GATINEAU – Numerous intervenors in their final submissions to the CRTC continue to argue the merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications is not in the public interest and should be denied, despite the fact Rogers offered some concessions in its reply on day five of the recent hearing into the matter as well as in other documents since submitted by the company to the Commission.
(You can read Cartt.ca’s coverage of the CRTC hearing here, here, here, here and here.)
The final submissions, which were due Monday, point to several problems the intervenors argue remain…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL — Bell Media’s sports networks TSN and RDS announced today their broadcast schedules for Canada’s favourite holiday hockey tradition, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship.
The tournament begins Sunday, Dec. 26 and is taking place at Rogers Place in Edmonton and the Peavey Mart Centrium in Red Deer, Alberta.
Both networks will provide complete coverage of all 28 tournament games, including all Team Canada matchups, the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games.
TSN’s coverage starts with five pre-competition matchups, beginning with Team Canada vs. Switzerland on Sunday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. ET on TSN2.
RDS will…
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SAN JOSE, Calif. and TORONTO — Harmonic, a provider of virtualized cable access and video delivery solutions, announced today Rogers Communications has chosen Harmonic’s CableOS cloud-native converged core platform to power Rogers’s next-generation multi-gigabit broadband services.
Rogers is deploying the CableOS platform in a distributed access architecture (DAA) with virtualized cable modem termination system (CMTS) software and the Ripple Remote-PHY (R-PHY) node, explains a press release.
“The CableOS Platform is future ready to support converged cable and FTTH, DOCSIS 4.0 technology and other advanced services including edge cloud,” the release reads.
Rogers is using Harmonic’s technology “to fully converge its data, voice…
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NORFOLK COUNTY, Ont. — Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) announced today Rogers Communications has completed construction of a 70-kilometre fibre-to-the-home network bringing high-speed Internet access to 2,116 homes and businesses in Norfolk County, located southwest of Hamilton.
The Ontario communities covered by the network project include Wilsonville, Boston, Bealton, Dundurn, Waterford, Townsend Centre, Villa Nova and Bloomsburg, according to SWIFT’s press release.
SWIFT awarded the contract to Rogers in January 2020 and the telecom started construction that July.
According to SWIFT’s approved projects webpage, the network project was originally expected to be completed in August 2021.
The overall cost…
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SEATON, B.C. — Rogers Communications announced today it has started construction on the first of 12 new cell towers that will help close gaps and improve safety along B.C.’s Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George, known as the Highway of Tears due to the many Indigenous women and girls who have disappeared or were found murdered on the route.
“At Rogers, we are deeply committed to reconciliation and to using our technology to help connect rural, remote and Indigenous communities,” said Jorge Fernandes, chief technology officer at Rogers Communications, in a press release.
“It is our hope that by…
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OXFORD COUNTY, Ont. – Rogers Communications started construction on a project to bring high-speed Internet to 484 homes, farms and businesses in the communities of Drumbo and Gobles in Oxford County by April 2022, Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) announced today.
This broadband project, previously announced in October 2020, is valued at $1.5 million and is being funded in part by the Governments of Canada and Ontario, which have committed up to $349,000 each. The contracts were awarded to Rogers by SWIFT.
The “project will service 15 kilometres of roadway with fibre-optic cabling to provide more homes and businesses within…
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Rogers and Fido see largest increases
OTTAWA – The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) accepted 17,003 consumer complaints in the past year – a 9% increase compared to the previous year, according to its annual report released today.
The annual report covers the period from Aug. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021. In this timeframe, CCTS concluded 17,506 complaints, a 10% increase from last year (this includes complaints received before Aug. 1, 2020, which were concluded during the year covered by today’s report.)
The concluded complaints raised over 42,000 issues. The top issues were billing (16,304), contract dispute (13,147), service…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced today Robert Dépatie (above) will be the president and chief operating officer of the company’s new home and business division as of Dec. 6.
Dépatie has “nearly 20 years of executive leadership in telecom and media experience, including four years as a member of the RCI Board of Directors,” a press release says. He was previously president and CEO of Quebecor and Quebecor Media as well as spending 10 years as president and CEO of Vidéotron Itée.
“I am thrilled to welcome Robert to our leadership team,” said Tony Staffieri, interim president and CEO of Rogers,…
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TORONTO – Veteran sports broadcaster Brian Williams (above) announced today he is retiring following a 50-year career in broadcasting.
Bell Media’s TSN will celebrate his career Sunday, Dec. 12 ahead of the 108th Grey Cup broadcast.
Williams, who started at CTV and TSN in June 2006 after working at CBC, has been heavily involved in CFL on TSN broadcasts and “was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame Football Reporters Wing in honour of his contributions to the CFL over the years,” a press release says. He was also recognized at the 100th Grey Cup “with the Commissioner’s Award for more…
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TPIA providers say they’ve had to make tough financial decisions to stem the bleeding
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Canada’s large telecommunications companies are claiming third party internet service providers have never had it better with the interim bulk internet purchase rates the CRTC made permanent in May.
The telecoms were responding to petitions to the federal government to overturn the May decision filed by large independent internet service provider TekSavvy, ISP National Capital FreeNet, and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC), an organization representing smaller telecoms who lease network space from the larger carriers. In the decision, the regulator said it…
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