OTTAWA – Quebecor and MTS Allstream are not alone among telecom and cable firms in their desire for a wireless spectrum auction that would shackle the "big three" mobile phone companies in Canada.
Among those aligned with the Quebec and Manitoba companies that have been leading the charge to have spectrum in the auction set aside for new entrants – and who have also proposed other rules like mandated roaming and tower sharing – include: Cogeco Cable, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, Shaw Communications, EastLink, the Assembly of First Nations and Toronto Hydro Telecom, among others.
The list…
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TORONTO – Billing it as Canada’s first "self-personalizing" home page, mysportsnet.ca is just about set for release.
"Mysportsnet.ca will revolutionize how users of the web manipulate their personal content," said Dave Ballingall, vice-president, marketing, for the Rogers Media owned sports channel. "Rather than taking the time and effort to organize favourites, users will automatically have their preferred web sites, news and e-mail delivered to their home page."
All it takes is a free download and users will see Mysportsnet learn their surfing web behaviour and present content intuitively on their computer screen. The home page will, of course, feature…
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TORONTO – CTAM Canada is hosting a night at the ballpark May 29th when the Toronto Blue Jays play host to the New York Yankees.
The guest speaker for the group’s Grand Slam evening at the Rogers Centre is Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of the ball club.
Doors open at 5:15 for the event with Godfrey speaking from 5:45 to 6:30. Game time is 7 p.m.
The cost – which includes a buffet meal and a view of the game from a VIP box – is $45 and $100 for non-members (which includes a year-long membership). Go to…
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TORONTO – Rogers Cable said Friday it will buy the remaining 80% of the outstanding shares of Futureway Communications Inc. which it does not already own.
Futureway is a facilities based provider of telecommunications and high-speed Internet services operating in and around the Greater Toronto Area, principally in large, new, subdivisions and in certain office parks and business complexes.
The closing of the transaction for the outstanding ownership interest, as well as an arrangement with entities affiliated with the principal shareholder of Futureway for certain rights to market Rogers Cable’s communication services in future new community developments, is expected…
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TORONTO – The CRTC has approved the plan of arrangement between Alliance Atlantis and CanWest Global that will run Alliance Atlantis until the Commission can decide on the purchase and transfer of ownership in a hearing.
The Plan of Arrangement will see AA Acquisition Corp. (formerly 6681859 Canada Inc.) acquire all of the outstanding shares of Alliance Atlantis for $53 cash per share, as was announced in January. AA Acquisition is primarily funded by Goldman Sachs, with CanWest Global to be controlling shareholder of the regulated assets.
AA owns (directly or indirectly) the securities of certain entities which are…
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OTTAWA – The Minister of Industry will receive a blizzard of paper tomorrow as incumbent wireless operators, and those who would like to be one, submit their opinions on how the next auction of wireless spectrum should be run.
The newcomers, led jointly by Quebecor and MTS Allstream, have not backed off their rhetoric at all. They want into the fast-growing wireless market and they don’t want to pay through the nose for entry with a costly purchase of spectrum at auction.
Keying on a few lines from the 2006 Telecom Policy Review Report (the one which the…
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TORONTO – CTV and Rogers today announced new three-year television deals with the National Football League beginning next season, shutting out CanWest Global, which has carried American football for decades.
Financial details of both agreements, which were apparently done separately, were not disclosed.
Under terms of the CTV deal, the broadcaster gets the Canadian broadcast rights for the NFL regular season Sunday early afternoon game package (1 p.m. ET), every NFL playoff game, and for the first time ever, the Super Bowl (which last year was watched by 3.4 million Canadians). The deal covers the 2007, 2008 and 2009 NFL…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The folks at MaxTrax and Galaxie may be wondering about their futures on Rogers Cable today.
The CRTC granted a pay audio license to Rogers Communications this morning. The company plans to launch a 30-channel service of music and spoken word programming. Currently, CBC-owned Galaxie and Corus Entertainment-owned MaxTrax are both carried by Rogers, which hasn’t said when or how it will launch its own service.
The regs require that any carrier which owns a pay audio license must also carry a non-affiliated service meaning that when Rogers launches, it only has to carry one of Galaxie…
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COUNT CANADA’S SATELLITE and cable companies (outside Quebec, anyway) as generally pleased with the Commission’s new policy on over-the-air TV broadcasters.
"We think it’s a very balanced decision and we’re happy with it," said Rogers Communications vice-chair Phil Lind.
"I think it’s overall a balanced decision," added Shaw Communications vice-president, regulatory, Ken Stein.
"They were clearly listening to everybody because they’ve come up with a balanced decision that reflects all parties representations I think," explained Bell ExpressVu president Gary Smith.
Only Telco TV’s Ann Mainville-Neeson stayed off the balance beam, saying: "Kudos to the Commission for a very…
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TORONTO – About 18 months after abandoning some of its multi-product bundles, Bell Canada has re-launched a new quad-play bundle.
The new Bell Bundle is a package of Sympatico high speed Internet, Bell ExpressVu HDTV, Bell long distance and Bell Mobility wireless. Local phone is not included in the new bundle because local phone market deregulation (local forbearance, to use the lingo) hasn’t happened just yet.
The inability to offer discounted local phone was part of the reason Bell dropped the former bundles in the first place. Without local phone, it’s simply an incomplete package.
"We’ve developed the Bell Bundle to meet the…
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