By Ahmad Hathout
A senior official from the Competition Bureau told members of Parliament on Monday that the watchdog is pleased with a proposed amendment to the Competition Tribunal Act that would shield it from cost awards except in limited circumstances, after it was forced to pay $12.9 million after challenging Rogers’s proposed acquisition of Shaw.
A proposed amendment in Bill C-59, which is one of two pieces of legislation to overhaul Canada’s competition rules, would limit the scope by which the Competition Tribunal can force the law enforcement agency to compensate private parties in the event it…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Quebecor executives said Thursday that they’ve been okay with forgoing revenue in a strategy to capture customers, which includes lower prices and competitive international roaming packages on the road toward bundled home internet with its newly acquired Freedom brand.
Freedom last year introduced a $50 “unlimited” talk and text plan with 40 GB of LTE data that can be used across Canada and the United States. It later launched a $65 global roaming plan that covers 73 destinations.
Hugues Simard, Quebecor chief financial officer, acknowledged the loss of revenue there but said the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telus’s proposal to ride on its competitors’ internet networks outside of its home territory would be destructive to facilities-based competition and would create an existential crisis for regional wholesalers, two prominent cable companies told the CRTC on Thursday.
Representatives from Telus said Wednesday that the Vancouver-based telecom should be able to wholesale internet capacity from competitor networks to drive diversity of choice and competition, or the regime would be “useless.” The telco also pushed back against claims that it is a national incumbent, instead saying that its preferred status would be a regional player that’s a new…
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Magnify Digital, a Vancouver-based company that specializes in audience development technology for the creative industries, announced last week the Canada Media Fund (CMF), Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) are joining founding sponsors Bell Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund and Telus Fund to expand Magnify Digital’s Audience Development Pilot.
The pilot leverages Magnify Digital’s ScreenMiner, a tool that “empowers producers and filmmakers by providing invaluable data to understand audiences, enhance marketing strategies, and increase viewership for their film, TV, and web content,” according to a press release.
“ScreenMiner aggregates data…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri said Thursday that the telecom’s completion of the first Canadian network slicing trial on its standalone 5G network will be an important component of its fixed wireless strategy.
Done in conjunction with Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, the trial showed that Rogers will be able to proactively direct and prioritize traffic on multiple lanes over the 5G wireless network. Rogers said the network will be able to determine whether the applications need lower latency, more speed or more capacity – say, for situations where a high-concentration of…
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For the first time in the 15-year history of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), Rogers has surpassed Bell in consumer complaints about telecom and TV services, according to the CCTS’s 2022-23 annual report, released Tuesday.
Between Aug. 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023, the CCTS accepted a total of 14,617 consumer complaints, representing a 14 per cent increase over the previous year, the report says, noting these complaints included increases in issues about quality of service, roaming charges, and contract disclosure issues.
Of the total complaints accepted by the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Members of Parliament on the industry committee said Thursday that they want a broad study on mobile wireless prices and want the heads of Canada’s major telecommunications companies in front of them after Rogers announced price hikes to service packages.
MPs said they want to invite to the committee Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri and its chief corporate affairs officer Navdeep Bains, Bell CEO Mirko Bibic, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, and Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau.
Some members verbally agreed that they needed Champagne and Staffieri in front of them by…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Cogeco CEO Philippe Jetté doesn’t want to discuss when he expects the company will launch a wireless service.
He was pestered with questions from journalists Thursday before the company’s annual general meeting — is it a matter of weeks, months, years? — but repeatedly said that they’re working toward a launch and would announce their plans in the near future. An actual launch is unlikely in the “short term” because “some preparation work remains,” he told analysts earlier.
Jetté expressed some frustration with the length of the process, both in terms of regulatory obligations and the slow pace of…
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Five Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs who are members of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU), including its two vice-chairs, are calling on the committee’s Liberal chair, Joël Lightbound, to initiate a hearing on the increasing prices of wireless services.
In a letter dated Jan. 8 and obtained by Cartt, INDU committee vice-chairs Rick Perkins (Conservative) and Sébastien Lemire (Bloc Québécois), along with Conservative MPs Ryan Williams, Bernard Généreux and Brad Vis, take aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government’s policy decisions that they claim “are increasing costs for Canadians across…
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Bell subsidiary Northwestel announced Tuesday it has connected the Northwest Territories community of Dettah to its newly built fibre line extending to Dettah from Yellowknife along the Ingraham Trail.
The upgrade means residents of the community can get internet download speeds up to 500 Mbps and unlimited data from Northwestel as well as access to the new Northwestel TV Plus service that offers live and on-demand TV.
“Northwestel first launched in-community fibre Internet to Dettah last year which upgraded the community from 15 Mbps to 50 Mbps speeds with the option for unlimited monthly usage….
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