TORONTO – Rogers is offering four new monthly U.S. Travel Packs designed to make roaming even easier and more affordable for its customers.
Valid for up to one month, the packs are aimed at customers travelling to the U.S. for longer periods of time or who want a combination of voice, text and data all in one package. Options include two talk and text only packs for $20 or $40, and two packs that include either 200 MBs or 500 MBs of data, for $40 or $80, respectively.
Customers who elect not to purchase a…
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OTTAWA – Use it or lose it. That was the gist of Industry Minister James Moore’s message to Canadian spectrum holders on Thursday.
Following up on a Throne Speech promise that Canadians living in rural areas have greater access to high-speed Internet services, Minister Moore said that Industry Canada will begin renewing 2300 MHz and 3500 MHz spectrum licences next March, but will deny extension requests from holders whose licence conditions – especially deployment – have not been met.
"Our government will only renew spectrum licences for those holders that have met all conditions of licence. Those that have not used the…
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TORONTO – Rogers Cable is introducing an app that provides on-screen entertainment suggestions based on customers' real-time viewing.
Integrated into the TV viewing experience and accessible in a variety of non-intrusive ways, the Recommendation App for NextBox recommends similar programs based on what customers are currently viewing or just finished watching. Recommendations are accessed in PVR mode, On Demand, through search or live TV listings.
Rogers said that app highlights include:
– Press the "Info" or "Guide" buttons on the remote, scroll over to the information icon and a prompt will appear;
-…
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OTTAWA – In the third quarter of 2013, Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined to add subscription TV customers, thanks to the record growth of IPTV, reversing a trend of cumulative losses in each of the previous three quarters.
New research from Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services shows that the publicly traded TV service providers (cable satellite and telcoTV) added an estimated 14,145 TV subscribers combined in Q3 in what is traditionally a strong quarter for TV subscriber growth – and all of it was a result of record IPTV subscriber…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – Newcap has received CRC approval to sell CHFT-FM in Fort McMurray, AB to Harvard Broadcasting Inc.
This transaction, reported by Cartt.ca last July, is expected to be completed within the next 30 days. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fort McMurray’s radio market includes competitor Rogers, which owns Country 93.3 FM and Rock 97.9 FM. CHFT-FM, which operates as K-Rock 100.5 in Fort McMurray, will join Harvard’s Mix 103.7 FM station in that market.
"This was a unique situation in a market where two stand-alone stations, Newcap's…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – Rogers and Bell were quick to respond to those impacted by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded.
Rogers will donate $50,000 and Bell will offer $100,000 to the Canadian Red Cross to help with relief efforts.
All mobile phone users in Canada can help by donating $5 by texting REDCROSS or ROUGE to shortcode 30333. The Canadian Government will match individual Canadian donations made from November 8 through December 9 to registered Canadian charities supporting relief efforts in the region.
Donations can also be made online at www.redcross.ca,…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada made public the list of fully qualified bidders on Friday and little has changed.
Three applicants who entered the auction process, Birch Hill Equity, Vecima Networks and a numbered Alberta company headed by CCI Wireless CEO Amir Bigloo have withdrawn, leaving a dozen others, all well-known telecom industry players still in the game.
They are: Bell Mobility, Bragg Communications (Eastlink), Feenix Wireless (Mobilicity founder John Bitove is leading this one), Globalive Wireless (whose CEO, Tony Lacavera, runs Wind), MTS, Novus Wireless, Rogers Communications, SaskTel, TBayTel, Telus, The Catalyst Capital Group (one of the original Mobilicity financiers), and…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has parted ways with its senior vice president, corporate and regulatory affairs, Jean Brazeau.
While a company spokesperson confirmed Brazeau is no longer with Shaw, the reasons for his departure are not known at this time. He had worked at Shaw since 2006.
Prior to joining Shaw, Brazeau was SVP regulatory at Call-Net and then at Rogers after the company’s acquisition of Call-Net in 2005. He has also worked at Bell Canada, the Competition Bureau and at Cable & Wireless.
Shaw has listed the job opening, a plum one in the media regulatory space,…
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TORONTO – Rogers is readying its new mobile wallet just in time for the holiday shopping frenzy.
The company said Thursday that its suretap wallet, the first mobile wallet from a carrier in Canada, will be available for download in the coming weeks. Available on select NFC-enabled Android and BlackBerry smartphones, suretap wallet will offer a co-branded virtual Rogers Prepaid MasterCard and gift cards from select national retailers as the first cards available for download.
The suretap wallet promises to deliver a secure mobile payment experience, safely storing payment card information and passcodes on the secure SIM card in select NFC-enabled…
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TORONTO – While radio continues to be a success story in Canada as a strong, vibrant, local media source, “there is always a ‘but’,” Ontario regional commissioner Raj Shoan told delegates to the Ontario Association of Broadcasters Connection conference in Toronto on Thursday.
“Radio does not automatically get to hold its position in the audio marketplace. Other contenders are coming to town,” he cautioned. While streaming radio has not made a big impact here yet with only 13% of Canadians saying they do that, according to Shoan, services like Songza and Rdio (and although he didn’t say it, Canada’s own…
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