TORONTO – While a wide range of hopeful competitors have backed a mandated MVNO, or some sort of variant on it, regime from the CRTC, CFOs from two of Canada’s Big Three Telecoms – Glen LeBlanc (Bell) and Telus’ Doug French – insisted last week such a move would be irresponsible of the Commission to implement.
Speaking at TD Securities Telecom and Media Forum in Toronto last week, the executives, in separate presentations, touted their respective company investments in having built the infrastructure that now serves Canadians from coast to coast. (MVNO =…
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OTTAWA – Wireless carriers will have to provide more granular data to the CRTC, after all.
As part of its submission to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services, the Competition Bureau wants to, among other things, do a detailed study on what happened locally (not just in provinces and nationally) when new wireless competitors to the Big Three (Rogers, Bell and Telus) were introduced. To do that, the Bureau needs far more detailed data than the CRTC has asked for in its original requests for information upon the proceeding’s call.
The wireless carriers and…
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Bell also asks for return of long-term contracts
GATINEAU – Competition in the Canadian wireless market is already heated and getting hotter, resulting in an overall and ongoing decline in wireless prices while new competitors continue build out new facilities and take customers from them, so why upset that momentum now, and just at the dawn of 5G, Rogers, Bell and Telus have asked in their submissions to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services.
It will surprise no one that the submissions largely hit many of the same themes, especially in their stance against mandating mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs),…
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MONTREAL – Telus will invest $53 million in its wireless and wireline networks in Greater Montreal this year as part of a five-year billion dollar commitment in the province of Quebec, the company said Tuesday.
These investments are part of a 20-year partnership agreement between Telus and the Old Port of Montréal Corporation (OPMC) to equip the landmark site with new technologies, including C-RAN wireless technology and a free high-speed Wi-Fi zone.
Telus said that it has already invested $4 million in the Old Port to create an open-air technology lab which will be used by the new PY1…
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VANCOUVER – Telus has proclaimed itself Canada’s #MostGivingCompany after contributing $150 million and one million volunteer hours to charitable organizations in the past year.
This month also marks the start of Telus’ 14th annual Days of Giving that will see 40,000 employees and retirees volunteer at thousands of activities to help create more sustainable communities across Canada and around the world. In 2018, 36,000 Telus volunteers participated in Days of Giving events through nearly 2,000 initiatives, including sorting food at food banks, filling backpacks with school supplies for children in need, and serving healthy meals to feed the hungry.
“Companies that embrace social…
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GATINEAU – When the CRTC launched its review of mobile wireless services earlier this year it stated: “This proceeding will focus on three key areas: Competition in the retail market; The current wholesale mobile wireless service regulatory framework, with a focus on wholesale MVNO access and the future of mobile wireless services in Canada, with a focus on reducing barriers to infrastructure deployment.”
This focus on Mobile Virtual Network Operators sure did not fall in deaf ears – and some players jumped right in with strong support since the high cost of entry into the wireless business means many players…
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GATINEAU – In its submission to the CRTC’s review of mobile services, Cogeco – which already offers cable, Internet and local phone in various markets in Quebec and Ontario – has proposed another way to get into wireless without losing its shirt.
With less than 800,000 wired subscribers, the company can hardly afford the cost of entry in the wireless club but definitely wants to add mobile so it can provide the entire bundle of services to customers. For years, Cogeco has been advocating a mandated Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) regime to piggyback on larger wireless operators at cost…
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OTTAWA – Canadians who live in areas without a strong regional wireless competitor pay more for their mobile plans, according to the Competition Bureau.
In its comments for the CRTC’s mobile wireless services review, the Bureau said that 10GB plans, for example, can be priced as low as $60-$75 per month in Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan (i.e where Bell, Rogers and Telus compete with regional players Videotron, Bell MTS and SaskTel). By comparison, the same 10GB plans in other provinces and territories can be as much as 80% higher, priced at $105-$110 per month.
Factors such as network quality, coverage,…
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GATINEAU – Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
That was the unusual, if creative, way SaskTel chose to demonstrate how, if the CRTC is going to mandate third party wireless resellers, we can expect a much worse competitive market that causes serious damage to regional independent mobile wireless operators.
“Mandated MVNOs will harm 4th carriers more than the National Wireless Carriers. In any market, there is a portion of the customer base which is most likely to move to a new competitor, a portion which is quite unlikely to change, and a portion somewhere between these…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC needs to be “split up in terms of the kinds of people making broadcasting decisions and the kinds of personnel making telecom decisions,” said Tim Denton, chairman of the Internet Society Canada Chapter (ISCC) at the two-day Policy 3.0 Communications Law conference organized by the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications last week.
Denton, a former CRTC commissioner who now works as a consultant on Internet and telecom policy, also called for the creation of a chief technology officer within the Commission to provide advice on current technology-related issues. He said the CRTC needs to…
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