CALGARY – The announcement yesterday that Shaw Communications plans to roll out U.S. cable giant Comcast’s X1 platform shows how the company is continuing an extensive internal makeover.
Last quarter, it told analysts it was moving away from bundling home phone in with all of its products because it no longer makes business sense and wasn’t particularly customer-friendly. Shortly before that, it restructured its TV business to move away from old silos and towards thinking more completely like a digital media company.
This quarter, during its Q3 conference call,…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada said today it will spend $1.4 billion in Toronto alone to bring fibre to every home and business, and then upped the stakes even further by announcing it will soon bring 1 Gbps speeds to many cities in its footprint – which is up to four times as fast as cable companies offer most of their subscribers in Bell's area.
BCE CEO George Cope said Thursday that Gigabit Fibe Internet and television service will start this summer some Toronto neighborhoods, and will be extended to all of Toronto in three years. Quebec City and Halifax will…
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GATINEAU – Consumer representatives say the CRTC’s proposed TV Service Provider (TVSP) Code of Conduct should mirror many aspects and be “as consistent with the Wireless Code as possible.” The broadcast distributors, on the other hand, say that while having a standard set of practices for all TV providers is a worthwhile initiative, using the wireless code as a template just won’t work.
The TV providers Code of Conduct idea is something that came out of the CRTC's Let's Talk TV, TV Policy Review.
In a joint submission, the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) and Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) argue that…
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TORONTO – Mobilicity has accepted, and Industry Canada, the Ontario Superior Court and late Wednesday the Competition Bureau, have blessed, Rogers’ proposal to acquire 100% of Mobilicity’s ownership for $465 million, the communications giant confirmed Wednesday morning.
The announcement also said Rogers will buy Shaw's unused AWS-1 spectrum for $100 million, in addition to the down payments made when an option agreement was originally announced in January 2013, and will then divest some of that spectrum to Wind Mobile. Specifically, Rogers and Wind will undertake an AWS-1 spectrum swap in Southern Ontario to create contiguous spectrum for Rogers, and Rogers will also divest certain…
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TORONTO – After close to two years in creditor protection and having had a pair of prior sales to Telus rejected by the federal government, Mobilicity and its creditors believe it finally has its suitor.
The company and its creditors will file this motion with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Wednesday morning to approve and authorize the sale of the company to Rogers Communications for $465 million, a deal which was accepted yesterday by the shareholders, according to the court documents. That is substantially more than what Telus offered ($380 million) in June of 2013, before the…
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OTTAWA – To cap or not to cap, that is the burning question in comments to Industry Canada’s proposals for its upcoming auction of unassigned AWS-3 and 700 MHz band spectrum. This is an argument that has played out many times in previous spectrum auction consultations, only this time, one of the large incumbents has switched sides.
Both Bell Mobility and Telus argue that new competitors now have enough spectrum in their holdings resulting from the previous spectrum auctions.
“New competitors have now secured both low-band (700 MHz) and higher-band spectrum (AWS-1, AWS-3 and 2500 MHz). It is now…
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TORONTO – Amidst reports that Rogers and Telus are battling to acquire Mobilicity, the owners and employees of the struggling wireless provider said Monday that have made an offer to Industry Canada and the federal government to acquire Mobilicity’s current subscribers, dealers, and partial infrastructure by setting up a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) relationship with any potential acquirer.
Obelysk Inc., the holding company of Mobilicity founder John Bitove, issued a statement saying that it wants to maintain the Mobilicity brand in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa where it currently operates, retain its 155,000 subscribers and current dealer network of…
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EDMONTON – Telus is investing $1 billion in Edmonton to connect more than 90% of homes and businesses directly to its fibre optic network over the next six years, the company said Friday.
When the service is launched in Edmonton later this year, local residents and businesses will be able to take advantage of Internet speeds of up to 150 Mbps. There is no requirement to be a current Telus customer to be connected to the network, nor are there any conditions to purchase services once the network construction is complete, the company added.
“Our $1 billion investment in Edmonton will…
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OTTAWA – Despite a drop in prices for many high-volume talk, text and data plans, Canada’s mobile wireless prices once again rank among the highest when compared to other G7 countries and Australia, according to an annual report commissioned by Industry Canada and the CRTC.
Prepared by Ottawa’s Wall Communications, the 2015 edition of Price Comparisons of Wireline, Wireless and Internet Services in Canada and with Foreign Jurisdictions is an annual telecom services price comparison study that combines and averages wireline, mobile wireless, broadband Internet, and mobile Internet service rates, as well as bundles of these services along with basic digital TV…
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THERE ARE TWO Canadian TV carriers who offer Netflix to their customers directly via their advanced television set top boxes: Cogeco Cable and Telus Optik TV.
After seeing a recent demo of Optik TV’s impressive capabilities and living with the Cogeco TiVo system for several months, it’s become impossible to imagine what all the other carriers could possibly be waiting for. Offering Netflix to existing customers this way is an utter slam dunk.
While my wife was once ambivalent about our cable subscription and asked repeatedly if it was worth what we pay, I’d have to move into my…
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