Search Results for: telus

Cable / Telecom News

Telus first to launch 4K HDR TV

VANCOUVER – Telus said Thursday that it is now the only Canadian TV provider to support 4K HDR, providing Optik TV customers with an unmatched viewing experience. To experience 4K HDR, customers need a 4K HDR-capable TV, a Telus 4K PVR and Telus Internet 50 or higher. Optik TV subscribers can currently enjoy 4K HDR content On Demand, with titles like Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II, plus films like Justice League, Dunkirk and Blade Runner 2049. A growing catalogue of 4K HDR-compatible titles can be accessed by pressing the On Demand button on Optik TV remote and choosing the… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

PIAC and NPF want CRTC to mandate affordable pay-as-you-go wireless plans

OTTAWA – Seeking to address a “noticeable gap” in affordable, occasional-use pay-as-you-go wireless plans, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and National Pensioners Federation (NPF) have asked the CRTC to order the national wireless carriers to offer them. In an application filed Friday, PIAC-NPF asked the Commission to apply a condition of service directing Rogers, Bell and Telus to make occasional-use retail wireless plans broadly available to consumers in the same manner as the Commission proposed to do with lower-cost data-only plans in its ‘skinny wireless’ decision last month.  The application also asks to combine the two proceedings “to… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Bravo readies new dramas for spring freeview

TORONTO – The second season of hit drama The Handmaid’s Tale will headline Bravo’s nation-wide free preview  that will kick off April 24. The Bell Media-owned service said that other high profile premieres rolling out during the freeview include original Canadian crime drama series Carter, starring Jerry O’Connell, on May 15 at 8:00 PM ET, plus detective crime drama Hard Sun, which will make its exclusive Canadian series premiere on May 6. Season two of the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning The Handmaid’s Tale will debut with a two-episode premiere event on April 29 at 9:00 PM ET.  Viewers wishing to catch… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

Telecom, Internet gripes lead 73% surge in complaints to CCTS

OTTAWA – Complaints to the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) shot up 73% over last year, led by Canadian wireless customers’ grievances over non-disclosure or inaccurate information about their terms of service. In its mid-year report released Tuesday, CCTS said it accepted 6,849 complaints between August 1, 2017 and January 31, 2017, up by more than 2,800 from the 3,955 complaints that it received in the same period a year earlier. While CCTS began accepting TV complaints on September 1st, it received only 846 complaints that contained TV issues.  Of those, 230 were solely about TV; in the… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Telus tackles home dead zones with Boost Wi-Fi

VANCOUVER – Telus is offering its Internet customers a new system that extends the reach of their in-home Wi-Fi signals to ensure that every corner of their home receives a strong and reliable Internet connection. Telus Boost Wi-Fi uses a network of “boosters”, up to five per household, to efficiently relay the Wi-Fi signal and create additional hotspots wherever a stronger signal is needed.  The system is outfitted with Smart Wi-Fi technology that optimizes device performance as a user moves from room-to-room, ensuring each device is connected to the optimal booster relative to its location. The system may be set up with… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News, Radio / Television News

FairPlay: What’s the cost? What’s the tech? And, does the CRTC have the authority?

Nearly 10,000 submissions, most by people who didn’t read the proposal GATINEAU – The FairPlay Coalition has a fight on its hands. Last week saw the passing of the deadline to respond to the CRTC’s call for comments on the public proceeding opened to consider the FairPlay Coalition’s call for a new agency to help fight online piracy of content. In January, the coalition of Canadian artists, content creators, unions, guilds, producers, performers, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibitors proposed the CRTC establish something called the Independent Piracy Review Agency (IPRA), which would assist it in identifying websites blatantly engaged in content theft –… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

600 MHz auction rules set; will happen in March 2019, government expects a minimum of $1.54 billion

TV stations will be moving OTTAWA – As expected, 30 MHz of an available 70 MHz of new wireless spectrum to be auctioned off next year will be set aside for smaller, regional companies and possible new entrants in an attempt to push additional competition in the Canadian wireless market. Wednesday evening, just as the federal government shut down for a two week Easter Break, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada released the much anticipated framework for the auction of 600 MHz spectrum, a band prized for its ability to both travel long distances… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

UPDATED: Commission gives Big Three a month to come up with skinny wireless

GATINEAU – Today the CRTC said no, for now, to Wi-Fi first mobile operators, effectively shutting down the business plan that was Sugar Mobile, it dramatically slashed the wholesale rates network owners can charge others to roam on their networks, and it gave Rogers, Bell and Telus a month to come up with new skinny wireless data plans for Canadians. While confirming that Wi-Fi first network operators can not roam on cellular networks and become full fledged resellers, and making no determinations on mandated MVNOs, the Commission decided instead to respond to the federal government’s request to re-examine its wholesale… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Ontario ISPs band together to fight pole rate increases

TORONTO – Internet service providers of every size and shape (except one big one) have launched a new coalition to rally Ontarians to help them battle large proposed rate increases for utility pole attachments. While some local hydro companies have been pushing rates far higher, the Ontario Energy Board wants to set a standard rate across the province of $52 per pole per year, far above the current rate of $22.35. The three largest utilities, Hydro One, Toronto Hydro and Hydro Ottawa, have already boosted their rates to $41, $42 and $53. Such rate increases for pole attachments will only… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

COMMENTARY: $200 million for 5G. Still zero million for those who can’t afford any G

THE SHALLOW BANALITY of the announcement is what’s initially most irksome. Today’s press release touted the federal government’s involvement in helping fund leading-edge 5G technology development in Ontario and Quebec – something it says is brand new but was actually announced 17 months ago – and the best three levels of government and five leading tech companies can come up with as a lead is: “Imagine a world where you start off the day right because your refrigerator has tracked how much food you have and ordered replacement items for you. Your commute… Continue Reading