From Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers
By Phil Lind with Robert Brehl
IN 2013, HALFWAY THROUGH its mandate, Stephen Harper’s government was looking tired and bereft of captivating political ideas for the next election. It was then that the Conservative PM wrapped himself in his “Captain Consumer” cape and launched an assault upon Canada’s big three wireless phone companies: Rogers, Bell, and Telus.
He and his government were going to lower monthly wireless bills for consumers by cracking the cartel. Harper painted us as Russian-style oligopolists who feared increased competition, which was unfair and…
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LONDON, UK – Canadian wireless carriers received high marks for its consumer mobile video experience, ranking ahead of all other countries in North and South America, including the U.S., says mobile analytics company OpenSignal.
As a follow up to last month's State of Mobile Video Report, OpenSignal is now drilling down into the specifics of various regions, starting first with the Americas. Canada and Bolivia lead the Americas in the video experience analysis, with scores of 59.9 and 55, respectively, on a 100 point scale, landing both countries firmly in the Good category of video experience scale. The U.S. fell into to the Fair…
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GATINEAU – With the large Canadian telecom players reading the writing on the wall (where it appears the Commission is seriously considering some sort of new code of conduct for telecom sales practices) a few of the larger carriers last week set out some ideas for commissioners to consider while they deliberate.
Each company last week essentially told the CRTC during its hearing into telecom sales practices the same thing: “There’s no problem with us when it comes to selling wired or wireless products and services to Canadians.” If there is, added most of the intervenors, the problem stems mainly…
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GATINEAU – Back in August, when the CRTC and researcher Ipsos launched a survey on what Canadians think of the sales practices of Canadian telecom companies, much private (and some public) hue and cry arose from the carriers across the country.
The tight timeline for Ipsos to finish the survey and the weak overall structure and wording of the questions could only lead to negative answers, they said. They were right. The results came back substantially negative, but does that mean they have a point? Does the survey’s supposedly skewed queries mean the results should be tossed out?
Consumers and consumer…
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GATINEAU – If we may paraphrase some of the reaction by TekSavvy, Tbaytel and Eastlink representatives Wednesday morning in front of the CRTC it would be: "It seems strange to mandate us to continue being nice to our customers."
These three smaller independents (respectively, a wholesaler, a municipally owned telco and a regional wired and wireless carrier) also all had the same story to tell when it came to the dubious sales practices which have been so far outlined by consumers during the CRTC’s Telecom Sales Practices hearing this week in Gatineau:…
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Telecom Act takes precedence when it comes to rights of way, siting, etc.
CALGARY – The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta told the city of Calgary in no uncertain terms that it has no right to regulate where, when, why and how telecom infrastructure can be installed in the city.
In January Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Telus Corp. filed a motion to strike down a bylaw passed by the city to regulate the process for, access and use of municipal rights of way for telecommunications providers.
In a decision released Friday, the court agreed with the four large…
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YOU HAVE TO SYMPATHIZE with the folks who took the time to register their frustration with Canadian telcos and cellcos by filing an intervention to the CRTC’s latest hearing which begins Monday.
They feel lied to. They believe they were told one thing and sold another. That they were never informed how the price they agreed to was just a promotion which ends in six months. That they told sales reps the products and services they wanted and then had other things added onto their bills. That they ended up on a contract they didn’t want.
Having read through quite a…
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VANCOUVER – Telus CEO Darren Entwistle and Bell Canada CTO Stephen Howe will be among the opening speakers at a conference in Vancouver next month that promises to deliver a global perspective on the future of the 5G ecosystem.
The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance – which drives and guides the development of all future mobile broadband technology with a focus on 5G – is bringing together the mobile industry to discuss the future of this emerging ecosystem to a global audience at its 7th Industry Conference & Exhibition 2018 scheduled for November 6-8 at the JW…
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ON MONDAY, WE described a Federal Court of Appeal decision as one that strikes down the CRTC’s TV Wholesale Code.
Bell Canada had appealed the Code to the Court, saying the way it was implemented fell outside the CRTC’s jurisdiction – and in its decision released Monday the Court agreed with Bell, saying the Commission had no authority under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act to meddle in private carriage contracts the way the Wholesale Code mandates.
The decision seemed to us to be the end of that Code – and we were bolstered in that…
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AS THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of Canada’s fastest-growing telecommunications company, I understand corporations operate to make a profit. Profits build shareholder value and create jobs.
And in competitive environments, corporations will battle. I get that. My company is currently entangled in a heated dispute with Telus Corp. in Canada’s North. Of course, we think we’re right and Telus thinks something else. Lawyers are involved. The regulator is involved. Even politicians are beginning to take notice.
The problem is that innocent Canadians are involved, too.
And this week, I received a phone call from a CBC reporter that underlined that…
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