MONTREAL – Videotron’s Freedom Mobile announced Thursday a $50 “unlimited” mobile wireless plan with unlimited talk and text both in Canada and the United States.
Subscribers will have 40 GB of the LTE network’s fastest speeds on the plan to use anywhere in Canada and the United States. If they go beyond that, speeds will be slowed down.
While other Canadian carriers offer similar cross-border packages with more high-speed data, Freedom appears to be seeking to capture the market at the lower $50 price point. (The $50 includes a $5 digital discount.)
The announcement comes after Videotron closed its acquisition of Shaw’s…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Executives from the largest telecoms said Wednesday that they are seeing more bundled services as the current and future competitive play in a post Rogers-Shaw merger market.
Doug French, Telus executive vice president and chief financial officer told TD Securities telecom analyst Vince Valentini that the Vancouver-based telecom’s strategy of driving more fibre in its footprint has enhanced the quality of its bundling strategy – the practice of reducing prices by selling more than one service, such as mobile wireless and internet.
French said that the company hasn’t seen a change in Rogers’s networks in western Canada…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced Tuesday that it will invest roughly $77 billion over the next five years on infrastructure and connectivity across the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
The commitment is part of the $81 billion it expects to spent across Canada by 2027, it said in a press release.
In its home province, the telecom said it is putting $18.5 billion toward initiatives including expanding the reach of its 5G network by deploying more 3.5 GHz spectrum, expanding its healthcare and smart home product businesses, and driving more fibre to homes. It said its PureFibre product will connect…
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They warn the CRTC about competitive impact of Freedom sale to Videotron
OTTAWA – The country’s largest telecoms are asking the CRTC not to forcibly allow the large enterprise and internet of things device markets to roam on its wireless networks.
The CRTC launched a proceeding in March to explore whether mobile virtual network operators mandated under the April 2021 MVNO framework should also be able to leverage the incumbents’ wireless networks to serve those other markets. It held a preliminary view that the consumer retail markets that are currently regulated are similar to the enterprise (more than…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Thursday denied an application by British Columbia’s minister of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI) to suspend a November decision that forces it to enter agreements with third party carriers wanting to attach equipment on poles that are being moved by the province.
The November decision was triggered by a Rogers and Shaw application, which asked that they be treated similarly to the incumbent Telus when it comes to compensation to relocate their transmission lines when the province decides to move their poles. In the decision, the CRTC said the province must either stop compensating Telus…
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By Ahmad Hathout
VICTORIA – Shaw recommended the British Columbia government adopt a government policy directive that would give the province’s utility company the ability to create a new telecommunications division to address lagging permits to its joint-owned poles, according to a briefing note obtained by Cartt.
The recommendation, which would help “expedite permits controlled by BC Hydro,” was made late last year to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, which oversees utility crown corporation BC Hydro.
BC Hydro jointly owns with telecom incumbent Telus a network of poles on which carriers attach their communications equipment to expand broadband…
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OTTAWA – The head of the Competition Bureau said Tuesday that the watchdog’s opposition to Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw was the correct move, citing high prices Canadians pay compared to international peers.
“While it didn’t go our way, I fully stand by our decision to challenge that merger,” Competition commissioner Matthew Boswell said on the second day of the International Institute of Communications conference in Ottawa.
“We put forward a responsible, evidence-based case. That is our job. We carefully scrutinized all the evidence, knowing the differing incentives of all parties,” he added.
“We fought the right fight for the right reasons and on the right principles.”
The commission’s fight…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CALGARY — Dean Shaikh is Rogers’s senior vice president of regulatory affairs, moving over from Shaw after it was bought by the cable giant.
Shaikh was most recently vice president of regulatory affairs of Shaw, where he spent 17 years.
Shaikh was, before that, counsel on regulatory law for the now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association. The lawyer was also a senior competition law officer at the Competition Bureau around the turn of the century.
Rogers has been shoring up its team as it continues the integration of Shaw into the company. Ted Woodhead, who was Rogers’s chief regulatory and government…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – A well-funded Videotron, newly equipped with Shaw’s Freedom Mobile, will mean regulators will not need to worry about a viable wireless fourth player in an already competitive market, Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said during a first quarter conference call Thursday.
“We now have four well-capitalized significant players,” Bibic said. “That is very rare across the global footprint, and I think if you are sitting there from a public policy position…having four players like that is quite significant and will enhance competitive competition and consumer value.
“I think the job ought to be considered as having been done…
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TORONTO – Rogers said Thursday that it is reducing the price of data on certain 5G plans.
The largest cable company in the country said that its $85 per month 5G plan will now include double the data from 25 to 50 GB, effectively reducing the price of the price per gigabyte by 50 per cent.
Customers who buy Rogers wireline services can also now get the company’s starter 5G plan for 35 per cent cheaper than its previous 5G entry plan. The company said it can now offer bundled services in nearly 70 per cent of Canadian households following its…
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