By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Executives from the largest telecoms said Wednesday that they are seeing more bundled services as the current and future competitive play in a post Rogers-Shaw merger market.
Doug French, Telus executive vice president and chief financial officer told TD Securities telecom analyst Vince Valentini that the Vancouver-based telecom’s strategy of driving more fibre in its footprint has enhanced the quality of its bundling strategy – the practice of reducing prices by selling more than one service, such as mobile wireless and internet.
French said that the company hasn’t seen a change in Rogers’s networks in western Canada…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced Tuesday that it will invest roughly $77 billion over the next five years on infrastructure and connectivity across the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
The commitment is part of the $81 billion it expects to spent across Canada by 2027, it said in a press release.
In its home province, the telecom said it is putting $18.5 billion toward initiatives including expanding the reach of its 5G network by deploying more 3.5 GHz spectrum, expanding its healthcare and smart home product businesses, and driving more fibre to homes. It said its PureFibre product will connect…
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They warn the CRTC about competitive impact of Freedom sale to Videotron
OTTAWA – The country’s largest telecoms are asking the CRTC not to forcibly allow the large enterprise and internet of things device markets to roam on its wireless networks.
The CRTC launched a proceeding in March to explore whether mobile virtual network operators mandated under the April 2021 MVNO framework should also be able to leverage the incumbents’ wireless networks to serve those other markets. It held a preliminary view that the consumer retail markets that are currently regulated are similar to the enterprise (more than…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Thursday denied an application by British Columbia’s minister of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI) to suspend a November decision that forces it to enter agreements with third party carriers wanting to attach equipment on poles that are being moved by the province.
The November decision was triggered by a Rogers and Shaw application, which asked that they be treated similarly to the incumbent Telus when it comes to compensation to relocate their transmission lines when the province decides to move their poles. In the decision, the CRTC said the province must either stop compensating Telus…
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By Douglas Barrett, adjunct professor in the arts, media and entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business at York University.
No one watches the credits on television programs. They go by super fast and are often cut off. But they tell very interesting stories, including identifying all the financial participants in the production.
For example, for the Global show Family Law produced by Calgary’s Seven24 Films and Vancouver’s Lark Productions, and shot in Vancouver, they were:
Corus Entertainment
Entertainment One
Canada Media Fund
Creative BC
Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit
Bell Fund
For Transplant, a CTV show produced by Sphere Media Plus and shot…
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By Ahmad Hathout
VICTORIA – Shaw recommended the British Columbia government adopt a government policy directive that would give the province’s utility company the ability to create a new telecommunications division to address lagging permits to its joint-owned poles, according to a briefing note obtained by Cartt.
The recommendation, which would help “expedite permits controlled by BC Hydro,” was made late last year to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, which oversees utility crown corporation BC Hydro.
BC Hydro jointly owns with telecom incumbent Telus a network of poles on which carriers attach their communications equipment to expand broadband…
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OTTAWA – The head of the Competition Bureau said Tuesday that the watchdog’s opposition to Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw was the correct move, citing high prices Canadians pay compared to international peers.
“While it didn’t go our way, I fully stand by our decision to challenge that merger,” Competition commissioner Matthew Boswell said on the second day of the International Institute of Communications conference in Ottawa.
“We put forward a responsible, evidence-based case. That is our job. We carefully scrutinized all the evidence, knowing the differing incentives of all parties,” he added.
“We fought the right fight for the right reasons and on the right principles.”
The commission’s fight…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC said in a letter late last month that it has accepted a request by Quebecor and Rogers to hear the telecoms’ dispute over the price of access to Rogers’s wireless facilities.
The regulator received the request from the companies on April 6, which outlined that the parties could not resolve their dispute. They requested an expedited process.
As part of its price exploration, the CRTC is asking for all MVNO and off-tariff agreements to which both parties have agreed. Quebecor, on behalf of Videotron and Freedom, is being asked how much volume it is expecting…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CALGARY — Dean Shaikh is Rogers’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs, moving over from Shaw after it was bought by the cable giant.
Shaikh was most recently vice president of regulatory affairs of Shaw, where he spent 17 years.
Shaikh was, before that, counsel on regulatory law for the now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association. The lawyer was also a senior competition law officer at the Competition Bureau around the turn of the century.
Rogers has been shoring up its team as it continues the integration of Shaw into the company. Ted Woodhead, who was Rogers’s chief regulatory and government…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said Thursday it is “essential” that the company’s Videotron subsidiary gets access to last mile fibre under the current wholesale access regime to be the country’s fourth national telecom.
The CRTC said in March that it has made it a priority to make a decision on mandating third parties to access the incumbent’s fibre facilities to homes under the current aggregated wholesale regime. The current regime mandates that wholesalers can bundle from the incumbents the transport and last mile coaxial facilities, but not last mile fibre.
“It is essential that incumbent…
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