By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers is asking Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice to force Telus to continue fulfilling its obligations under existing wireless roaming terms with the cable company while the two competitors wrangle over terms of a proposed agreement.
Rogers is alleging in the August 14 filing that Telus is threatening to cease providing certain wireless services to it as a result of a dispute “over a particular term” in a proposed bilateral wireless agreement that is before arbitration. The particulars of the commercial dispute are not outlined in the complaint.
“TELUS has threatened to terminate Rogers’ access to certain…
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By Connie Thiessen
Former Rogers Communications CEO Joe Natale is suing for wrongful dismissal and breach of contract over his ouster during the 2021 family power struggle for control of the company led by Edward Rogers.
Natale’s statement of claim, filed in Ontario Superior Court last week, seeks $24 million in damages, including $4 million related to an unpaid bonus due upon closure of Rogers’ acquisition of Shaw Communications, under terms of his employment contract.
A former Telus CEO, Natale served as Rogers’ CEO from 2017 to Nov. 2021, when current President & CEO Tony Staffieri was appointed to the role.
The suit…
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By Connie Thiessen
Colleagues, friends and competitors are remembering Phil Lind today. The longtime Rogers Communications executive and Vice Chair of its board passed away Sunday at age 80.
Retired Shaw Communications President Peter Bissonnette was among those processing news of Lind’s death, which he only learned of in the wee hours of Monday morning after spending a long day on the road to Calgary to escape the ongoing wildfire situation in Kelowna.
(l-r): Former Shaw Communications President Peter Bissonnette, Phil Lind, and Astral Media co-founder Ian Greenberg,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers is urging the Supreme Court of Canada to review a decision by the CRTC declining to regulate wireless attachments on municipal structures, arguing that carriers would otherwise have “no recourse” with the regulator on that critical access required for the next generation 5G rollout.
Rogers filed a two-page argument on Monday backing Telus’s application for leave at the high court after the Federal Court of Appeal ruled in April that a lower court got it right when it said Parliament intended a reference to “transmission line” in the Telecommunications Act to literally…
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‘Large number’ of Bell subscribers tried accessing unauthorized NHL streamers, telco said
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers said viewership on its official channels increased after it was ordered by the Federal Court to block unauthorized streamers of National Hockey League games during the 2022-2023 season.
The Federal Court ordered service providers to block access to unlicenced streamers of the games. As part of the order, the court required a report on the lessons from the block within 60 days of the final NHL game, which occurred on June 13. The deadline, therefore, was this week.
In an affidavit filed to the court…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – An order in council published Monday will direct the CRTC to include modified shopping channels from the United States on a list of authorized foreign programming services available on Canadian television.
The order amends a three-year-old one that only directed the CRTC to list unmodified U.S. home shopping programming, which is specific to the U.S. market. The orders are part of an agreement between the countries under the new Canada United States and Mexica (CUSMA) free trade agreement, which replaced NAFTA under former U.S. President Donald Trump.
The order amends the direction to the CRTC “respecting the…
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OTTAWA – WildBrain has filed a heavily redacted Part 1 application accusing Bell of disadvantaging its children’s programming to the benefit of Corus in the English-language markets.
“The origin of this application is the disadvantageous treatment of the WildBrain Services by Bell,” alleges the application, which is nearly entirely redacted. “We do wish to note, however, that by creating this disadvantage for the WildBrain services, Bell is providing a direct advantage to the sole direct competitor to these services in English markets.”
The application is in relation to the distribution of Family Channel, Family Jr., WildBrain TV, and Telemagino.
The company said…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL — Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau declared Thursday that the Canadian market is in a “different world” following the company’s acquisition of Freedom, as it saw good reception to its new wireless offers that are expected to heat up the promotional period later this year.
“The market suddenly became more competitive in Ontario,” Peladeau said during a second-quarter earnings conference call with analysts Thursday. “We should not be surprised.”
“We can’t completely anticipate what will take place in the future, but this is certainly where we are today — a different world,…
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Large cuts hark back to time Telus threatened 5,000 cuts during wireless review
By Ahmad Hathout
Telus announced Friday it is cutting 6,000 jobs across its telecom and information technology business, which president and CEO Darren Entwistle partly attributed to getting ahead of regulatory changes.
The job losses are split across Telus and its IT business Telus International, with losses of 4,000 at the former and 2,000 at the latter.
“It is with heavy heart that we are seeking to reduce 6,000 staff positions across our global footprint,” Telus said in its second-quarter results release, adding it is also “offering early retirement and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Thursday that the telecom has a tiny amount of lead cables left in its network as it moves toward replacing the legacy cables with fibre, following a report from the Wall Street Journal last month that alleged the toxic substance was lingering in America’s telecommunications cables.
The Journal report alleges when the cables still in service degrade, the lead spreads to the surrounding environment, allegedly posing a health hazard. AT&T, working with regulators, has since denied the health hazard claims related to its own cables and has suspended the removal of them from…
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