CEO Péladeau has already said he is interested in Freedom Mobile
By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau has been making headlines in recent weeks by suggesting he is interested in acquiring Freedom Mobile in the event that condition is forced by regulators as part of a Rogers-Shaw merger. Now, he’s sending lobbyists west to familiarize the brand.
During a conference call related to his company’s first quarter earnings report this month, Péladeau expressed interest in taking Videotron’s brand nationwide. He said regulatory conditions are better now, following the CRTC’s decision to give regional carriers access to the wireless…
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Says facilities-based is best
By Ken Kelley
TORONTO – When CRTC Chairperson and CEO Ian Scott looks back on all that has transpired in the last 15 months, he is especially proud of the way Canada’s ISPs rose to the unprecedented technological demands and other challenges posed by the pandemic. Speaking yesterday during a virtual event hosted by Canadian Club Toronto, Scott told Android Central’s Shruti Shekar industry players both big and small deserved a proverbial tip of the hat.
“Both large and small players navigated network management during an incredibly transformative period without a lot of disruption,” he told Shekar. “The…
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Rural areas need a single, open access, network
By Joe Hickey
IN A WORLD WHERE many causes are highly politicized, rural broadband access is a cause just about everyone can get behind. With it, Canada can improve rural access to education, healthcare, and economic growth. This is especially important in the wake of COVID-19, which put a glaring spotlight on the digital divide, and made it all the rage to support rural broadband access.
Even major urban telcos seem to be getting on board, with Rogers Communications promising a $1 billion rural broadband fund in its recent proposal to…
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By Howard Law
UNTIL LAST WEEK, PARLIAMENT’S Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage was plodding through the clause-by-clause review of Bill C-10 with no tasty headlines. Perhaps the bill’s revamp of the Broadcasting Act, which would sweep in Netflix, isn’t controversial anymore.
Of course, federal political partisanship is inevitable, as Canadian as bad weather.
And so, we now have the Conservatives’ faux controversy over free expression on social media platforms. In an e-mail blast from CPC MPs across the country, they made their case:
“Recently, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-10 – a bill that would regulate social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, and…
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TORONTO — A new study from J.D. Power finds Canadian wireless customers are satisfied overall with the support they get from their service provider, with Videotron ranking highest in customer care satisfaction compared to nine other carriers included in the study, which was released today.
Videotron achieved a score of 787 (on a 1,000-point scale) for wireless customer care satisfaction, followed by Virgin Mobile with a score of 774. SaskTel and Telus Mobility tied for third, with each receiving a score of 766. (Please see the chart for the full rankings.)
The J.D. Power 2021 Canada Wireless Customer Care Study measures…
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OTTAWA — The department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) released today its latest quarterly report on wireless plans, which shows prices for the majority of mid-range data plans across Canada have decreased since tracking began a year ago.
As Cartt.ca readers know, the federal government wants service providers to reduce the cost of wireless plans by 25% over two years (from the beginning of 2020 to early 2022), and has been tracking prices since January 2020.
For plans with 2 GB to 6 GB of data, the latest tracking data shows most of these plans have seen price…
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TORONTO – Wireless upstart Data On Tap (dotmobile), filed a petition to federal cabinet Tuesday asking the federal government to overturn the portion of the CRTC’s recent wireless policy decision which excluded a mandate for full mobile virtual network operators to participate in the wireless market in Canada.
Dotmobile is Canada’s first full MVNO but has yet been unable to come to a wholesale agreement with any Canadian wireless network operator (company owners say none of the carriers even return their calls seeking a meeting). The CRTC’s much-ballyhooed wireless decision, however, didn’t mandate access for full MVNOs like…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today in an information bulletin it is adopting a new standardized approach to monitoring linear community channels and on-demand community programming services, which will serve as general guidance going forward and will come into effect on September 1, 2021.
In July 2020, the Commission launched a proceeding to gather input on its proposed standardized approaches to monitoring community programming. The Commission received 10 interventions from Bell, Rogers, Cogeco, SaskTel, Telus, Csur la tele, the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC), the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), the Conseil provincial du secteur…
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LONDON, U.K. — In its first comparison of the 5G experience across Canada’s three national carriers, U.K.-based mobile analytics company Opensignal found there was no outright winner in any of the seven categories of user experience it analyzed for the report, released today.
Using data collected from its users between January 1 and March 31, Opensignal found three-way statistical ties between Bell, Rogers and Telus on three metrics — 5G availability, 5G reach and 5G upload speed — and in the remaining categories, users saw ties between two of the three operators, says Opensignal.
“In Opensignal’s first comparison of the 5G…
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TORONTO – The performance of Canada’s wireless networks remains flat year over year with an average of nine problems per 100 (PP100) connections, says the J.D. Power 2021 Canada Wireless Network Quality Study.
Additionally, 67% of wireless customers agree their carrier’s network is reliable when streaming music and videos, activities that account for a significant amount of time used on devices. In addition, 7% of customers say network speeds are faster than expected, reads the company announcement, which took a negative tone with the numbers it found.
“Despite massive investments in infrastructure and technology, customers remain relatively unimpressed by their carriers’…
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