TORONTO – While attendees of the Competitive Network Operators of Canada’s (CNOC) 2022 ISP Summit heard yesterday about the “unfriendly regulatory environment for competitors”, CNOC executive director and general counsel Geoff White highlighted today the reasons they have to still be optimistic about the future.
During his keynote speech titled “Where Do We Go From Here?”, White did not deny the last year has been difficult. He spoke about the recent wave of acquisitions in the industry (CNOC members VMedia and Distributel included), Rogers’ nationwide outage and the CRTC’s lack of movement on key files including one…
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OTTAWA – Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Videotron are headed to mediation with the Competition Bureau at the end of the month, the Competition Tribunal confirmed today.
Earlier this year, the Commissioner of Competition applied to the tribunal to have the proposed merger of Rogers and Shaw blocked. Since then, Rogers and Shaw have come to an agreement with Quebecor subsidiary Videotron for the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile to try to assuage concerns about the potential impact of the merger on wireless competition.
“Given the public interest in this proceeding, the Competition Tribunal confirms that a mediation is scheduled to…
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SEATTLE — Telus was the fastest mobile operator among Canada’s national providers in Q3 2022, and Rogers was the fastest fixed broadband service provider in the country during the same quarter, according to the latest report from Seattle-based broadband and mobile network testing company Ookla.
The report, released today, says Telus achieved a median mobile download speed of 76.03 Mbps (please see the chart above) during Q3 2022. The median download speeds for Canada’s other two national mobile providers, Bell and Rogers, were 73.3 Mbps and 59.86 Mbps respectively, according to the report.
Rogers achieved the fastest median upload speed for…
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Globalive (and Wind Mobile) founder adamant national wireless only player the solution
TORONTO – Canadians are more fed up with the nation’s telecommunications industry than they are with airline delays and real estate prices, according to the 2022 Canadian Telecom Sentiment Report, released late last month.
The survey, conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights and commissioned by Globalive, shows 59% of Canadians “are angry or annoyed when they think of telecom companies, the highest of all major Canadian industries surveyed,” a press release announcing the report says.
Furthermore, 71% of Canadians “are angry about telecom bills specifically, the third highest of 13 cost-of-living…
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TORONTO — Organizers of the 2022 Canadian Telecom Summit (CTS) confirmed today Frédéric Perron (above), president of Cogeco Connexion, will deliver a lunch keynote on Monday, Nov. 21 at 12 p.m. ET.
Perron has been with Cogeco since September 2020 when he took on the role of Cogeco Connexion president. He “has over two decades of managerial experience at leading international telecommunications and financial services companies such as T-Mobile, Vodafone, and Capital One,” says an email announcing him as a keynote speaker at CTS.
Perron “has a proven track record in marketing, sales, customer service, operations, eCommerce, product development, and IT,”…
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TORONTO — Rogers Business today announced the launch of Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile (previously known as Operator Connect Mobile) in Canada, representing the next phase of its strategic alliance with Microsoft announced earlier this year.
Rogers Business says in a press release it is the first telecommunications provider in the world to launch Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile, which is “a seamless solution to integrate mobile devices with Microsoft Teams for easier calling and collaboration, from anywhere” using a single business number.
“Rogers with Microsoft is bringing the power of truly productive mobility to Canadian businesses, allowing employees to work from…
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WATERLOO REGION — Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT) and the governments of Ontario and Canada announced today construction has been completed on three broadband infrastructure projects that are now providing high-speed Internet access to 470 homes and businesses in the Region of Waterloo in Ontario.
Bell Canada has completed construction of a 15-kilometre fibre network in the Township of North Dumfries providing access to high-speed Internet service for 254 homes and businesses in the communities of Orr’s Lake and Clyde, according to a SWIFT press release.
The governments of Ontario and Canada each provided more than $430,000 in funding through…
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BPF reviewing whether it will continue awarding funding to CMAC moving forward
OTTAWA – A month and a half after the federal government announced it was cutting funding it awarded to the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC), the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is trying to figure out why the organization received the funding – to develop an anti-racism strategy – in the first place.
Funding was cut to CMAC’s project after numerous concerns were expressed about antisemitic and other racist tweets posted by Laith Marouf, a senior consultant with the organization.
At a meeting last Friday, committee members, who argued CMAC…
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TORONTO and LONDON, U.K. — Blue Ant Studios and Catalyst, a Toronto-based development and funding company focusing on content created by women, announced today production has started on a new female-lead unscripted comedy series created by and starring Carolyn Taylor (above).
The six-episode, half-hour comedy, which is still untitled, was commissioned by Bell Media’s Crave and is slated to premiere on the streaming service in 2023. Blue Ant International is overseeing worldwide distribution.
The series is produced by Catalyst and Blue Ant Studios “as part of their strategic partnership to develop female-generated programming for the global marketplace,” a press release says.
Canadian…
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SEVERAL CANADIAN TELECOMS are currently waiving fees to help their customers stay connected to their loved ones in Iran.
Xplore posted on Twitter today to say it is waiving all home phone long-distance calls to Iran from now until the end of the month.
Telus announced on Sept. 27 it (and Koodo) would be waiving all long-distance calling and text messaging to Iran until Oct. 14.
On Sept. 28, several more companies including Rogers (and Fido and Chatr), Bell (and Virgin Plus) and Shaw (and Freedom Mobile) announced they would be waiving long-distance fees for calls and texts…
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