EVEN WITH A DEFINITIVE agreement for the sale of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor subsidiary Videotron on the table as a way to remedy concerns about competition in Canada’s wireless market related to the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Freedom owner Shaw Communications, a hearing in front of the Competition Tribunal on the matter appears to be all but inevitable.
“We understand that the parties believe that the sale of Freedom will address the concerns raised in our challenge of the Rogers-Shaw merger and have filed an amended response to the Competition Tribunal with this position,” a spokesperson from the…
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OTTAWA – Earlier this month, the CRTC asked Rogers for more information about its July nationwide outage, according to a letter posted on the CRTC’s website last night.
The letter, sent to Rogers on Aug. 5, asks the telecom to submit answers to a second series of questions about the outage. The request was made after Rogers filed a report on July 22 responding to a list of initial questions from the CRTC.
In the second list of questions, which is partially redacted as it refers to some information Rogers filed in confidence, the CRTC asks Rogers to “quantify…
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WITH THE 1972 CANADA-USSR SUMMIT SERIES marking its 50th anniversary this September, CBC announced last week the first episode of its new original four-part documentary series Summit 72 will premiere on CBC and CBC Gem on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. local time (8:30 NT).
The remaining three episodes will air the following consecutive Wednesdays in the same time slot.
“The 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series of Hockey changed the game forever, playing out dramas of national identity, pride, politics, and ideology while the world watched, enraptured, during the Cold War,” reads a press release.
The Summit 72 docuseries “tells the definitive…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On Aug. 4, the CRTC sent a letter to Pelmorex regarding the impact of Rogers’ Canada-wide service outage on its role as the operator of the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system.
“As an initial step, comprehensive information is required in order for the Commission and Canadians to understand what happened, and, just as importantly, what can be done to improve the system including how to mitigate impacts on the National Public Alerting System,” the letter reads.
The CRTC mentions that while it is considering a public inquiry on this telecommunications failure, it wishes to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent Lixo Investments a request for information regarding claims from Rogers Communications it is refusing to grant the telecom access to 70 Yorkville Avenue in Toronto despite the Commission having issued a decision on June 8 granting the telecom’s request for access.
The Commission’s decision indicated increasingly stringent measures would take effect 30 and 45 days from the date of the decision if Rogers did not report it had “been granted timely access under reasonable terms and conditions.”
At issue is Rogers ability to access the building to service facilities installed in the 1980s. Rogers indicated…
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Rogers wins for upload speed experience, Bell wins for download speed experience
LONDON, U.K. – Opensignal, a U.K.-based mobile analytics company has released two new reports on mobile experience in Canada – its Mobile Network Experience Report and its 5G Experience Report, both authored by technical analyst Hardik Khatri and based on data collected from April 1 to June 29, 2022.
Telus has the most consistent mobile network experience in the country, according to the Mobile Network Experience Report, which provides an analysis of the overall experience of Opensignal users across all network technologies for the three national carriers.
The analytics…
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TORONTO, MONTREAL and CALGARY – Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Inc. announced today they have signed a definitive agreement for the sale of Shaw’s Freedom Mobile to Quebecor subsidiary Videotron.
The definitive agreement is “substantially consistent” with what was announced with regards to the sale back in June, according to a press release. It still needs to be cleared under the Competition Act and by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry and is contingent on the close of the merger of Rogers and Shaw, which itself still needs approval under the Competition Act and from the…
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HALIFAX – Provincial Crown corporation Develop Nova Scotia today announced it is expanding the Satellite Internet Service Rebate program it announced in July to help more people in the province get access to Internet services faster, as well as expanding the scope of three fibre-to-the-home projects.
When the Satellite Internet Service Rebate program was announced July 29, 3,700 homes and businesses were eligible to claim up to $1,000 for costs associated with setting up satellite service meeting the CRTC’s minimum speed targets of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.
“Starting today, August 11, the program will accept applications from…
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OTTAWA – More information is being sought on how the recent nationwide Rogers outage impacted the company’s deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind (DHHDB) customers and wholesale customers.
Late last month, Rogers submitted a report to the CRTC with answers to a series of questions about the network outage that started July 8, the publicly available version of which was heavily redacted.
Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement (CDGM) and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition (DHH Coalition), the latter of which includes Deafness Advocacy Association Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf, and Ontario Association of the…
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OTTAWA – When the federal government announced it was proposing a new telecommunications policy direction to the CRTC back in May, it emphasized how it would improve competition.
This is supposed to help ensure telecommunications services are affordable and encourage innovation in the industry.
The proposed policy direction compels the CRTC to consider, among other things, how its decisions “encourage all forms of competition and investment”. But while several telecommunications service providers (TSPs) that submitted comments to the government on the proposed policy direction seem to agree competition is important, there is disagreement on what kind of competition the CRTC…
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