TORONTO – Despite deeply discounted pricing, Canada’s new wireless entrants are expected to own only 7% of the wireless market by the end of this year, according to a new report from Convergence Consulting.
Canadian Wireless: Assessing the Impact of New Entrants says that Wind Mobile, Public Mobile and Mobilicity are undercutting incumbents Rogers, Bell and Telus and their discount brands on voice packages by up to 58% and 40% respectively, and on combined voice/data packages by up to 63% and 57% respectively.
In some cases, such as with regional providers like EastLink and Videotron, the incumbents and their discount brands…
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TORONTO – Customers of Sears, Future Shop and Second Cup can now get deals and special offers sent to their phones through Rogers Alerts.
Launched Wednesday, Rogers Alerts is a new location-based mobile solution that allows Rogers wireless customers to access personalized, location-based offers from their favourite retailers on their smartphone. The platform requires retailers and other businesses to create virtual fences called geofences around their physical locations. When a mobile device on the Rogers wireless network is within the geofenced area, registered subscribers will receive exclusive and targeted offers via text message (SMS).
Rogers Alerts will only be sent to…
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TORONTO – Cineflix Media on July 25 surprised the production industry by saying it was restructuring as it pulls back from Canada to focus on the U.S. and U.K. markets. The reason given for the pivot was an "in-depth evaluation of our operations and our broadcasting client requirements."
Translation: Cineflix Media's business model on the factual side to create original series and intellectual property (IP) and sell those shows worldwide is being undermined by localized format adaptations like Big Brother Canada and Amazing Race Canada both of which have been hits for their Canadian broadcasters. "The general consensus in the…
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TORONTO – Rogers is offering its U.S. bound customers wireless roaming rates with AT&T.
The deal makes Rogers the first Canadian carrier to offer LTE speeds to customers while they’re roaming in the U.S. Prior to this, Canadians travelling Stateside roamed on 2G/3G wireless technology.
"We are pleased to build on our long-standing relationship with AT&T and continue our history of industry firsts by offering customers access to LTE roaming when travelling in the U.S.," said John Boynton, Rogers’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer, in the announcement. “With this relationship, our customers can enjoy uninterrupted access to blazing fast wireless…
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TORONTO – Rogers is set to invest more than $700 million in Alberta over the next four years to further expand its network infrastructure and retail presence in the province, plus take on the role of official telecommunications sponsor of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
Rogers said Tuesday that starting this year, it will roll out its LTE network in more communities and increase its overall coverage sites in the province by 40%; open “dozens” of new retail locations; offer Alberta's business community new machine-to-machine and connected solutions plus expanded data capacity; and, increase its contributions to local communities and youth initiatives.
The company…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium has filed an application with the CRTC asking that a number of new regulations be applied to cable company ISPs who are not fairly treating its members acting as third party internet access providers.
The independent TPIAs (such as Teksavvy, Primus and Telnet) who provide internet service to their customers by purchasing wholesale high speed access service from the likes of Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron say that either through malice or indifference their businesses are being seriously harmed by the cable companies and the CRTC must step in.
“This is necessary because ISPs,…
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TORONTO – Nataline Rodrigues has left the CBC to take on the role of director of original programming at Rogers Media starting October 1st.
Rodrigues (pictured) will manage the submission, development, and production of original Canadian programming for all Rogers Media non-sports television brands. In addition to working with the independent community to evaluate pitches and proposals for both development and production, she will oversee the current slate of original series including Package Deal, Seed, Storage Wars Canada, The Project: Guatemala, Mother Up!, and The Bachelor Canada. Rodrigues will report to VP of programming & content Hayden Mindell.
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TORONTO – Rogers is rolling out the country’s first all-you-can-read subscription digital magazine service next month which will offer tablet users unlimited access to a catalogue of more than 100 Canadian and U.S. titles.
Known as Next Issue Canada, the service will cost $9.99 per month and will feature Rogers publications such as Maclean's, Chatelaine, Today's Parent, Sportsnet and Canadian Business alongside access to U.S. titles such as Vogue, GQ, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and Time. In conjunction with the launch of Next Issue Canada, Rogers's magazine titles will be available to U.S. subscribers of Next Issue.
Next Issue Canada launches October 15 on iPads,…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications and Sprint Corp. said Thursday that they are teaming up on an in-car infotainment and telematics system in Canada that will offer services such as high-speed Internet to drivers as early as next year.
Auto manufacturers that install Sprint Velocity in Canada will use Rogers' wireless networks to provide connected services including infotainment (news, weather, sports), navigation, climate control, security, emergency services and vehicle diagnostics via an in-dash touch screen. Sprint Velocity also provides connectivity for mobile devices in the car.
"Canadians want to be connected from anywhere, at any time, and with over twenty million vehicles on…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications’ Mansell Nelson says it wasn’t that long ago when Canadian businesses struggled to grasp the concept of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology, and what it could do for them. However, the vice-president of advanced business solutions said that has changed, and that companies now come to him with fresh ideas.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of people looking at existing ways of doing things (in their business) and saying, ‘how do I use wireless to change that? How do I use wireless to save money by doing it that way?’,” he told delegates at the Canadian Wireless…
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