Search Results for: telus

Cable / Telecom News

Telus extends wireless to underground SkyTrain tunnel in downtown Vancouver

VANCOUVER — Telus announced Wednesday the launch of wireless service to the underground Dunsmuir SkyTrain tunnel between Stadium-Chinatown and Waterfront stations, allowing its customers to stay connected on the entirety of TransLink’s Expo SkyTrain line in downtown Vancouver. TransLink says it provides more than one million journeys across its integrated transit network each day, and the 1.4-kilometre route through the underground Dunsmuir Tunnel is one of the busiest stretches along the SkyTrain network. The extension of wireless service to the route includes the Granville and Burrard station platforms. Eros Spadotto, Telus executive vice-president of technology strategy and business transformation added: “Any… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Wireless Review: Quebecor may sue feds if MVNOs mandated, execs poke holes in Cogeco’s hope

Consumer groups say it’s worth risking network quality for MVNO access GATINEAU – The only two telecoms which appeared in front of the CRTC on Tuesday during day six of the Commission’s wireless policy review took some time to urge the commissioners to look at the limitations of Cogeco’s hybrid mobile network operator model. That model would allow MVNOs which already own and operate wired or wireless networks to lease network space from the big three national players – Bell, Rogers and Telus – in exchange for continuing to invest in their own infrastructure in their own operating territories. Quebecor said it… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Huawei hires former Liberal Party candidate as latest political player in lobbying efforts

By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA – Chinese telecom tech manufacturer Huawei has hired an unsuccessful 2019 Liberal Party candidate to lobby the federal government on its behalf – the latest move in a strategy to hire former political party operatives to carry the message that it’s not a security threat to Canada. Antoine Bujold, a government affairs advisor at Consilium in Boischatel, Quebec since 2014, was registered as a Huawei lobbyist on February 21 to “assist the client in its effort to meet with the Government to discuss Huawei Canada’s current and long-term investments and business objectives in Canada,” including issues from… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus lights up highway dead zone in B.C.’s north

VANCOUVER — Telus announced today it is bringing wireless connectivity to a 20-kilometre stretch of Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Terrace, B.C., as the result of investing more than $1 million in building a new cell site. Construction on the new cell tower was completed in December and connects users to Telus’s 4G LTE network. The new cell site is located approximately 60 kilometres west of Terrace, and brings coverage to an area that was previously one of the longest stretches of Highway 16 without any cellular service, the news release says. Telus now provides coverage to more… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Wireless Review: Former Big Three exec blasts large carriers’ “laughable” threats

CCSA says mandated access to 5G nets is a must for rural GATINEAU – In advising the CRTC to mandate just one national MVNO to boost mobile wireless competition here, three former wireless and telecom executives said threats from the big national players about reduced investments and job cuts are not to be taken seriously. “The market is so clearly dominated by the Big Three ,” Alek Krstajic, the former Freedom CEO and past executive at Bell and Rogers, told CRTC commissioners at the beginning of the second week of the Regulator’s review of the wireless industry. “In fact,… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Wireless Review: TekSavvy laments the “illusion of competition”

GATINEAU – Canada’s largest third party internet access provider, TekSavvy, wants to add wireless to its mix as a mobile virtual network operator and its executives warned the CRTC on Friday not to fall for the pretend competition it says the Big Three provide in the Canadian wireless market. The flanker brands of the Big Three (think Koodo, chatr and Lucky, for example) were created as a way to make it look like there are loads of wireless companies in the market when Rogers, Bell and Telus own 90% of the wireless subscribers in Canada, just under various brand names,… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

CRTC lawyer calls site blocking hearing “one sided,” predicts order will fail on appeal

By Ahmad Hathout OTTAWA – A hearing that culminated in an unprecedented federal court order forcing internet service providers to block certain websites was unbalanced and will likely fall by the wayside as more intervenors weigh in at the appeal level, according to emails from a CRTC lawyer. “What I would like to see is a re-do of the Federal Court motion,” William Abbott said in an email to an address that is redacted in newly unveiled communications obtained through access to information law. Abbott is a former Bell lawyer who took a legal counsel role at the CRTC in… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Quebecor vs. Bell: Telus and Cogeco say standstill rule valid tool in CRTC arsenal

OTTAWA – Telus and Cogeco are arguing in court that the standstill rule that has effectively forced Quebecor to deliver its TVA Sports signal to Bell customers is a completely valid way for the CRTC to enforce the status quo in the public interest, contrary to the claims of the two principal players in this legal battle. The role of the CRTC under section 10 of the Broadcasting Act is to ensure consumers don’t become “collateral damage when either attempts to leverage its market position in an anti-competitive fashion to extract unfair benefits from its counterparty,” Telus said in… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus invests $2 million to bring wireless to Gold River and Tahsis; will hit every B.C. community with 1,000 or more

VANCOUVER — Telus announced Monday it has invested $2 million to build two new cell sites in Gold River and Tahsis, bringing wireless voice and Internet services to these west coast Vancouver Island communities for the first time. In addition to this investment, Telus is collaborating with the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation to upgrade wireless services in the community of Tsaxana later this year, says the news release. Last week Telus announced it had achieved the milestone of bringing wireless connectivity to every community in British Columbia with a population of 1,000 people or more. Telus said it is committed to… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

ENCQOR 5G signs up six Canadian telcos for testbed trials

MONTREAL — The ENCQOR 5G testbed initiative Thursday announced it has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with six telecom service providers in Canada — Bell, Cogeco, Ecotel (Ambra Solutions), Rogers, Telus and Vidéotron. ENCQOR stands for Evolution of Networked Services through a Corridor in Quebec and Ontario for Research and Innovation. The Canada-Quebec-Ontario partnership has a mandate to bring together small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and academia to contribute to the advancement of research, innovation and demonstration of applications through a pre-commercial 5G testbed. ENCQOR 5G has five Digital Innovation Hubs, located in both Quebec and Ontario, providing a 5G… Continue Reading