TORONTO – Mobilicity introduced both U.S. and global roaming to over 60 countries for its customers travelling beyond Canadian borders.
Monday’s announcement detailed that Mobilicity customers in the U.S. will pay a flat-rated $0.25 per minute on calls to Canada. In comparison, the announcement continued, Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Telus Mobility charge consumers an approximate average of $1.30 per minute.
Global roaming is now available in many European countries, India, the U.K and Mexico, among others. Calls, texts, and data sessions are charged on a pay-per-use basis and customers will require funds in My Wallet, the company’s dedicated personal depository,…
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BRACEBRIDGE, Ont. – It’s taken a while to dole out the millions of dollars the federal government set aside to fund broadband expansion to rural areas in Canada.
That has led some telecom industry insiders to tell Cartt.ca Industry Canada, which is in charge of the Broadband Canada fund, is having difficulty finding enough places which remain unserved by Canadian broadband providers upon which to spend the money.
However, after Saturday’s announcement of the third wave of funding, $152 million of the $225 million available has been spoken for and Minister Tony Clement told Cartt.ca in an interview Saturday the…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced late Thursday that it has spent $75 million on voting shares of Cogeco Cable and Cogeco Inc.
Rogers Communications is acquiring the subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Cable (892,250 of them) at a cash purchase price, excluding commissions, of $43.98 per share, for aggregate consideration of $39.2 million. As for Cogeco Inc., Rogers has agreed to purchase 946,900 shares for $35.7 million.
Rogers already owns a large stake of the company’s voting and non-voting shares. The Cogeco Cable shares being acquired represent approximately 2.7% of the subordinate voting shares and after these purchases, Rogers will own…
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TORONTO – If Canada is going to deliver broadband nationwide – connecting a growing plethora of products – we need to move forward immediately on the next wireless spectrum auction, Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed said on Wednesday.
In a speech at the Economic Club of Toronto and later speaking to reporters, Mohamed implored the federal government to move the auction of the 700 MHz block of spectrum especially with greater alacrity. He also asked Industry Canada to make sure the auction is without the set-aside rules favouring newcomers which was used in the last spectrum sell-off in 2008 that…
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WINNIPEG – MTS Allstream continued to record modest growth for its MTS TV product, broadband and wireless for its third quarter ended September 30, 2010.
Digital TV revenues increased by 10.2% for the quarter based on 6.4% subscriber growth and increased ARPU. MTS Ultimate TV, which is the company’s premium television service, now represents 34% of its TV customer base.
At the end of the third quarter, the company had more than 30,000 subscribers to its MTS Ultimate TV service, as compared to approximately 25,000 at the end of the second quarter of 2010. In total, it reported 89,604 digital…
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GATINEAU – The small incumbent telcos in Ontario lashed out at the cable companies during the rebuttal phase of the obligation to serve hearing Wednesday, telling the CRTC that it has no business taking any advice from them because they have never had an obligation to serve any community.
Tracy Cant, director of finance and regulatory matters at Ontera, told commissioners that the small incumbent local exchange carriers (SILECs) have respected the regulatory bargain that their costs would be covered for serving their communities. The cable companies, he noted, have not had an obligation to serve for “one single…
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OTTAWA – The country’s largest cable companies want the CRTC to treat them the same as Bell and Telus. At least, as far as the Commission’s rules on speed matching go.
In a petition submitted to Cabinet last week, Cogeco, Quebecor on behalf of Videotron, Rogers and Shaw asked that the Governor in Council vary, rescind, or refer back to the Commission its decision on Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-632 issued on August 30, 2010.
That decision, as Cartt.ca reported, was based on a public proceeding launched in May 2009 to consider whether incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) and cable…
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GATINEAU – Perhaps not a full U-turn, but the CRTC did alter the way it allows Bell Canada to implement usage-based billing on certain wholesale gateway access service (GAS) customers. And small ISPs believe the Commission made the wrong decision.
Speaking with Cartt.ca on the floor of the CRTC’s obligation to serve hearing in Gatineau, Michael Garbe, president of Accelerated Connections Inc. (ACI), says the decision (an approval of Bell Canada’s request to review and vary the original decision) will still create serious trouble for the small and medium business Internet provider.
“It absolutely creates a significant negative impact on…
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GATINEAU – Expanding the basic service objective to include broadband would have substantial negative financial impacts on their businesses, a group of small independent ISPs told the CRTC on Monday during the fourth day of hearings into the obligation to serve and other telecom matters.
This is the second week of the hearing, which moved back to Gatineau after three days in Timmins, Ont.
David Buffet, president of Radiant Communications Corp., said that creating a new subsidy regime to fund broadband expansion would turn a slight profit the company generated in 2009 to a net loss. Revenue…
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TORONTO – While subscriber numbers are being held back for now and legal challenges from its competition are in progress, wireless brand chatr has gained a strong foothold in the Canadian market as it heads into a crucial two-month sales stretch, according to Garrick Tiplady, chatr’s senior vice-president.
“We’re not releasing (subscriber numbers) now but what I can say is we’re quite pleased with the results – and when you step back… we’re seeing strong results across the country in all the markets we’ve launched in,” Tiplady said in an interview Tuesday afternoon with Cartt.ca.
Chatr is so far…
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