TORONTO — In a climate where the prevailing feeling is wireless prices in Canada are still too high, a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) suggests Canadians spend less on wireless services than their counterparts in other countries.
In its new report, Understanding affordability of consumer mobile wireless services in Canada, PwC compares wireless spend in Canada to the U.S., Australia and the U.K. for what it calls a “high-level relative wireless affordability comparison against Canada.” When looking at the percentage of income spent on wireless in each of the countries, PwC found that, in 2016, an average Canadian household…
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MONTREAL – Another day, another Quebecor-Bell dispute.
While Bell Media announced today a new bi-lingual Crave service – which includes its French-language pay-TV channel Super Écran – Vidéotron is calling the move “another anticompetitive maneuver by Bell.”
The Quebecor-owned cable company said in a press release Tuesday afternoon it “has been forced to discontinue on-demand access to Super Écran content for its customers,” and that “as of today. Bell is also blocking access to its Super Écran Go app… for Videotron customers who subscribe to Super Écran.
“Videotron is disappointed that Bell is again using its market dominance to place its…
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CALGARY — Following up last week’s launch of its Mobile Health Clinic program in Ottawa and Waterloo Region in Ontario, Telus announced Tuesday it is expanding its Health for Good program in Calgary with the launch of The Alex Community Health Bus, powered by Telus Health.
Telus is partnering with The Alex healthcare hub to bring its Mobile Health Clinic to Calgary’s most vulnerable citizens, including at-risk youth and individuals living with complex needs. The Mobile Clinic is a specially equipped clinic on wheels that will provide primary medical and mental health care, including electronic medical records, directly to…
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HAIDA GWAII — Telus will become the sole provider of TV and Internet services on Haida Gwaii after the recent acquisition of a local service provider, according to a report in the Haida Gwaii Observer on Monday.
Gwaii Communications announced on January 16 in an email to its customers that a deal with Telus was reached on December 31, 2019, and would see the Mascon brand of Telus, which oversees its cable operations, take over the local Internet and television service provider, the report says. Telus purchased Mascon three years ago.
In 2017, Gwaii Communications bought QCIslands Net and…
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Interveners will have to sign NDA
MONTREAL and OTTAWA — Bell is ready to test an artificial intelligence-based system it has developed for blocking fraudulent phone calls, and says last week’s decision by the CRTC regarding its application brings it a step closer to launching its technology trial.
According to a Bell news release Friday, its AI-based network technology could potentially block an estimated 120 million more scam calls per month than Bell is able to stop using call-blocking methods currently mandated by the CRTC.
“Our industry has made solid progress in combatting these scam calls, and Bell’s innovative new AI…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – When the Competition Bureau filed in November its intervention to the CRTC’s wireless policy review, it was expected that the reactions would be spirited, and they are.
First, some objected because the Bureau (and its specially commissioned Matrix Report) reached conclusions based on confidential information and asked that some information be shared. In that regard, Bell and Rogers got what they wanted while CNOC and Telus are still waiting for word from the Commission when it comes to that data. Telus has warned the Bureau’s intervention should be deleted from the record for…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Quebecor is demanding the CRTC order CBC/Radio-Canada’s Tou.tv Extra paid streaming service to “cease its activities” because it goes outside the mandate of the public broadcaster and is an unfair competitor against Videotron and other regulated television service providers.
The CRTC isn’t about to go that far, but it has decided to look into whether there is an undue preference case to be made, in particular with a deal Radio-Canada has with Telus that provides Telus’s Quebec customers “exclusive” free access to the service.
Tou.tv Extra is the $7/month paid version of Tou.tv, which offers premium video…
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OTTAWA – NBCUniversal will head to Parliament Hill to lobby on favourable tax measures for the company that has created content in the country, as it prepares to push new products in the new year.
It’s the first time the mega media company out of New York (and of course owned by Comcast Corp.) has registered to lobby the feds after having done so with Alberta and Ontario this past fall. The federal registration, effective January 6, targets Canadian Heritage and seeks to “monitor” and “assist” in the “development of policies that encourage and not hamper the development of film…
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TORONTO — Telus is adding a dedicated hayu app to its Optik TV service interface to enable its Western Canada customers to easily access NBCUniversal International’s all-reality subscription video-on-demand service.
Telus customers in B.C. and Alberta can now access NBCUniversal’s hayu service directly within Telus Optik TV, via either channel 336 or from the app home page. Telus is the only carrier in Canada to offer customers a dedicated hayu app directly within the TV interface, the company said in its news release.
“Since launching in Canada over one year ago, hayu has grown to become the premiere destination for must-have reality…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – On any given day last month, about 180 drug users dropped by a supervised injection site operated by Ottawa Inner City Health in the parking lot of a homeless shelter in the city’s Byward Market neighbourhood. Most were men, with an average age of 45, struggling with mental-health issues and addicted to opioids.
“Many of them don’t have access to healthcare and mental-health care, which will drive opioid use,” Wendy Muckle, CEO of Ottawa Inner City Health, told Cartt.ca.
That will now change following Telus’s announcement on Tuesday that it has expanded its Health for Good program…
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