Rogers said last week it contributed a “record” $14 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product in 2023, citing data in the company’s first economic impact assessment since its merger with Shaw in April of last year.
The cable giant’s assessment includes Rogers’s economic impact for the full 2023 calendar year, but does not include Shaw’s economic impact prior to the merger (from Jan. 1 to April 2, 2023).
The combined company supported 92,000 jobs across Canada in 2023, according to Rogers.
“Our commitment to bring more investment and innovation to Canadians was…
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Wireless prices in Canada decreased an average of 18.2 per cent for data plans in 2023 when compared to 2022 prices, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s 2023 Price Comparison Study of Telecom Services, published Tuesday.
The annual report — which provides a comparative price analysis of wireless and home internet services in Canada, both regionally and relative to G7 peer countries and Australia — also found home internet prices in Canada declined across all service plans in 2023. There were significant decreases on plans up to 100 Mbps, including decreases…
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The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) released Thursday its 2024 mid-year report, which shows a 43 per cent increase in the number of complaints from telecom and TV customers in Canada between Aug. 1, 2023 and Jan. 31, 2024, compared to figures in the CCTS’s mid-year report a year ago.
For the six-month period, the CCTS accepted 10,663 customer complaints, compared to 7,451 complaints at last year’s midpoint, the new report says. Of the complaints received during the report’s timeframe, 9,272 were concluded, having raised 19,879 issues.
Wireless service issues remain the leading…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Wednesday that the company expects to see increased wireless subscriber movement between carriers throughout the year in part due to heightened competition and ease of switching.
The cable giant saw its rate of postpaid customer defections for the first quarter of the year increase to 1.1 per cent compared to the 0.79 per cent it logged in the same quarter last year.
Staffieri said part of this came from the competitive offers from other carriers that seeped from the holiday season into the new year. Quebecor’s Freedom, for example, has been pushing and holding…
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By Connie Thiessen
A cross-section of Canadian media advocacy and culture groups are taking issue with what was “missing” from last week’s federal budget, ranging from a lack of AI protections to allocating a bigger share of the federal advertising spend to local broadcasters.
Earlier this year, Stingray and a coalition of 20 independent broadcasters that included Central Ontario Broadcasting, Dougall Media, Durham Radio, Evanov Communications, Golden West Broadcasting, Pattison Media, and Vista Radio, appealed for a greater share of the $86M federal advertising spend to go to local media. Right now, more than 70 per cent is spent with digital…
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Bell subsidiary Northwestel and Chu Níikwän LP on Tuesday celebrated the official opening of the northern telecom company’s new tech headquarters in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Now housing Northwestel’s hybrid tech workforce, the new headquarters spanning 41,250 square feet is situated along the Yukon River on Quartz Road in Whitehorse on Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) settlement land. KDFN created Chu Níikwän LP in 2015 to implement economic development measures on behalf of the First Nation.
“We are incredibly proud to unveil our new Yukon tech headquarters and honoured to have been able to do this in partnership with Chu Níikwän. Our tech…
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Rogers Communications announced Tuesday it is collaborating with CableLabs to develop industry-leading network technology for Canadians.
The collaboration will see the establishment of “CableLabs North” — located in Calgary at Rogers Barlow campus (formerly Shaw’s Barlow campus) — which will bring together global industry partners and Rogers technologists to collaborate on network technology solutions, explains a press release. “Together, the teams will develop new innovative applications and provide customers seamless connections in and out of the home or workplace,” the release says.
“CableLabs North will develop technology to deliver 5G using cable network…
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CBC/Radio-Canada announced Thursday that it will provide Inuit TV with the rights to air CBC News: Igalaaq to broaden the reach of its broadcast and preserve and promote Inuit languages.
The public broadcaster expects the rights will “increase access and reach of CBC’s Inuktitut-language supper-hour news broadcast to new audiences,” it said in a release.
The program will air on Inuit TV, the Nunvaut government’s educational broadcaster focused on Inuit culture and language, starting April 3, 2024 at 1 pm EST and repeat at 5:30 pm from Tuesday to Saturday.
The program normally runs live each weekday at 6 pm EST from…
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The telco wants other satellite TV undertakings exempt
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell has filed a Part 1 application requesting that the CRTC exempt its ExpressVu satellite TV service from its obligation to contribute 5 per cent of its gross annual revenues toward Canadian content.
The telco said the reasons for this request are because of the “significant challenges” facing the traditional broadcasting industry in general and the satellite TV service undertakings in particular; that ExpressVu doesn’t make a “meaningful contribution” to the objectives of the Broadcasting Act; and that the condition applied to such satellite services is unfair when small BDUs and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri told members of the House of Commons industry committee Monday that the wireless price increases it announced in January affect only a small percentage of legacy customers and that millions of customers switched providers and plans last year against a backdrop of increasingly lower prices.
Members of the committee called a meeting with the heads of the country’s three largest telecoms to address concerns about wireless prices after Rogers announced that month that it would hike prices for certain off-contract customers by an average of $5 and by as much as $9.
Staffieri…
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