OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau has reached an agreement with BCE and Rogers over the wireless rivals’ plan to jointly own independent mobile retailer Glentel's Canadian retail distribution outlets.
The Bureau had previously expressed concerns that the acquisition, announced in December 2014, would likely result in a substantial lessening of competition in the wireless sector. Glentel sells wireless products and services from Bell Mobility, Chatr, Fido, Rogers Wireless, SaskTel and Virgin Mobile at 359 locations across Canada, though in the vast majority of its locations, it only offers the wireless products and services of BCE and Rogers.
Under the consent agreement filed…
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TORONTO – Conference organisers have made available the final 20 delegate passes after initially selling out a month before the event.
They are on sale now on a first-come-first-served basIs. Over 160 delegates are already confirmed to attend to hear keynotes from the CRTC, GroupM, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Bell, Rogers, QMI and many more.
Register to attend the May 20-21st event now. www.futuretv-canada.com.
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OTTAWA – Linda Vennard has been appointed as the CRTC’s Regional Commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and Christopher MacDonald as Regional Commissioner for the Atlantic Region and Nunavut.
They have been appointed for five-year terms, according to an announcement by CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais on Tuesday.
Vennard, who will begin in her new role on May 11, joins the CRTC from the University of Calgary and has 15 years of experience in research focused mainly on broadband and community engagement, science, technology and society, as well as national security and advanced technologies. She holds PhD from the University of Calgary.
MacDonald…
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GATINEAU – New wireless entrants got their wish. The CRTC has concluded that Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp. “have the ability and incentive” to impose wholesale roaming terms, conditions and rates that wouldn’t “prevail in a competitive market” and therefore will regulate their wholesale roaming rates.
Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-177, released on Tuesday, only covers GSM-based networks (which is the tech most run on now).
Even though wholesale roaming caps as established by the federal government in Section 27.1 of the Telecommunications Act last June offered some relief to the new entrants, “the interests of users are not…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications will announce today that its low-cost, pre-paid wireless brand chatr mobile is now available across Canada, and with new plans for customers.
Plans of $25 and up will now include international calling starting at 1 cent per minute to more than 200 countries, which reflects the target demographic of the chatr mobile brand. The bulk of the brand’s customer base are what Rogers calls “life transitioners,” chief chatr head Raj Doshi told Cartt.ca in an interview.
Many of the customers are new Canadians, or new visitors who need connectivity as soon as they get here in order…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will release its hotly anticipated decision on wholesale mobile wireless services late Tuesday.
The Commission will stage a media “lock-up” from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET on May 5 to provide a technical briefing to explain the different elements of the decision. The decision itself will be released at 4:00 PM, followed by a short statement by chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
With the CRTC's sharp consumer focus, most are expecting the decision will see the allowable rates come down, which will bode well for Wind Mobile (and less so for the big three of Telus, Rogers and…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is once again asking the CRTC to prevent streaming service shomi from being offered only to Rogers or Shaw internet customers.
The consumer group filed a new application with the Commission on Monday, after having its previous complaint returned by the Regulator last month in the wake of BRP 2015-86 that proposed establishing a new service category for hybrid VoD services. While PIAC said that it will file comments on that matter, it added that it “had to address lingering problems with the shomi service that likely would not be addressed in the…
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TORONTO – Former Astral and CHUM radio exec Rob Farina is joining Rogers Radio as VP content & programming beginning May 4, the company said Tuesday.
Farina, pictured, will oversee the programming and content on all Rogers radio brands, and will report to SVP Julie Adam.
Most recently co-founder and COO of Los Angeles-based music consultancy Black Box, Farina also served as EVP content & platforms at Astral Media, where he was responsible for programming, digital operations, marketing, and promotions for all 84 stations and brands, including Virgin Radio and Boom. Prior to that, he oversaw the operations of Orbyt Media,…
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GATINEAU – Earlier this month, a group of 14 broadcasters met for the first time to begin figuring out how to develop a subscription television set top box data measurement system.
In its TV Policy Review decision, the CRTC said building such a system would be a very good thing and set a deadline of April 13th for an industry-wide working group to start moving. Representatives from Bell Canada, Blue Ant Media, CBC, Cogeco, Corus, Eastlink, the Independent Broadcasters Group, MTS, Pelmorex, Quebecor, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw and Telus met on April 8th saying in its first…
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NEW YORK and TORONTO – BBC Worldwide North America has named Sandra Mackechnie as vice-president, digital ad sales for BBC.com, Canada.
Mackechnie, pictured, joins the company from Postmedia Network where, as VP digital advertising and strategy and head of digital strategy, she led the corporate digital advertising initiatives, structure and process for all web and mobile platforms. Prior to that, Mackechnie was the director of digital sales at Rogers Digital.
Based in Toronto, Mackechnie will be responsible for generating new business and expanding the existing business across a number of digital platforms and custom creative solution opportunities. She will manage the…
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