Rogers announced Monday the sale of all of its shares in Cogeco to pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
The transaction, worth $829 million, will allow the cable giant to reduce its debt and exit non-core businesses as it focuses on its core competencies, including telecommunications after its acquisition of Shaw.
“This sale further demonstrates our commitment to strengthen our investment grade balance sheet and aggressively reduce our debt leverage ratio,” Tony Staffieri, Rogers president and CEO, said in a press release. “We’re tracking six months ahead on our deleveraging priorities and we’re committed to reducing our debt leverage ratio…
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TORONTO – Corus Entertainment announced Monday a change within its audio division that sees current GTA program manager Rick Lee moving to a new role as senior program manager for London, Kitchener/Guelph and Hamilton, effective Dec. 11.
Lee now reports to Corus’s regional program director, Dave Blezard.
“Rick brings a wealth of radio knowledge to the team west of the GTA, and we are very excited to have him aboard,” says a Corus statement about his appointment.
Lee has been program manager of Corus’s GTA radio stations, including 102.1 the Edge, Q107, Y108 and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The country’s highest court has granted Thursday Telus’s request to hear its case that the CRTC has jurisdiction over wireless access to municipal infrastructure.
The Vancouver-based telecom is appealing from the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision that determined that Parliament did not intend for “transmission line” under section 43 of the CRTC-administered Telecommunications Act to include wireless technologies. Telus has argued that the wireless signals must route back to hard wires anyway.
“By focusing on the point that small cell antennas send and receive wireless signals, the court below failed to appreciate the importance of the physical connections between…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell has filed a trademark for the name “Bell Pure Fibre,” reflecting its drive to connect more homes directly with the advanced technology.
The trademark was filed late last month, according to the trademarks database.
While the telco uses the language “pure fibre” on its website, it is not used as a proper name for the internet packages – instead, it is used to characterize the technology behind the package.
Bell has said that it still has at least five million homes in its…
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TORONTO – The Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN), the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario and Rogers announced Wednesday that Rogers 5G mobile services are now available in 26 more rural communities.
By building 18 new sites and making upgrades to an additional seven existing sites, Rogers is now able to offer 5G mobile services for the first time to residents in parts of the following areas: Renfrew County, Northumberland County, Lennox and Addington County, Haliburton County, Frontenac County, Peterborough County, Hastings County, Lanark County, Leeds and Grenville United Counties, City…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Representatives from CBC/Radio-Canada said Tuesday that its decision Monday to eliminate jobs is one reason why it needs to have access to any base contributions made by online platforms.
The public broadcaster said it was eliminating 600 positions and leaving another 200 vacancies unfilled – amounting to roughly 10 per cent of its full-time equivalent staff of roughly 7,900 – as it undergoes a $125-million cost-cutting measure in fiscal 2024-2025.
“Yesterday was a really difficult day at CBC/Radio-Canada,” Dany Meloul, interim executive vice-president of Radio-Canada, told the commission Tuesday. “And I think that if you see…
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GATINEAU – The Competition Bureau announced Monday it has obtained a court order from the Federal Court requiring Rogers to produce records and information relevant to the bureau’s investigation into the wireless provider’s alleged marketing practices, specifically related to its “unlimited” wireless plans.
“The Bureau’s investigation involves claims made by Rogers when promoting its Infinite wireless phone plans. In particular, the Bureau is examining claims that the plans have unlimited data, when there are allegedly significant reductions in data speed, known as throttling, after a subscriber reaches a certain data…
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Telecoms note spectrum cap kept prices reasonable
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada released the results of the 3.8 GHz spectrum auction Thursday, with Cogeco getting a piece as it prepares mobile wireless market entry and Quebecor capturing a slice for its western Canada push.
Telus took home the largest number of licences with 1430 for a price of $620 million to cover 33 million Canadians. Bell was next with a spend of $518 million for 939 licences with expected population coverage of 34.6 million Canadians. Rogers spent $475 million for 860 licences with expected population coverage of 35 million. Videotron…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Netflix floated the idea Thursday that the commission could tie any required foreign financial contribution to Canadian content funds to planned investments rather than previous year’s revenues to encourage spending in the country.
“Rather than tying the percentages to revenue them to expected expenditure or planned expenditure, and so every dollar you earn doesn’t necessarily translate into a trade-off between operating income or profit and contribution to the system,” said Dean Garfield, the streaming company’s vice president of public policy.
“It creates that incentive to actually invest and grow without worrying that, ‘oh…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A representative from music and podcast streaming service Spotify told the CRTC Wednesday that the platform hopes the idea that online streamers should make a base financial contribution to Canadian content doesn’t spread to other jurisdictions.
“You are the only country in the world that is looking at those contributions, at least at this stage, and we actually hope that this is not going to spread to other countries because we will be in real difficulty,” Olivia Regnier, senior director of public policy for Spotify, told the commission.
“Now, we understand the situation, we understand the rationale…
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