satisfaction for the fourth year in a row in a study by J.D. Power & Associates released Thursday.
According to the J.D. Power 2015 Canadian Wireless Customer Care Study, many Canadian wireless carriers are modifying their customer service strategies as they brace for a surge of two-year and three-year contract expirations in June. Canadians’ satisfaction with wireless providers’ customer service heavily influences customer loyalty and carrier retention, the company continued, with timeliness, accessibility and online self-service tools helping to differentiate carriers from their competitors.
The 2015 Canadian Wireless Customer Care Study is…
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