OTTAWA – Documents newly made public today at the Competition Tribunal’s hearing into the Competition Bureau’s application to block the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications reveals Telus’ strategy to stop and delay the deal.
The document, prepared for Telus’ board on the company’s second quarter of 2022, says Telus continued to execute its “top-of-house strategy” where its executive leadership team met “with political leaders to kill, shape and slow the deal.”
Additionally, the document notes that during the quarter, “NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, repeatedly asked PM Trudeau during Question Period to block the merger, using TELUS talking points”…
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TORONTO — Organizers of the Canadian Telecom Summit (CTS) announced today details of the regulatory blockbuster panel (above), taking place at the annual conference on Nov. 22 at 4:15 p.m.
Ed Antecol, vice-president of professional services with COMsolve will moderate the panel. Panel participants include:
Stephen Schmidt, vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel, Telus
Samer Bishay, CEO of Iristel and Ice Wireless
Geoff White, executive director and general counsel, with the Competitive Network Operators of Canada
Rob Malcolmson, chief legal and regulatory officer, BCE and Bell Canada
Paul Beaudry, vice-president, regulatory affairs, Cogeco
Ted Woodhead, chief regulatory officer…
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OTTAWA – The Competition Tribunal hearing on the Competition Bureau’s application to block the merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications continued today, although mostly in camera.
The tribunal heard from Blaik Kirby, group president, consumer and small and medium business at BCE, who also appeared yesterday. He spoke about the competitive environment and Bell’s response to the launch of Shaw Mobile.
“If there is a divestiture the resulting environment is actually going to better for Bell Mobility than the current environment,” Kirby told the tribunal panel, speaking about the divestiture of Shaw’s wireless assets.
“When we look at Shaw today, the…
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Shaw Mobile is a big reason why Freedom stores are struggling, another witness says
OTTAWA – Today was the third day of the Competition Tribunal hearing on the Competition Bureau’s application to block the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.
Yesterday and today, two Freedom Mobile dealers appeared as witnesses, each answering questions about the struggles they say they have faced since the merger was announced.
The first of the two witnesses, Sudeep Verma, opened his first Wind Mobile store in 2011 and continued on to open a total of 19 stores. He operated all of those stores until…
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TORONTO — Rogers Communications today announced its financial results for the third quarter that ended Sept. 30, reporting its total revenue rose 2% to $3.74 billion compared to the same quarter of 2021.
The increase was attributed to strong performance in the company’s wireless and media segments.
Rogers’ Q3 results included $150 million in customer credits paid out to compensate for its July network outage that affected both its wireless and wireline services. Excluding those customer credits, Rogers says its total revenue in Q3 2022 rose 6% compared to Q3 2021.
Total service revenue for the company increased 3% to $3.23 billion…
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OTTAWA – Day two of the Competition Tribunal hearing on the Competition Bureau’s application to block the merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications saw witnesses answer questions drawing attention to the fact that while the Commissioner of Competition is opposing the whole merger in its original form, this past June the two companies announced a deal was made to sell Freedom Mobile to Quebecor subsidiary Videotron in an attempt to assuage concerns related to wireless competition.
Stephanie Assad, competition law officer at the Competition Bureau, told the three-person tribunal panel she helped draft a request for information in September…
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OTTAWA – Well over a year after the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications was announced, the Competition Tribunal has begun to hear an application made by the Commissioner of Competition to block it.
The Commissioner of Competition is arguing the merger will result in less competition, while Rogers and Shaw are arguing they have addressed that concern by coming to an agreement with Quebecor subsidiary Videotron for the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile as competition concerns are centred around the wireless assets involved in the deal.
According to the commissioner, however, this is not an effective remedy because…
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Clause-by-clause to start Nov. 18
OTTAWA – The heritage committee today heard from its final witnesses on Bill C-18, the Online News Act, who talked about getting the bill to better address the needs of Indigenous and ethnic media, the possibility of launching a fund instead and about the inclusion of broadcasters.
Jean LaRose (above), president and CEO of Dadan Sivunivut – which was created by APTN in 2019 and oversees APTN’s non-television activities including First People’s Radio – said they support the bill but told the committee it “needs to better reflect the unique place of indigenous news organizations…
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CEO accuses Bell of refusing to negotiate MVNO rates in good faith
MONTREAL – Quebecor announced today its third quarter 2022 financial results, which show the company’s revenues were $1.1 billion – a slight decrease from Q3 2021.
Adjusted EBITDA was also slightly down at $518 million.
In Quebecor’s telecommunications segment specifically, the company reported $942.2 million in revenue, which is an increase from $939.5 million in the same quarter the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA in the segment was $489.5 million, up from $476.8 million.
In the media segment, the company reported revenue of $170.1 million – down from $190.6 million in the…
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By Howard Law
IF JOURNALISTS IN politics are the friends of news media, perhaps it needs new friends.
At the Commons Heritage Committee, former CTV reporter and Conservative MP Kevin Waugh continues to thunder that major TV networks Bell CTV, Rogers City-TV and CBC should be excluded from the “FaceGoogle” Bill C-18.
This Monday at the Senate committee studying the Online Streaming Act Bill C-11, former Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons and former CBC TV correspondent Julie Miville-Dechêne suggested Unifor’s recommendation for better cable and streamer funding of local news was unnecessary because TV companies are set to cash in under…
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