OTTAWA – If you ask anyone on the regulatory side of this industry, they’ll tell you that Bob Buchan and Peter Grant are two of the most admired legal minds in the country.
Together, Buchan, of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin and Grant, of McCarthy Tetrault, created and organized the Law Society of Upper Canada’s New Developments in Communications Law and Policy Conference, held every two years in Ottawa. It’s a must-attend for those working the regulatory trenches in Ottawa.
As stewardship of the conference has been handed over to co-chairs Grant Buchanan of McCarthy Tetrault and Laurence Dunbar of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin,…
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TORONTO – After less than stellar first quarter financial results, Rogers’ president and CEO Nadir Mohamed refused to rule out the possibility of more staff layoffs.
At the company’s annual general meeting with shareholders in Toronto on Wednesday, Mohamed said that he expects 2012 to continue as a year of “competitive intensity”, making cost management “absolutely imperative”.
“We have a disciplined plan of action”, he said. “In the short term, this means more aggressively managing our costs. It also means remaining absolutely focused on our strategic game plan. This includes strengthening our core business, generating new streams of revenue growth, and…
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TORONTO – Rogers blamed “highly competitive markets” for first quarter declines in both revenue and profits.
Consolidated financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2012 saw revenue dip 1% to $2.95 billion from $2.99 billion in same period last year, while adjusted profits fell 16% to $356 million from $423 million.
Despite a 16% increase in wireless data revenue and the second highest number of smart phone activations in any quarter in its history, Rogers Wireless network revenue was virtually flat as customers opted for cheaper “entry level” data pricing plans and new outbound data roaming packages.
Wireless activated and…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada is proposing to switch from a single licence auction format to one where bidders would place a single bid on a package of licences. The department released its proposed 700 MHz licensing framework on Wednesday afternoon.
This new format, called a combinatorial clock auction (CCA), would enable a bidder to bid on a specific set of licences, or a package. This is different from the previously used simultaneous multiple round ascending (SMRA) auction where each bidder had to place bids on all the individual licences it wanted.
There are a number of benefits…
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OTTAWA – Small local telephone companies operating in rural regions of Ontario and Quebec have enjoyed special protection from competition for long enough and now is the time to open up their markets to cable competitors, its competitors and potential competitors have told the Governor-in-Council.
The Ontario Telecommunications Association (OTA) and the Association des Compagnies de Téléphone du Québec Inc. (ACTQ) fear that if their markets are fully opened to competition, they will suffer severe financial impacts that could put them out of business (as they have noted on Cartt.ca). They are urging the Governor-in-Council to…
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IT’S BEEN A NUMBER OF months since we last tried to publicly discomfit the Canadian Internet service provider industry over its lack of action on delivering a cohesive, national, inexpensive broadband program to low income urban Canadians.
As we’ve noted, it’s happening south of the border. A program (the creation of private industry done at the urging of the Federal Communications Commission and with zero government money) called Connect 2 Compete allows qualifying low income families to get access to broadband for $9.95 a month as well as to low cost computers and tech support.
In the…
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TORONTO – Travel+Escape HD is available in approximately 1.1 million homes across Canada after launching on Rogers, Cogeco, Telus and EastLink on Tuesday.
Owned by GlassBox Television, the travel and adventure themed channel is available on free preview for the next three months. Viewers will be able to watch programs such as Lonely Planet’s Roads Less Travelled as well as Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover, Fishing Adventurer and Cottage Life, in addition to new commissioned series Destination Fear and Scam City.
“Travel+Escape HD fulfills our commitment to giving our viewers the ultimate entertainment experience,” said programming EVP Vanessa Case, in the announcement. “Being able to watch our quality travel and…
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KENTVILLE, NS – Rogers has signed a $1.2 million agreement with the Valley Community Fibre Network (VCFN) to bring its 4G HSPA+ service to customers in the Maritimes.
Built in 2008, the VCFN is managed by Halifax-based telecommunications company Internetworking Atlantic Inc. The 175-km fibre optic network is jointly owned by the towns of Berwick, Hantsport, Windsor, and Wolfville, the Municipality of the County of Kings, the Municipality of the District of West Hants, Acadia University, and the Nova Scotia Community College, and serves users from the educational, health, research, and business sectors.
According to Monday's announcement, the VCFN agreement is part…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) and Rogers Communications have told the CRTC that they are prepared to accept an extension of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) as long as the program is only available to independent broadcasters.
In addition to excluding the vertically integrated companies and CBC/Radio-Canada, (which has campaigned hard to keep it) the CCSA said that LPIF monies should only be made available for new, incremental local programming. Despite this slight change of heart, the small BDUs would prefer a complete and immediate elimination of the fund.
According to Access Communications,…
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TORONTO – There is no shortage of people who believe, thanks to our exploding new media world, that: “Television is dead”, or some variation of that theme.
At the TV Bureau of Canada’s TV Day, held Thursday at the Carlu in Toronto, broadcasters, agencies and media buyers were given ample reasons to believe that not only is TV not dead, it has never been stronger. Of course, one would expect the TV Bureau and all the broadcasters to scream that from the rooftops because that’s their business, however, the numbers and the work being done, seem to back the notion…
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