By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House of Commons INDU committee heard from a series of witnesses today about the July 8 Rogers Communications outage that impacted Canadians across the country, including those trying to access emergency services.
Both meetings the committee decided to hold before the end of July were held today back-to-back.
First among the witnesses there were older white men in suits including François-Philippe Champagne, minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. While the soon fired Rogers CTO, Jorge Fernandes was in Portugal, the minister was in Japan when he heard in the middle of the night…
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CALGARY — Shaw Communications announced today the six Calgary-based artists who will create murals celebrating Pride for the Shaw Pride Marches On art walk initiative that will be on display in Central Memorial Park in Calgary’s Beltline starting next month.
Kicking off Friday, Aug. 12, Shaw Pride Marches On “provides a platform to tell 2SLGBTQIA+ stories, celebrate the community, and underscores the importance of human connection and resilience,” reads a press release, noting the initiative is now in its third year.
“The art walk will feature mural concepts chosen by a group of leaders from Calgary’s arts community based on their…
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OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau is seeking to have the Competition Tribunal add more time to the pre-hearing process and hearing on the merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications due to Quebecor subsidiary Videotron’s request to participate in it.
The Commissioner of Competition filed a motion today seeking the changes, which would see oral examinations for discovery start on Sept. 19, 2022, instead of Aug. 15, 2022, as currently scheduled.
The commissioner, Matthew Boswell, is further requesting the tribunal include an additional week for oral examinations and another additional week for the hearing. He is requesting the tribunal modify other…
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TORONTO – Jorge Fernandes is no longer Rogers Communications’ chief technology and information officer.
While no official announcement has been made, the company’s leadership page on its website indicates Ron McKenzie (above) was made the company’s chief technology and information officer in July 2022. A Rogers spokesperson confirmed the change happened yesterday.
“Rogers can confirm Jorge Fernandes will be stepping step down from his role as Chief Technology and Information Officer,” reads a statement from the spokesperson. “Effective immediately, Ron McKenzie becomes Chief Technology and Information Officer.”
The change comes nearly two weeks after Rogers networks went down across the country.
Fernandes…
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SAINT JOHN, N.B. — The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA) today provided more information about two keynote speakers scheduled to make presentations at the organization’s CCSA Connect 2022 conference, happening Sept. 26-28 in Mont-Tremblant, Que.
Shawn Kanungo (above, left) is “a globally recognized innovation strategist who previously spent 12 years at Deloitte working closely with leaders to better plan for the opportunities associated with disruptive innovation and helped hundreds of organizations on their journey to digital transformation,” reads a CCSA email alert.
Kanungo’s presentation Strategy in a World of Disruption on Sept. 27 will examine “how the business world has fundamentally…
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SAN FRANCISCO — Tubi, Fox Entertainment’s free ad-supported streaming service, announced today it is now available to Shaw TV subscribers in western Canada via their set top box.
Starting today, Shaw TV customers “have instant access to live and on-demand content, which includes Tubi’s comprehensive library of award-winning movies and hit television shows alongside Tubi Originals,” a press release says.
Tubi’s original programming currently available includes: Corrective Measures, starring Bruce Willis and Michael Rooker; Titanic 666, starring AnnaLynne McCord and Keesha Sharp; and the recently launched documentary Sins of the Father: The Green River Killer.
“As a result of this partnership, Shaw…
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TORONTO — toober, a Toronto-based live television app*, announced earlier this month it has launched six new channels.
Launched in June, the new channels include Euronews English, Euronews French, RAI Italia, RAI World Premium, RAI News 24 and Universal Vision TV (Spanish, Portuguese and English programming).
toober “aims to fill a gap in the live streaming market by providing subscribers access to all of their favourite channels from around the world at one low price,” a press release says.
The toober app is currently available in Canada on Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Apple TV and Google TV Playstore. It will launch globally…
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QUEBECOR PRESIDENT AND CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau released a statement yesterday criticizing an opinion piece published in the Globe and Mail last week, which itself criticized the pending merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications generally and the sale of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor as a remedy for competition-related concerns about the merger specifically.
The opinion piece was written by Centre for International Governance Innovation fellow Keldon Bester (who co-founded the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project) and Carleton University PhD candidate and consultant Ben Klass in the wake of the nationwide Rogers outage earlier this month.
Péladeau is calling three…
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SEATTLE – Telus was Canada’s fastest national mobile operator and Shaw was the fastest fixed broadband service provider amongst the country’s top providers in the second quarter of 2022, according to Seattle-based broadband and mobile network testing company Ookla, which released its Q2 2022 results today.
Mobile
Ookla reported Telus had a median download speed of 79.09 Mbps. Bell, meanwhile, had a median speed of 72.46 Mbps and Rogers had a median speed of 60.36 Mbps. (Please see chart above.)
Rogers, however, had the fastest median upload speed for Q2 2022 at 9.21 Mbps compared to Telus (7.98 Mbps) and Bell (7.42…
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Expert group concludes work with little attention given to website blocking proposal
By Amanda OYE
OTTAWA – The work of the government’s Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety, which was appointed in March to provide advice on the government’s proposed approach to dealing with harmful content online, has come to an end with the summary of its final session being posted online last week, but the government will continue seeking input on the matter from Canadians and stakeholders throughout the summer.
“I thank the expert advisory group for their work,” said Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez in a statement emailed to Cartt.ca….
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