YELLOWKNIFE – Bell subsidiary Northwestel said Monday that it has launched fibre internet in Aklavik and Nahanni Butte in the Northwest Territories.
The fibre will allow for speeds of up to the federal standard of 50 Mbps download, which is up from the previous 15 Mbps the communities to which the communities had access.
“We know how important fast, unlimited Internet access is to northerners,” Curtis Shaw, president of Northwestel, said in a release. “It can improve access to health care, distance education, and other services that enable people to stay in their own communities. We’re happy to now provide this…
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By Connie Thiessen
Without access to funding, Corus Entertainment says its Global television stations across the country will be left “in a precarious and unduly disadvantaged position” as Rogers Communications moves to redirect $13 million in local expression funding to its CityNews stations.
In a letter to the CRTC, dated May 10 and posted to the commission website this week, Corus requests confirmation of its eligibility to participate in the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF), funded by licensed broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), which are required to contribute 0.3% of gross revenues from the previous broadcast year.
Corus – which is effectively controlled by the Shaw Family Living Trust – says given Rogers’s recent acquisition…
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By Ahmad Hathout
VICTORIA – The broadband ministry under the British Columbia government has been seeking ways to speed up broadband deployments in the province, and a recent briefing note outlines some ways it suggested to do so ahead of its utilization of federal funding.
In the Citizens’ Services briefing note from January, obtained via a freedom of information legislation, the ministry suggested that it could confidentially share with BC Hydro the poles that are expected to be impacted by broadband projects in areas with the 115,000 underserved households in the province.
“BC Hydro can take projective steps to determine the state…
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By Connie Thiessen
Eastlink cable subscribers soon won’t be able to watch HGTV Canada, W Network, and Showcase, among 34 other channels on the service, as the telecom provider says it’s been unable to reach a carriage agreement with Corus Entertainment.
“We worked very hard to reach an agreement with Corus that would not impact the availability of these channels. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach such an agreement, which means we have to remove these channels from our lineup as of June 27,” Jill Laing, Eastlink’s director of public affairs, told Broadcast Dialogue.
Eastlink, which declined to say whether any discussions…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada “repeatedly encouraged” the sale of Xplore Mobile’s spectrum licences in Manitoba to Quebecor, according to a company executive, after CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau sent a letter to the department urging it to push for a sale to subsidiary Videotron to maintain its four-player competition policy.
The department denied the July 14 joint request to transfer the five licences worth $30 million to Telus in September on the grounds that it would hinder the ability of “fourth” players to compete because of the high concentration of spectrum control by Telus, Rogers and…
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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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