TORONTO, MONTREAL and CALGARY – Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Inc. announced today they have signed a definitive agreement for the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile to Quebecor subsidiary Videotron.
The definitive agreement is “substantially consistent” with what was announced with regards to the sale back in June, according to a press release. It still needs to be cleared under the Competition Act and by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and is contingent on the close of the merger of Rogers and Shaw, which itself still needs approval under the Competition Act and from the…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – More information is being sought on how the recent nationwide Rogers outage impacted the company’s deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind (DHHDB) customers and wholesale customers.
Late last month, Rogers submitted a report to the CRTC with answers to a series of questions about the network outage that started July 8, the publicly available version of which was heavily redacted.
Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement (CDGM) and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition (DHH Coalition), the latter of which includes Deafness Advocacy Association Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf, and Ontario Association of the…
Continue Reading
Calls claim of confidentiality for certain things “ridiculous on its face”
OTTAWA – Consumer advocacy group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) today filed a request with the CRTC asking for the disclosure of additional information from the documents Rogers Communications filed with it in relation to the company’s nationwide outage last month.
“PIAC submits that Rogers’ response has excessively redacted critical information that the public requires to understand what occurred during the outage and how Rogers plans to mitigate future risks and harms – and to make consumer choices based on these answers and otherwise protect their…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The owner of OneSoccer, Timeless Inc., has filed a part one application with the CRTC alleging Rogers Cable is in breach of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations by refusing to carry the dedicated Canadian soccer channel on its cable systems.
Timeless claims despite a “surge in popularity and success for Canadian soccer” Rogers has denied OneSoccer carriage. Its application indicates only Telus customers can currently receive it (although the channel is also available as a direct-to-consumer OTT offering and is available on Fubo TV in Canada).
Timeless argues Rogers will not carry OneSoccer as a cable channel because it has…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and CALGARY — Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and the Shaw Family Living Trust today announced they have extended the outside date of the proposed $26-billion merger of Rogers and Shaw to Dec. 31, 2022.
The outside date for closing the merger has already been extended twice before by the companies from the original date of March 15, 2022. The closing extension comes as the most recently announced outside date of July 31, 2022 was fast approaching.
The new outside date “may be further extended to January 31, 2023 at the option of Rogers or Shaw, provided Rogers has committed financing…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — Rogers Communications today reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2022, while also announcing the outside date for its proposed merger with Shaw Communications has been extended to Dec. 31, 2022.
In addition, when releasing its results for the second quarter, the company announced the estimated cost of compensating its customers for its recent nationwide network outage is $150 million. These customer credits will be included in Rogers’ third quarter 2022 operating results, according to a press release announcing the company’s Q2 2022 results.
Rogers also plans “to spend more on our wireless and wireline networks…
Continue Reading
IT HAS NOW BEEN over two weeks since the start of Rogers Communications’ nationwide network outage, which impacted the company’s phone, Internet and cable subscribers – some, for days.
Rogers’ president and CEO Tony Staffieri has issued an apology and attributed the outage to “a network system failure following a maintenance update in our core network”, the company submitted a detailed report to the CRTC about what happened, and a House of Commons standing committee spent the day yesterday hearing from witnesses about the outage – what went wrong, why and what needs to be done…
Continue Reading
BELL CANADA’S PRESIDENT and CEO Mirko Bibic (above) posted an explanation of how Bell configures its networks on LinkedIn late Monday night.
The post followed the appearance of Rogers Communications executives at the House of Commons standing committee on industry and technology earlier in the day, during which they explained the cause of Rogers’ nationwide network outage on July 8.
“As more details emerge regarding the root cause of Rogers’ network outage, it’s important for us to outline to Canadians how Bell’s networks are configured differently,” Bibic wrote in his post.
“Bell’s wireless and wireline networks use different network infrastructures so…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House of Commons INDU committee heard from a series of witnesses today about the July 8 Rogers Communications outage that impacted Canadians across the country, including those trying to access emergency services.
Both meetings the committee decided to hold before the end of July were held today back-to-back.
First among the witnesses there were older white men in suits including François-Philippe Champagne, minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. While the soon fired Rogers CTO, Jorge Fernandes was in Portugal, the minister was in Japan when he heard in the middle of the night…
Continue Reading
Includes physically separating wireless and Internet services
TORONTO — In a letter to customers published Sunday on Rogers Communications’ website, company president and CEO Tony Staffieri outlined the steps the telecom is taking “to learn from” its nationwide network outage earlier this month “and deliver the reliable network you should expect from Rogers.”
Calling it the company’s “Enhanced Reliability Plan”, Staffieri said Rogers is making changes and investments to ensure a network outage like this doesn’t happen again, as part of a personal commitment he pledged in a previous letter posted to the Rogers website shortly after the…
Continue Reading
