TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced late Thursday evening the company's president and CEO, Nadir Mohamed, has decided to retire in January 2014.
Mohamed was named CEO shortly after legendary company founder Ted Rogers died in late 2008. He began his communications career more than 30 years ago and joined Rogers in August 2000. He was president and CEO of Rogers Wireless from 2001 to 2005 and was appointed president and COO of Rogers Communications Group in 2005. Prior to joining Rogers, Mohamed spent 19 years at BC Tel (and later, Telus, when BC Tel was purchased).
"Nadir is a highly regarded…
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OTTAWA – Responding to the growing use of mobile devices, the Greater Toronto Area beginning March 25, 2013 will be getting two new area codes says the Telecommunications Alliance (Bell, Rogers, Telus and Vidéotron). In Toronto, the 437 area code will be added to the 416/647 area codes. In the 905/289 region, the 365 area code will be introduced.
The new 437 and 365 area codes will provide additional telephone numbers with no impact on existing telephone numbers says the alliance. The new area codes will coexist with the current ones and will come…
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GATINEAU – Upstart wireless operator EastLink had its opportunity to address the contentious issue of a mandatory $50 cap on overage charges on customers bills as a way to prevent bill shock on day three of the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct hearing.
The Commission’s draft wireless code calls for a cap on additional fees of $50 (usually driven by data usage), but also says that once the cap is hit, the service provider is to suspend all service so that no more charges are incurred.
“We feel basically a cap is just not necessary or necessarily…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association urged the CRTC to take national responsibility for regulating consumer cell phone contracts. The CWTA made the comments during the first day of hearings into a wireless code of conduct.
Canadians “would be best served by a single set of regulations, not today’s patchwork of provincial laws, regulations, guidelines and interpretation bulletins,” said CWTA president and CEO Bernard Lord. He urged the Commission to adopt a code that “supersedes any current or future provincial legislation in this area.”
Under questioning, the CWTA said multiple pieces of guidelines, codes or legislation will only increase costs…
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VANCOUVER – Sportsnet will air up to 60 Vancouver Canuck regular season games each season as part of 10-year partnership extension with the Vancouver Canucks through the 2022/23 NHL season. The deal continues Sportsnet’s 14-year history as the regional television broadcaster of Canucks hockey.
The new agreement, which begins with the 2013/14 season, features a comprehensive suite of multimedia rights including television, online and mobile. In addition, Canucks This Week, the 30-minute weekly show providing in-depth coverage of the team throughout the season, will also continue as part of…
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GATINEAU – CRTC commissioners said they are concerned Canadian wireless companies are overcharging their customers when the device subsidy is paid off and there isn’t a corresponding drop in their monthly bill.
On Tuesday morning during day two of the Wireless Code of Conduct hearing, chairman Jean-Pierre Blais wondered if Telus customers who have paid off their device subsidy will see a reduction in their monthly bill. The company said it doesn’t happen automatically and consumers have to request it.
David Fuller, chief marketing officer at the “future is friendly” wireless operator, said customers can see a bill reduction, but only…
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TORONTO – Roam free? Well, not quite, but Rogers Communications promises it will soon launch new, more affordable, roaming rate for customers travelling to the United States. Rogers says it will lead the market with a new easy and worry-free roaming solution designed for Canadians travelling to the U.S.
Coming this spring, the company is introducing a new $7.99 pay-per-use roaming rate that gives customers access to 50 megabytes of data over a 24 hour period while travelling in the U.S. This new rate, available to consumers and businesses, gives customers nearly twice the data…
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INDUSTRIES CONSOLIDATE. All industries. That’s the natural growth path. The big get bigger. If you doubt that, check the retail, mining, automotive, heck, any sector. Shareholders decide to divest, or need to divest and sell to the highest bidder. Sometimes they go bust. That’s our global economy.
So at this point, we have to accept the fact that unless we are going to slap some mighty regulations on wireless, all but nationalize the networks and force-feed Canadians many carriers (all of whom would then be undercapitalized weaklings), our market is not going to develop any more telecom companies. It’s too…
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TORONTO – With the addition of Astral Media and Cineplex Entertainment, the Canadian Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX), now reaches more than 20 Million unique Canadians monthly. They join founding partners CBC/Radio-Canada, Shaw Media, Rogers Media as well as Corus, V and Télé-Québec in the initiative.
The online, real-time bidding exchange service provides advertisers and agencies with access to premium digital inventory. Nationally CPAX says it offers an efficient and cost-effective means of reaching targeted audiences with premium inventory across leading Canadian brands in both English and French, a reach that now exceeds more than 20…
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IT SEEMS OBVIOUS NOW that the federal government’s attempt at building more competition into the Canadian wireless market has been a failure.
With the benefit of hindsight, looking back at how the Canadian wireless market has evolved since the 2008 advanced wireless spectrum auction, I keep wondering: “what did the federal government think was going to happen?” Back then, in an ill-advised attempt to foster more competition to the burgeoning wireless market in Canada, the federal government offered any Canadian-led wireless newcomer a leg-up in that auction, setting aside spectrum that was just for newbies willing to gamble on becoming…
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