TORONTO – There may have been over a dozen topics on the hit list for this year's regulatory blockbuster session at this year’s Canadian Telecom Summit, but the six panelists kept coming back to one: MVNOs, yea or nay.
Moderator Greg O'Brien, editor and publisher of Cartt.ca, set the tone, commenting, "This panel is often fun, always a little prickly, which is part of the fun
“The industry is being transformed from all sides," he went on. "It's being changed from within, from without, and, crucially, from Ottawa."
Key among the events include the broadcast and telecom legislative review panel, a proposed…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced an expansion of its Connecting For Good portfolio Wednesday that will see two of the initiatives launch in Manitoba and New Brunswick.
In its home province of British Columbia, the company pledged to boost its Internet and Mobility for Good programs to encompass an additional 25,000 families and youth.
Telus Internet for Good offers low cost, high-speed Internet to families with children currently receiving income or disability assistance from the provincial government. Eligible families in B.C. will receive a letter from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction with instructions on how to activate Telus’ offer of…
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TORONTO – In front of a backdrop of a Canadian Pacific train winding its way through the Rockies, Telus technology strategy EVP Eros Spadotto (right) offered a more creative take on the message Canadian wireless carriers are delivering at the 2019 Canadian Telecom Summit.
During his Wednesday morning keynote (just hours ahead of ISED Minister Navdeep Bains’ speech), Spadotto drew parallels between what our cross-country rail system delivered more than 100 years ago and what 5G wireless will be able to deliver very soon – saying it’s not, and never was, about the technology itself.
The developments brough on by sea-to-sea…
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MVNOs won't work in Canada
TORONTO – Shaw Communications’ Paul McAleese co-founded and ran a successful MVNO in the United States for a dozen years before coming back to Canada to head up Freedom Mobile.
While he’s still a satisfied investor in i-wireless, which runs the mobile offering of the Kroger chain of grocery stores, he said comparing that company and the U.S. wireless market in general to Canada’s is a mug’s game. First, the American market is just so much bigger, where MVNOs can carve out a living with low margins there thanks to American market scale in a way…
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TORONTO – Canadian government and telecommunications carriers have nothing to fear from Huawei's 5G network products, the chief security officer of the company's Canadian division told telecom industry leaders, and it is free from interference from Beijing.
"Huawei operates in over 107 countries around the world, and in each they comply with local rules and regulations," Olivera Zatezalo (pictured) told the Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday during a panel session on cyber security. "All I can tell you is in Canada we are 100% compliant" with whatever the government asks.
Asked specifically about the company's independence, she said Huawei Canada is…
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TORONTO – Telecommunications companies had better drop their deceptive and bullying consumer sales practices before they gets smacked by Ottawa, the head of a consumer group warned industry leaders.
"This will continue to be a political issue for you and it may trip up your other businesses because it resonates with the public," John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said Monday during a panel discussion on improving customer experience at the annual Canadian Telecom Summit.
"You guys are too big and too important now to think that what you do for business is your only consideration."
His…
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OTTAWA – Telus has consolidated its regulatory and government relations office in Ottawa with the departure of three senior staffers.
Departing this week are Johanne Senecal, SVP regulatory and goverment affairs; Alexa Young, VP government relations; and Ann Mainville-Neeson, VP broadcasting policy and regulatory affairs.
The company has not announced replacements for the trio. Stephen Schmidt, vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel will now have a bit more on his plate.
Senecal had been at Telus for a little over over two years and Young just a year. Mainville-Neeson did send out an email to friends saying: “After 14…
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TORONTO – While there are no Canadian carrier CEOs on the speakers’ schedule this year, those executives not in attendance will certainly be paying attention to next week’s Canadian Telecom Summit when it opens Monday morning.
(Ed note: For long-time CTS attendees, this year it is being held at the International Centre, which is just up Airport Road a ways from its former Congress Centre home.)
The event kicks off with an interview on stage with Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada (the questions, however, are coming from another Cisco-ite, Ian Campbell, the company’s CTO, service provider mobility and automation, so…
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VANCOUVER – Telus unveiled a new structure for its Optik TV programming Tuesday that sees the addition of “premium entertainment” such as Crave, HBO, Netflix, and multicultural and sports packs bundled directly into TV packages.
The three packages in the new structure each include the Optik TV Essentials channel pack as well as either 4 Theme Packs and 1 Premium for $65 per month, 7 Theme Packs and 1 Premium for $80 per month, and 11 Theme Packs and 2 Premium for $110 per month, all on a two year term. The packages are available now for new and renewing customers…
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Premium Shaw Wireless brand is coming
TORONTO – Speaking at TD Securities Media and Telecom Forum in Toronto last week, Shaw Communications’ wireless president Paul McAleese, echoing similar statements made by Bell and Telus earlier, had strong words concerning the potential government-mandated introduction of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) into the Canadian wireless marketplace.
(Ed note: McAleese knows the MVNO space very well, having spent 12 years in the United States running i-Wireless, an MVNO owned and operated by the Kroger grocery store chain running on the Sprint network.)
“I feel it’s an area that’s badly misunderstood by most,” McAleese said. “…
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