MONTREAL – Former CRTC chair and Astral Media president André Bureau succumbed to cancer on Friday, April 12. He was 83.
A lawyer and communications business executive, Bureau was the illustration of a generation of smart, ambitious and well-connected young French-Canadian men that emerged after the “Révolution Tranquille”.
Born in 1935, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, he studied Law at Université Laval in Québec City and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1959. He also received a doctorate in comparative law at the Sorbonne, in France, in 1960.
In private practice from 1960, he practiced in his home town, where Le Nouvelliste (the…
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Industry, others, provide feedback
OTTAWA – On February 26th, the Government of Canada proposed new CRTC Policy direction to put Canadians at the forefront of future telecommunications decisions, as Cartt.ca reported.
By law, this proposed Order must be put for comments for a period of 30 days after being published in the Canada Gazette. April 8th was the deadline for intervenors to make their comments known to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
(Ed note: By law, the federal government doesn’t have to listen to any of the recommendations, if it has already made up its mind,…
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ST. ALBERT, AB – Telus will invest $100 million to connect more than 90% of homes and businesses in the City of St. Albert, including the neighbouring communities in Sturgeon County, directly to its fibre optic network.
The gigabit-enabled Telus PureFibre network will enable connected residents to immediately take advantage of dramatically faster Internet speeds of up to a gigabit, while businesses, schools, healthcare providers and other institutions can access even more speed and capacity, reads the news release. The network offers symmetrical service, meaning that customers can upload just as fast as they download.
Construction work will begin in June, and Telus said…
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Expect a pressure-packed, high-demand, 3500 MHz auction in 2020
BAY STREET’S TELECOM industry analysts were a little surprised at the $3.47 billion collectively shelled out by Canada’s wireless carriers for 600 MHz spectrum (except for Bell, which shelled out nothing for no 600 spectrum) in the federal government’s just-completed auction.
“(I)t appears the competition amongst (the big three) was far fiercer than expected, driving the price up to $1.89/MHz-pop and leading to a total spend of $2.65B,” wrote Canaccord Genuity’s Aravinda Galappatthige in a note to investors, which said he had expected the trio of Rogers, Bell…
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Auction raises $3.47 billion
OTTAWA – The results of Canada’s 600 MHz spectrum auction were announced after the markets closed Wednesday afternoon.
Rogers Communications acquired the most licences, 52, for a whopping $1.725 billion. “We are proud to make leading and meaningful investments to build the 5G ecosystem in Canada and to help drive our country’s global competitive advantage,” said Joe Natale, president and CEO, in the company press release. “This 5G spectrum is a precious and scarce resource that will benefit Canadians and Canadian businesses across the country.” Rogers was awarded licences in the A and…
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GATINEAU – During the final regular season game of the NHL season aired on TVA Sports this past weekend, the Quebecor-owned broadcaster warned viewers they were going to lose access to the channel when the NHL playoffs begin – and that it’s all Bell’s fault.
Currently, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau is leading a one-man public campaign decrying the state of affairs when it comes to specialty TV and the wholesale rates his TVA channels receive from carriers (please see our feature interview published here), since they are so much lower than Bell Media channels…
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Reiterates push for “granular data”
GATINEAU – The Canadian wireless market reaps $24.5 billion in annual retail sales, accounts for 155,000 jobs and 31.7 million subscribers (2017 figures*) so the stakes are rather high when it comes to another regulatory review of that market.
Old ways (facilities-based competition) may be thrown out with new ones mandated (MVNOs). The questions surrounding the CRTC’s latest review of the wireless market has created much unease and uncertainty inside Canada’s wireless carriers (and a glimmer of hope among those who want to launch new MVNO-based brands and…
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Small businesses must go through arbitration, not class action suit
OTTAWA – In an arcane but important ruling, the Supreme Court today determined that when Telus Ontario business subscribers must enter into mediation and arbitration when they have a dispute, and are not to join class action lawsuits.
The proposed class action against Telus was on behalf of about two million Ontario residents who entered into mobile phone service contracts with Telus challenging an undisclosed practice of rounding up calls to the next minute such that customers believed they were overcharged.
The question decided with today’s decision is whether both consumers and…
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VANCOUVER – Telus’ strategic investment arm Telus Ventures has added three early stage precision medicine and diagnostics-focused Canadian startups to its portfolio of health technologies.
Toronto-based Acorn Biolabs, Vancouver’s GenXys Health Systems and Vital Biosciences join Telus Ventures’ other active investment companies, and build on the more than 70 transactions made since 2001 to deliver on a commitment to help develop exciting, new health technologies with the potential to improve the health outcomes of patients across Canada and worldwide through the delivery of customized and timely patient…
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44% increase in complaints
OTTAWA – The mid-year report from the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) once again doesn’t look good for Canada’s telecom and TV providers.
The report released this morning shows a 44% increase in the number of complaints it received from Canadian telecom and TV customers between August 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019. This follows a 73% increase for that same period last year, so there has at least been improvement in the rate of growth in complaints at least.
Canadians complained most often about their wireless service, followed in order by…
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