OTTAWA – Should there be spectrum caps for incumbents? Set asides for smaller companies? If so, what should they be? Should we align our bandwidth plan with the United States? Should we hold the 2500 MHz auction at the same time as the 700 MHz spectrum auction? How much spectrum should be set aside for public safety agencies? Does there need to be government intervention in rural regions? How will any new foreign investment rules affect the auction?
These are just some of the questions Industry Canada has asked the Canadian wireless industry in the paper it released late Tuesday:…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s top two communications industry regulators lamented the fact that they don’t have the appropriate tools to deal with a rapidly changing marketplace.
CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and Helen McDonald, assistant deputy minister at Industry Canada, were speaking on a panel of regulators at the International Institute of Communications annual conference in Ottawa earlier this week (where Cartt.ca was the media sponsor).
McDonald said that for the department to more effectively manage scarce spectrum resources, legislative changes are in order. She pointed to secondary market trading for spectrum as an area that would run much more efficiently…
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TORONTO – Rogers has agreed to purchase for cancellation 1,200,000 of its outstanding Class B non-voting shares for an aggregate purchase price of $40,761,720, which it says is at a discount to the current market price of the Class B shares.
The transaction represents approximately 0.26% of the Class B shares outstanding at October 31, 2010. Rogers said last week that it had agreed to buy back an additional 1.3 million Class B shares.
Pursuant to a private agreement between Rogers and an arm’s-length third party seller, the purchase was made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by the…
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TORONTO – A 13.5% increase in self-paying subscribers contributed to XM Canada’s “sound” financial performance for fiscal 2010.
Self-paying subscribers totaled 432,200 as of August 31, 2010, up from 380,900 in the same period last year.
Average monthly subscription revenue per subscriber (ARPU) was $11.28 and $11.74 for the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2009, respectively, and $11.21 and $11.88 for fiscal 2010 and 2009, respectively. The company said that ARPU declined in the fourth quarter of 2010 and in fiscal 2010 due primarily to an increase in automotive self-paying subscribers which have a lower ARPU, an increase in subscribers committing…
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OTTAWA – Perhaps too much was expected of Industry Minister Tony Clement’s speech at the International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference on Monday.
Post-speech, we were asked by our tablemates for an initial headline. Our first response? “Meh”.
To be fair, there are a range of complex items on the minister’s plate that reaches into the telecom, content and digital industry, from new copyright bill C-32, to foreign ownership, to spectrum concerns, to rural broadband to the digital economy strategy launched in May that will touch every industry when it is released this spring.
The hope heading into his Monday…
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OTTAWA – Calling the wireless contracts from Rogers, Bell and Telus “anti-consumer”, Mobilicity has launched a national push for new laws that would make some of the contract terms offered by wireless carriers illegal.
Such a law already limiting wireless contracts exists in Quebec (although it’s really a larger consumer protection law that doesn’t target cell phones) and a private members’ bill on the same topic is now before the Ontario legislature.
In letters to Industry Minister Tony Clement as well as to the B.C., Alberta and Ontario provincial governments – the other provinces where Mobilicity has spectrum (consumer…
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OTTAWA – After a two month investigation, the Competition Bureau announced today it has begun legal proceedings against Rogers Communications to stop what the Bureau says is misleading advertising of Rogers’ Chatr discount wireless brand.
The company’s national campaign for new discount brand Chatr promises "fewer dropped calls than new wireless carriers" and have "no worries about dropped calls”. The new wireless carriers didn’t care for the new Rogers brand, or the campaign – and they have launched various legal proceedings on their own. Wind Mobile actually filed the complaint that led to this investigation and outcome.
The…
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TORONTO – Rogers has agreed to purchase for cancellation 1,300,000 of its outstanding Class B non-voting shares for an aggregate purchase price of $44,515,380, which is at a discount to the current market price of the Class B shares.
The transaction represents approximately 0.29% of the Class B shares outstanding at October 31, 2010.
Pursuant to a private agreement between Rogers and an arm’s-length third party seller, the purchase was made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission.
www.rogers.com
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JAY SWITZER IS ABOUT to find out if Canadians want to accept an invite into his new Hollywood Suite.
That’s the name Switzer, the former CHUM Ltd. CEO, and David Kines, another former CHUM executive (who was EP of the just-wrapped Gemini Awards) have given their new company, which is about to launch four new high definition movie channels: dubbed at their license approvals: Velocity, The Love Channel, Kiss, and Adventure.
The independent broadcaster will officially launch in the coming days, announcing key people, branding and programming, aiming at an April 2011 launch with Canadian carriers.
Switzer and…
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OTTAWA – Well known communications lawyer Chris Johnston died Tuesday at his home in Ottawa. Johnston, 75, was diagnosed with cancer in April this year.
Johnston was appointed as General Counsel of the CRTC in 1974. In 1980, he partnered with Robert Buchan and Charles Dalfen to found the Ottawa-based telecommunications law firm of Johnston & Buchan LLP. That firm merged with Fasken Martineau in April 2007. While he officially retired in 2007, Johnston remained as a consultant to Shaw Communications over the last few years. In addition to Shaw, Johnston also counted WIC, Cancom, TSN, BC Tel, Pelmorex and…
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