OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau is asking Canadians to weigh in on BCE’s proposed acquisition of MTS and the subsequent sale of dealer locations and wireless subscribers to Telus.
The Bureau is currently reviewing the $3.9 billion deal as part of a merger review, where it consults with stakeholders like suppliers, competitors, industry associations and customers to obtain their feedback on the competitive implications of a proposed transaction. Under the Competition Act, the Bureau has a mandate to review mergers to determine whether they are likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition.
Canadian consumers and stakeholders are…
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OTTAWA – The short answer to that question is yes. However, is it the right answer, when there still is so often much disagreement about what net neutrality means?
While often valid, that complaint can’t be brought to the fore every single time there is a network dispute, said TekSavvy Solutions chief legal and regulatory officer Bram Abramson on Friday while presenting a paper to the Law Society of Upper Canada’s biennial conference on new developments in communications law and policy. That said, just because everyone now understands that traffic on all networks must be managed and has always been…
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OTTAWA – Can Canada maintain a rights market of its own for cultural content in the face of rampant and rapid technological change? If so, how? Should we? At what costs? What would any new rules say?
These very difficult, complex questions, along with Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly’s recent announcement that our aged legislation covering Canadian content rules will soon be getting an overhaul, were front and centre during the first morning of the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Biennial conference into new developments in communications law and policy at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
For example,…
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MONTREAL – The federal government and CRTC should allow “competitive pressure” to spur the telecommunications industry’s investments in new broadband infrastructure, and not repeat the “mistakes" caused by intervening in the wireless sector, says a new report released Thursday by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).
“Critics who note that access to high-speed Internet is limited in some regions of Canada, or among less advantaged socioeconomic groups, invariably conclude that government intervention will be necessary to close the gap, but what they consider a market failure is actually just the normal course of technology adoption”, reads the 2016 edition of The State of Competition in…
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VANCOUVER – Telus is selling 35% of its international call centre and business process services subsidiary Telus International to an Asian private equity firm in a deal worth about $600 million.
Telus said Thursday that it will retain its 65% majority ownership position in Telus International, which it said is valued at $1.2 billion based on the price paid by Baring Private Equity Asia.
Launched in 2005, Telus International provides customer service, IT, and business process services to the telecommunications, utilities, high tech, gaming, finance, retail, e-commerce, travel and logistics, and health care sectors. It has more than 22,000…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Telecommunications service providers cannot charge for a service that is not, and cannot be, provided following a cancellation, the CRTC stressed Thursday.
The Commission made the comments after issuing two decisions relating to its prohibition of 30-day cancellation policies, a move designed to make it easier for consumers to switch service providers. In the first decision, the Commission denied a request by Telus to direct Shaw Communications to cease requiring the payment of liquidated damages when small business customers cancel retail local voice or Internet services before service installation work has begun.
Noting that Telus’ focus on a single service…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – Telus will invest $62 million in new infrastructure and facilities in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and $30.5 million in Ottawa, Hull and Gatineau this year, the company said Tuesday.
The investments, part of Telus’ pledge to spend $1 billion in Ontario through 2019, will increase wireless speeds and capacity, enhance high-speed Internet for businesses, and help to deliver better healthcare solutions.
Specifically, Telus said that it will build new wireless sites to add capacity and extend the reach of its wireless network throughout the province, while enhancing and extending LTE to more than 99% of Ontarians. …
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TORONTO – BCE’s proposed acquisition of MTS will not only contradict the previous government’s push for four wireless players in every market, it could open the door for further consolidation in the rest of the market.
Canaccord Genuity Corp. analyst Aravinda Galappatthige said approval of the $3.9 billion BCE/MTS deal would “set a significant precedent, as it would reduce Manitoba to a three-player wireless market from four.”
“As a result, we also believe that this would give Shaw a potential exit strategy in wireless should it decide to sell Wind”, he wrote in a client note Monday. “In addition, we…
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MONTREAL and WINNIPEG – BCE Inc. is buying Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) in a transaction valued at $3.9 billion, the companies announced early Monday.
The combined company's Manitoba operations will be known as Bell MTS, recognizing the power of the MTS brand in the province. Winnipeg becomes Western Canada headquarters for Bell and, with the addition of MTS's 2,700 employees, Bell's Western team grows to 6,900 people.
Bell pledged to invest $1 billion in capital throughout Manitoba after the transaction closes to extend the availability of its Gigabit Fibe Internet, rollout Fibe TV and expand its LTE wireless network. MTS' data…
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TORONTO – Telus’ Koodo Mobile ranks highest in wireless customer satisfaction, followed closely by Videotron and SaskTel, says an annual study by J.D. Power & Associates released Thursday.
According to the J.D. Power 2016 Canadian Wireless Customer Care Study, customer service differentiation continues to be top of mind as wireless carriers face a maturing and potentially saturated market.
The study measures wireless customers’ perceptions of their carrier’s performance and is based on responses from more than 5,500 wireless customers collected in August – September 2015 (Wave 1) and March 2016 (Wave 2). Satisfaction is measured across four factors (listed in order of…
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