By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A group of six public interest groups is asking the CRTC to expedite the payment of money owed to the Broadcasting Participation Fund from the commission’s approval of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw’s broadcasting assets.
The group, which includes the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, filed a Part 1 application Monday urging the commission to amend a stipulation requiring Rogers pay the fund – which bankrolls public interest group participation in broadcast hearings – $725,439 in equal amounts over three years.
The application asks that the commission force Rogers to…
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TORONTO – Rogers said Monday that it is bringing Shaw’s foreign outsourced customer service jobs back to Canada.
The company said this involves “hundreds” of jobs, which will now be based in British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. It said it has already started the transition and expects to be completed by the third quarter this year.
The company said it made a commitment in 2020 to have a fully Canadian-based customer service team. That year, it transitioned 150 Rogers customer service jobs from overseas, completing its own repatriation.
“As a proud Canadian company, we’re committed to investing in Canada,”…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The fund that bankrolls consumer interest participation in CRTC hearings is warning that it is at a “critical juncture” with not enough money available to reimburse participants in broadcasting proceedings.
The Broadcasting Participation Fund said in a press release last week that it had less than $330,000 remaining in the fund to begin the year. In a busy year, it said, costs exceed $700,000.
“If the gap between available funds and qualified applications is not addressed, the Fund must cease operations either temporarily or permanently this year,” it said in the release. At the end of 2021,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Cogeco CEO Philippe Jette said Friday that wireless service providers are in a better position to focus on negotiating mobile virtual network operator deals with the conclusion of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw.
“It provides more predictability throughout the industry now that this transaction is over and we know what to expect of it,” Jette said on the company’s second-quarter conference call Friday morning.
“I think now every player is at a better place with the conclusion of the transaction and getting ready for the next steps negotiating partnerships and rates,” he added.
Earlier this month, Rogers and Videotron Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Investment firm Globalive is asking the CRTC to review the rates charged by the incumbents for wholesale domestic roaming and to investigate Rogers’s proposed favourable pricing to Videotron as a condition of buying Shaw.
The Toronto firm, which was once gunning for Freedom Mobile before it was sold to Videotron, said in its Part 1 application Friday that significant time has elapsed since the commission last reviewed the wireless roaming rates and that current rates are muting the impact of small and medium-sized wireless competitors.
It noted that the market has significantly changed since the CRTC said…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL — Rogers and Videotron announced Monday that they have closed their respective purchases of Shaw and Freedom, after the innovation minister blessed the mega-merger on Friday.
The parties agreed to a deadline of April 7 to close following the go-ahead decision by Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on Friday that put commitments from the companies into legally-binding contracts for a period of 10 years. Those commitments include billions of dollars in investments from Rogers and Videotron providing lower prices compared to the large players outside of Quebec.
“This is a momentous day for our customers, who…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Two years and 16 days after Rogers and Shaw announced their intention to merge, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne indirectly approved one of Canadian history’s largest corporate consolidations Friday by allowing for the transfer of Shaw’s Freedom wireless assets to Videotron – promised as the competitive fourth player in the telecom market.
The stipulations laid out by Champagne in a press conference on Friday are as follows: Videotron will commit to offering retail services that are “at least 20% cheaper” than from those of the major players outside its home territory, it cannot transfer Freedom spectrum licences…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent a letter to Rogers and Bell on Thursday asking them to lay out what off-tariff wholesale internet access agreements they have with competitors.
The request for information includes details of a proposed arrangement that would see Rogers give Videotron access to its broadband network at favourable wholesale rates to win over regulators in its pursuit of Shaw.
The request is part of the CRTC’s evaluation of an application filed by TekSavvy, which alleges that Rogers and Bell are engaging in agreements that are disadvantaging competitors who don’t get similar rates…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A technical working group with members from the country’s major telecommunications companies have this month recommended a bevy of changes to enhance network reliability, including enhanced criminal penalties in cases of negligent damage to critical network infrastructure, subsidizing certain infrastructure in areas with little coverage, and expanding the CRTC’s authority over municipal infrastructure.
The 27-page report from the Canadian Telecommunications Network Resiliency Working Group, released this month, packs a list consisting of general recommendations for network resiliency and asks of the federal government.
“To strengthen efforts to improve the resiliency of Canada’s telecommunications networks, the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Just over a week before the transaction deadline, Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri said Tuesday that the company believes Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has all the information he needs to make a decision on the company’s proposed purchase of Shaw.
Two weeks ago, Staffieri said at a Scotiabank event that the minister had been asking the company to provide additional information about the transaction and said the company has been actively providing material to the minister, who holds the final say in whether to allow the transfer of Shaw’s Freedom to Videotron required to…
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