OTTAWA – The CRTC is not satisfied with Telus’ proposals to address violations of undue preference regulations regarding the marketing of OUTtv, and has given the telco until June 20 to come up with a more detailed marketing plan to promote the national gay and lesbian network as part of a lifestyle extra package on its OptikTV service.
In its December 2012 decision, the Commission found that Telus failed to market OUTtv in a manner comparable to other similar services on its Optik TV distribution service and subjected OUTtv Network to an undue disadvantage. The…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile CEO Tony Lacavera told folks at the Canadian Telecom Summit this week that sure, with the federal government denying the bid from Telus to take over Mobilicity he’d be interested in talking about buying the struggling wireless firm, but there was another thing he said that caught our attention.
Namely, while Lacavera said thank you to the federal government for its announcements on spectrum transfers Tuesday, he also had some advice for the feds as well: Lift all foreign ownership restrictions in telecom, then let Bell and Telus merge and go international.
“We…
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TORONTO – With an aging population that will help Canada spend $250 billion annually on health care by 2020, it’s absolutely imperative that our health care providers dramatically accelerate their adoption of broadband technology and all that can mean, Telus chief commercial officer Joe Natale told Canadian Telecom Summit delegates on Tuesday.
The message was overshadowed completely by the federal government’s announcement on wireless spectrum which, in part, denied the application made by Telus to acquire Mobilicity, but Natale’s main theme is one our country absolutely needs to hear.
“Today, healthcare spending consumes 42 cents of every…
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TORONTO – The idea of “TV anywhere” has not yet been realized in Canada, but it’s what consumers will demand very soon, according to industry experts who spoke during a special panel titled “The Revolution of TV: Content Anywhere and Anyhow” at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday afternoon.
“There are a lot of indications that we’re about to go through a major change,” said David Purdy, senior vice-president of content for Rogers Communications. “Today, we’re in the middle of a revolution, but it’s nascent.”
The panel discussion’s moderator, Peter Miller, chair of Interactive Ontario, quoted some statistics from CBC’s Spring…
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TORONTO – Cell tower sharing remains a white hot topic for wireless competitors and the issue raised its head Tuesday morning during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual regulatory blockbuster panel, moderated again this year by Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien.
Although mandated tower sharing was included in the 2008 AWS spectrum auction rules – as it will be for next year’s 700MHz spectrum auction – the problems for new wireless entrants are the growing costs to share tower space and that access rules are not adhered to by the three incumbents, said Ed Antecol, vice-president of regulatory affairs and…
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OTTAWA – The federal government said Tuesday that Telus can not buy Mobilicity right now and also pushed out the date of the auction of 700 MHz wireless spectrum to January of 2014.
Mobilicity’s network is built with AWS spectrum that was set aside for new competitors in 2008 and part of the rules of that set aside meant the spectrum could not be transferred to an incumbent for five years, a period which does not expire until February 2014. "Our government has been clear that spectrum set aside for new entrants was not intended to…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC’s new Wireless Code issued today allows consumers to cancel their mobile wireless contracts after two years even if they have signed on for a longer term, and also places caps on data overage and roaming charges.
The code, which will apply to new wireless contracts beginning December 2, 2013, requires wireless service providers to cap data overage charges at $50 and national and international roaming charges at $100 within a single monthly billing cycle. Additional charges cannot be added without a consumer’s consent.
The Commission says capping these charges is…
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VANCOUVER – The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) along with Telus, Rogers and Bell announced yesterday they are donating the $22,000 legal costs awarded in a court decision with the City of Nanaimo back to the city for support of its 911 emergency operations.
The CWTA and the wireless carriers were awarded the legal costs from the City of Nanaimo following a decision by the Supreme Court of British Columbia last July concerning a jurisdictional review of a municipal fee on 9-1-1 calls.
“Our goal in determining what role wireless carriers can play…
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NETWORK EXPANSION NEWS
Launches this week:
Telus continues investing in western Canada: $1 billion in B.C., $17 million more in Manitoba
VANCOUVER – Following its announcement Monday of a $700 million investment to upgrade its network in Alberta, Telus is continuing with its push into western Canada today with further investments of $1 billion in infrastructure and facilities in B.C. and $17 million to expand its 4G LTE network in Manitoba.
The $1 billion B.C. infrastructure investment is part of a three-year, $3 billion commitment made a year ago, and builds upon the…
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VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Ontario Superior Court of Justice today approved Telus’s proposed $380 million acquisition of struggling wireless carrier Mobilicity.
The court granted approval for the deal to proceed under the Canadian Business Corporations Act.
In a statement, Telus chief marketing officer David Fuller said the decision puts the company “another important step closer to completing this acquisition, which will allow Telus to save the jobs of Mobilicity’s 150 employees and continue service for their 250,000 customers without the disruption that company’s current financial issues could cause.”
Telus made the announcement to acquire Mobilicity…
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