Company adds 60,000 wireless subs in Q4
CALGARY – While so many industries and companies have suffered through the Covid-19 crisis, Canadian telecoms like Shaw Communications have proven resilient because people need connectivity. This pandemic has shown that like never before.
The company’s fiscal 2020 results released Friday were in line with pre-Covid guidance, including adjusted EBITDA growth of 3.7% and free cash flow of $747 million, and included an addition of 60,000 new wireless subscribers in the fourth quarter (which includes Freedom Mobile and newly launched Shaw Mobile), ended August 31st. Wireless service revenue grew 17.4% to approximately $815 million…
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CALGARY – Westerners can now buy Shaw Fibre+ Gig along with Shaw Mobile at any of The Mobile Shop locations found in 52 Real Canadian Superstore and T&T Supermarket stores, the company announced Thursday.
“We’re working, learning and socializing more online with more devices than ever before, so everyone is looking to maximize their home internet value without sacrificing connectivity. That’s why we wanted to make it easier for Western Canadians to get the internet and wireless services they need at the same place they go every week for their groceries,” said Paul Deverell, Shaw’s president, consumer, in the press…
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CALGARY — In what it calls a first for Western Canada, Shaw Business today announced it has deployed an industrial-grade private LTE network custom-built for mining systems, which will used to provide greater coverage and connectivity at Teck Resources’ Elkview Operations in British Columbia.
(Private LTE networks have been deployed at mining sites in other parts of the country, including Agnico Eagle’s LaRonde mine in Abitibi, Quebec.)
Developed in partnership with Nokia, the 5G-ready private LTE network built exclusively for Teck was created to support the mining company’s RACE21 initiative designed to transform how the company mines by harnessing technology…
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CALGARY — As Shaw Communications continues to push its new wireless service, the company announced today it’s dropping the starting price of Shaw Mobile’s Unlimited Data plan to a very low $25, but it’s an exclusive rate available to subscribers of Shaw’s residential Fibre+ Gig Internet service.
Starting today in B.C. and Alberta, new and existing Shaw Fibre+ Gig Internet customers can get Shaw Mobile’s Unlimited Data plan with 25 GB of Fast LTE data (speeds are slowed if the 25 GB monthly threshold is surpassed) and unlimited nationwide calling and global texting for $25 per month. When Shaw…
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Will Canada’s big media companies even show up for the streaming wars?
By Brad Danks
LIKE MANY PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY, I wasn’t surprised to see Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi shut down last week after rapidly blowing through $1.8 billion in start-up financing. The business model had so many flaws it was just a matter of when it would implode, rather than if.
A staff member reminded me I predicted at Quibi’s launch that they wouldn’t last six months; they made it to seven so I was off by a month. However, predictions aren’t important. What is important is looking at the reasons…
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Must pay nearly $18 million to production funds
By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Bell Canada “misallocated” millions of dollars of funding for Canadian programming and failed to meet its obligations to community television programming by using much of its required funding for community TV on shows that clearly furthered Bell Media’s commercial interests, the CRTC announced in a lengthy (26,632-word) decision rendered on Thursday.
The performance of Bell’s community television was reviewed as part of its Fibe TV licence renewal, the company’s IPTV network in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and as a result of the violations, Bell has been directed…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications today launched Cyber Protect for Shaw Business, a new service which will provide increased network security measures for business customers.
“Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and increasingly sophisticated. With the amount of sensitive and confidential information that businesses share and store online, a single cyberattack has the potential to be absolutely crippling,” said Katherine Emberly, Shaw’s business division president. “By acting as a key line of defence against cybercriminals, Cyber Protect from Shaw Business will help alleviate the uncertainty and worry many customers feel when it comes to network security, and allow them to focus on…
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Feds say attachment costs “often prohibitively expensive”
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – The newly-appointed board of directors of the Ontario Energy Board will oversee a review of pole attachment rates in the province, according to a mandate letter sent earlier this month, a priority assignment that is aligned with the province’s efforts to reduce equipment install costs to drive its broadband expansion goals.
Captured in just one line underneath a section on reducing regulatory burdens, the letter requires the “modernized” board to “consider pole attachment policy in the context of opportunities to better serve areas that are currently underserved.”
Ontario has the highest…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In 2013, the CRTC licenced the Seasonal Channel, a category B television channel owned by Stingray that would “feature still pictures and moving video of nature scenes with appropriate music that will change based upon the season to create a soothing video environment.”
In its 2019 licence renewal, questions were raised as to whether the channel, called Ambiance at that point, should be exempted under the Still Image Exemption Order. As Stingray said, in a letter to the Commission, on February 7th 2019: “It is also important to note that Stingray Ambiance is currently the only…
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OTTAWA — Nokia announced today a new agreement with Ontario-based Greener Acres Canada to turn electronic waste into smart city green poles that will replace traditional utility poles.
Using the almost 50,000 tons of recycled e-waste collected annually in Ontario, Greener Acres plans to use special manufacturing techniques to produce up to 1,000 smart city green poles per day, says Nokia’s press release.
Under the agreement, Nokia and Greener Acres will work together to develop and upgrade Canada’s utility pole infrastructure to smart, green poles that can power smart cities and broadband communications. According to the release, each year Canada…
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