Search Results for: rogers

Cable / Telecom News

Rogers fires back at Wind over domestic roaming comments

TORONTO – “It was not a take or leave it situation,” Ken Engelhart, senior VP of regulatory at Rogers Communications Inc., says of the roaming agreement the company signed with new entrant Wind Mobile. In an interview with Cartt.ca Wednesday, he rebutted a number of the points that Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer at Wind, made during an appearance before the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications on Tuesday. It’s simply not true that Wind had no choice but to accept the agreement it did, Engelhart says. “I disagree very strongly with the notion that this… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Rogers, Scotiabank ink six-year NHL media sponsorship agreement

TORONTO – Rogers has drafted Scotiabank as the first major sponsor of its mammoth $5.2 billion NHL rights deal. Financial terms of the deal, which begins with the 2014-15 season and runs through 2019-20, were not disclosed.  The agreement includes Scotiabank as title sponsor of Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey on Sportsnet; a presenting sponsor of Sunday Night Hockey on City; title sponsor of Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada; presence during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final; plus an opportunity for Scotiabank-sponsored minor hockey teams to introduce Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night. As part of the deal, Scotiabank and Rogers… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Wind’s Lockie lambastes Rogers in front of Senate committee

OTTAWA – “A suitable framework” and “a good interim measure” were the words Simon Lockie, chief regulatory officer at Wind Mobile, used to describe the federal government’s domestic wireless roaming plan as proposed in amendments to the Telecommunications Act during an appearance before a Senate committee on Tuesday. In his opening remarks to the Standing Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications, Lockie launched a scathing indictment of not only the negotiations it held with its roaming partner, Rogers Communications, but also the terms of the roaming agreement. He described talks with Rogers as “an artifice of negotiations” that “were… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Guy Laurence, Rogers’ man with the plan aims to make beautiful music, and better spaghetti…

FRIDAY WAS DAY ONE of what looks to be a lengthy upgrade for the company founded by legendary entrepreneur Ted Rogers. New CEO Guy Laurence is the first outside boss to come in as CEO of Rogers Communications Inc. He is someone who never knew Ted before his death in late 2008, never worked for the man whose name is on so many buildings and brands and still casts a long shadow within RCI. The former Vodafone executive is a CEO with an international resume who will bring new, fresh ideas to Rogers, a company many… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Cope says Bell near an announcement on 700 MHz rollout plans

MONTREAL — Bell Canada has begun the rollout of its 700 MHz wireless services across the country and will announce “in the next month or so” the communities across Canada, representing 96 or 97% of the population that will be able to use it by the end of 2015, BCE president and CEO George Cope said Monday. The network upgrade, which will make use of the $565 million worth of spectrum Bell bought in this year’s auction, is just one of many improvements to the company’s services that Cope spoke confidently about in a speech to the Canadian Club of… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CRTC WHOLESALE WIRELESS REVIEW: New entrants pan wholesale services regime while incumbents say more regs would warp competition

GATINEAU – New entrants and would-be wireless providers find themselves trying to again convince the federal telecom regulator that it needs to intervene in the wireless market. At the same time however, the incumbent operators tell the CRTC everything is working just fine as it is. The comments come as the CRTC is studying the wholesale wireless services market with the goal of determining if the market is competitive enough or whether it needs to impose more regulations on roaming, tower and site sharing and others. All interventions can be found here. The public hearing is scheduled for September… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Laurence revamps Rogers organization, unveils new plan for growth

TORONTO – Rogers Communications unveiled a multi-year plan Friday afternoon that it says will “radically improve” its customers’ experience, and enable it to “reaccelerate revenue and cash flow growth relative to its peers”. The plan, dubbed Rogers 3.0, will see the company create separate consumer and enterprise business units, while keeping its existing media business unit.  All customer experience functions, including customer care call centres, field operations, go-to-market and online channels, will be brought together into one team reporting to CEO Guy Laurence. The new structure will be as followes: – Consumer Business Unit: Rob Bruce, president – Enterprise Business Unit: Larry Baldachin, interim… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Rob Bruce out at Rogers

TORONTO – While the entirety of Rogers Communications will find out about the company’s new structure later today, Communications division president Rob Bruce will not be a part of it, the company has announced. In a memo to staff this morning, CEO Guy Laurence said the company’s new alignment “will show we have unpacked a number of portfolios,” however, “Rob Bruce, President of Communications, has decided to leave Rogers to seek his next leadership role,” it reads. “To ensure the transition is seamless, I’ve asked Rob to stay until the end of the year to manage the Consumer Business Unit and… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Boynton, Stoneham depart Rogers; CEO Laurence’s plan for the company will be announced to employees on Friday

TORONTO – Rogers Communications CEO Guy Laurence will get on to the difficult, time-consuming work of building Rogers Communications into the organization he wants when he presents his much-speculated-about plan for the company to employees on Friday. Laurence, the former Vodafone executive, used about five months from his official start date as CEO in December 2013 to travel all over the country, meeting thousands of employees, promising all along he would have a detailed plan – outlining his vision to re-ignite growth – to present to the board in May. Cartt.ca has confirmed that plan was presented and approved by… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Competition Bureau (surprise!) favours greater competition in wireless industry

OTTAWA – The CRTC must address "the incentives" that Canada’s largest mobile wireless companies have to raise their competitors’ wholesale prices, and, offer new entrants help in gaining a foothold in the market. That’s the gist of a submission made public Thursday by the Competition Bureau to the CRTC, in response to the Commission’s review of wholesale mobile wireless services. Noting that mobile wireless companies, particularly new entrants, may need to enter into arrangements with the likes of Bell, Rogers and Telus to obtain certain wholesale mobile wireless services, the Bureau said that the retail market power that these large incumbents wield… Continue Reading