OTTAWA – Canadians in every region of the country now have a choice between four wireless providers as a result of Wednesday’s spectrum licence transfers between Rogers, Shaw, Mobilicity and Wind as part of Rogers’ acquisition of Mobilicity.
As a result, says Industry Canada, new wireless companies now hold approximately 25% of the total wireless spectrum available, up from only 2% in 2006.
"The approval of these spectrum licence transfers is a win for Canadian consumers. A new wireless competitor has secured valuable spectrum it needs, and high-quality spectrum that went unused for almost a decade will now be…
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TORONTO – The new Rogers-Mobilicity agreement, which will see Wind Mobile bulk up its wireless spectrum in five provinces, will help to solidify its role as Canada’s fourth national carrier, the wireless provider said Wednesday.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Wind Mobile will receive new spectrum previously held by Mobilicity and Shaw Communications, which it says will at least double its network capacity in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northern and Eastern Ontario.
"This new spectrum acquisition means Wind Mobile now has a 20 megahertz AWS-1 corridor from Victoria to Ottawa," said CEO Alek Krstajic, in a statement. "This will significantly…
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TORONTO – Mobilicity has accepted, and Industry Canada, the Ontario Superior Court and late Wednesday the Competition Bureau, have blessed, Rogers’ proposal to acquire 100% of Mobilicity’s ownership for $465 million, the communications giant confirmed Wednesday morning.
The announcement also said Rogers will buy Shaw's unused AWS-1 spectrum for $100 million, in addition to the down payments made when an option agreement was originally announced in January 2013, and will then divest some of that spectrum to Wind Mobile. Specifically, Rogers and Wind will undertake an AWS-1 spectrum swap in Southern Ontario to create contiguous spectrum for Rogers, and Rogers will also divest certain…
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TORONTO – After close to two years in creditor protection and having had a pair of prior sales to Telus rejected by the federal government, Mobilicity and its creditors believe it finally has its suitor.
The company and its creditors will file this motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Wednesday morning to approve and authorize the sale of the company to Rogers Communications for $465 million, a deal which was accepted yesterday by the shareholders, according to the court documents. That is substantially more than what Telus offered ($380 million) in June of 2013, before the…
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OTTAWA – To cap or not to cap, that is the burning question in comments to Industry Canada’s proposals for its upcoming auction of unassigned AWS-3 and 700 MHz band spectrum. This is an argument that has played out many times in previous spectrum auction consultations, only this time, one of the large incumbents has switched sides.
Both Bell Mobility and Telus argue that new competitors now have enough spectrum in their holdings resulting from the previous spectrum auctions.
“New competitors have now secured both low-band (700 MHz) and higher-band spectrum (AWS-1, AWS-3 and 2500 MHz). It is now…
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TORONTO – Amidst reports that Rogers and Telus are battling to acquire Mobilicity, the owners and employees of the struggling wireless provider said Monday that have made an offer to Industry Canada and the federal government to acquire Mobilicity’s current subscribers, dealers, and partial infrastructure by setting up a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) relationship with any potential acquirer.
Obelysk Inc., the holding company of Mobilicity founder John Bitove, issued a statement saying that it wants to maintain the Mobilicity brand in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa where it currently operates, retain its 155,000 subscribers and current dealer network of…
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TORONTO – Former National Post reporter Natalie Alcoba has been named as managing editor of Vice News Canada, the latest Vice territory to establish a dedicated news team following launch of Vice News in the U.S, the U.K, France and Spain.
Alcoba will report for Vice News and oversee the editorial content, managing a team of staff and freelance writers across Canada.
In addition, Allya Davidson was named producer of Vice News Canada. Previously an associate producer at CBC’s The Fifth Estate and film production company Clover Films, she will work closely with the Canadian production and editorial teams to produce original…
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OTTAWA – Despite a drop in prices for many high-volume talk, text and data plans, Canada’s mobile wireless prices once again rank among the highest when compared to other G7 countries and Australia, according to an annual report commissioned by Industry Canada and the CRTC.
Prepared by Ottawa’s Wall Communications, the 2015 edition of Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions is an annual telecom services price comparison study that combines and averages wireline, mobile wireless, broadband Internet, and mobile Internet service rates, as well as bundles of these services along with basic digital TV…
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TORONTO – In a move that it says comes in response to recent cuts in Italian-language programming on Canadian airwaves (hello, OMNI), TLN said Thursday that it is working on a new daily show for its Mediaset Italia channel.
While the details are still under wraps, TLN said that the show will be an original Italian-language current affairs and news program which it intends to launch this fall. TLN president Aldo Di Felice told Cartt.ca he's hopeful he can collaborate with Rogers on the production and airing of the new show, which is still in the planning stages.
“Mediaset Italia Canada…
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THERE ARE TWO Canadian TV carriers who offer Netflix to their customers directly via their advanced television set top boxes: Cogeco Cable and Telus Optik TV.
After seeing a recent demo of Optik TV’s impressive capabilities and living with the Cogeco TiVo system for several months, it’s become impossible to imagine what all the other carriers could possibly be waiting for. Offering Netflix to existing customers this way is an utter slam dunk.
While my wife was once ambivalent about our cable subscription and asked repeatedly if it was worth what we pay, I’d have to move into my…
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