By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Thursday that the CRTC’s decision to force the large telephone companies to open access to their last mile fibre networks “levels the playing field” with cable carriers who service the bulk of wholesale-based subscribers.
“We’ve been required to wholesale under the regulatory regime high-speed internet for quite some time,” Staffieri said during a third quarter conference call. “So it’s good to see a level playing field.”
The majority of wholesale-based competitors were using the large cable companies’ hybrid fibre-coax networks, which accounts for 75 per cent of all wholesale-based subscriptions, the CRTC said.
The decision…
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HALIFAX – Eastlink last week launched a new brand platform and updated brand look in collaboration with its new agency partner, Trampoline Branding.
“We’re really excited to work with Trampoline on the evolution of our brand, which in this phase maintains the core of our customer-centric approach while expanding our focus on flexibility for the customer,” Rob Curley, vice-president of sales and marketing at Eastlink, said in a press release.
“Our goal was to develop a brand platform that gets to the heart of why people should choose Eastlink and why it…
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WHITEHORSE, YT – Bell subsidiary Northwestel announced last week it has launched fibre internet in the Yukon communities of Mayo and Stewart Crossing, located on the traditional territory of the Na-Cho Nyäk Dun First Nation.
In addition to connecting fibre directly to homes, Northwestel has extended its fibre network from Stewart Crossing to Mayo, a press release explains.
Residents in these communities can now order “the north’s fastest home Internet”, with download speeds up to 500 Mbps and unlimited monthly data, the release says. For business customers, Northwestel’s new fibre internet service offers…
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By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA Program at the Schulich School of Business. From 2004 to 2008 he was the chair of the Canadian Television Fund
Phil Lind was an unlikely hero, but a genuine one. Since his passing, much has been written about his decades’ – long service to Rogers Communications, his role as consiglieri to Ted Rogers, his determined recovery from a major stroke in his mid-fifties, his art collection, and his love of the Yukon.
However, scant attention has been paid to what I think is his greatest accomplishment: he was the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A coalition of public interest groups has asked the CRTC on Friday to consider a financial plan for a fund that bankrolls their involvement in broadcasting hearings.
Public interest participation in those hearings is funded through a not-for-profit organization known as the Broadcasting Participation Fund (BPF), which spawned out of Bell’s purchase of CTV network assets in 2011. The problem for the fund, according to its proponents, is that it relies on money, called tangible benefits, that only comes as a condition of approving broadcasting acquisitions that are now uncommon.
Interest groups have said the fund is…
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YELLOWKNIFE – Bell subsidiary Northwestel announced Wednesday it has launched fibre internet in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, making it the northernmost community in Canada to have fibre technology.
Northwestel customers in Tuktoyaktuk can now access high-speed, unlimited fibre internet with speeds up to 50 Mbps, up from 15 Mbps previously, says a press release.
“We’re very proud to bring in-community fibre to the first Arctic Ocean community,” Northwestel president Curtis Shaw said in the release. “Technology like this helps break down barriers to distance education, virtual health care and enables more participation in…
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Cogeco hopes for mobile wireless launch by this time next year
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Tuesday that Freedom’s competitive mobile wireless offers ahead of the back-to-school season didn’t have a “material impact” on its market share in Ontario.
“They launched a few, I would say, price points didn’t have a material impact on the market, frankly,” Staffieri said during the BMO telecom conference.
“So one of the things we’ve gotten a lot better at is to let the competition do their thing, we’ll do our…
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MONTREAL – NBCUniversal’s all-reality TV subscription streaming service Hayu is now available to Videotron customers in Quebec through Videotron’s Helix platform, the companies announced Tuesday.
Videotron customers will be able to access more than 300 reality series directly through their Hayu subscription, with the streaming service accessible via Helix voice command on their Videotron remote, a press release says.
A Canadian subscription to Hayu costs $6.99 (plus taxes) per month.
Hayu’s extensive content library includes shows such as Love Island, Below Deck, Vanderpump Rules, and franchises such as The Real Housewives and Million Dollar Listing, plus exclusive content like Watch What…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Monday that all carriers will need to provide service to their customers on Rogers’s wireless network in Toronto’s subway system by October 3.
All carriers will need to provide service within three weeks from Monday and will have to enter commercial agreements within the next 100 days – or December 20. Those stipulations, which will apply to Bell, Quebecor’s Freedom and Telus, are as of Monday conditions of those carriers owning spectrum, the technology powering wireless communications.
Government officials said on a technical briefing with media Monday that carriers will need to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CALGARY – Calgary has issued a notice to the public Thursday indicating its interest in entering a contract with Rogers to include a cohort of residents in the cable company’s Connected for Success low-income services program.
The pilot agreement would involve providing the city’s Fair Entry-eligible households with access to price-reduced services from Rogers, including internet, TV or wireless, for one year with an option to extend into the long term.
The city’s Fair Entry program does an income and residency assessment for residents to assess their eligibility for fee-reduced programs, which currently include property tax,…
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