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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OTTAWA – Telus played host to a vital workshop last week called Tomorrow Is Now: A Workshop on 5G Technology, Operations, and Regulation.
Organized by the International Telecommunications Society (ITS) and featuring a strong roster of international speakers providing the perspectives from all angles including operators, regulators, technologists and academics, the workshop set out the current global 5G marketplace.
The race
Michael Murphy, Nokia’s head of technology for North America, provided a local 5G outlook. He reviewed operator launch plans, noting that soft launches began in the U.S. in 2018. He anticipates that all of the U.S. operators will offer 5G mobile…
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OTTAWA – With the global Internet of Things market predicted to swell to US$1.1 trillion by 2021, more complex applications and the need for greater security are driving innovation within the industry
This is a trend which a new tech accelerator announced today will attempt to address.
L-SPARK, a Canadian software-as-a-service (SaaS) accelerator, and Telus have partnered to launch the “Secure IoT Accelerator” program in collaboration with BlackBerry and data analytics company Solace. The Secure IoT Accelerator program is intended to enable Canadian Internet of Things (IoT) ventures by providing them global market reach capability with a secure by design…
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