VANCOUVER – Growth in its wireless and surprisingly, wireline businesses, drove fourth quarter revenue up by 6% at Telus to $2.85 billion from a year earlier, while EBITDA increased by more than 8% to $947 million. Net profit was $291 million, up 23% compared to earnings of $237 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share (EPS) rose 17% to $0.89.
Consolidated revenue growth was generated by an 8% increase in wireless revenue, due to continued subscriber and data average revenue per unit (ARPU) growth, and a 13% increase in wireline data revenue. Telus…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced late Thursday evening the company's president and CEO, Nadir Mohamed, has decided to retire in January 2014.
Mohamed was named CEO shortly after legendary company founder Ted Rogers died in late 2008. He began his communications career more than 30 years ago and joined Rogers in August 2000. He was president and CEO of Rogers Wireless from 2001 to 2005 and was appointed president and COO of Rogers Communications Group in 2005. Prior to joining Rogers, Mohamed spent 19 years at BC Tel (and later, Telus, when BC Tel was purchased).
"Nadir is a highly regarded…
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GATINEAU – Upstart wireless operator EastLink had its opportunity to address the contentious issue of a mandatory $50 cap on overage charges on customers bills as a way to prevent bill shock on day three of the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct hearing.
The Commission’s draft wireless code calls for a cap on additional fees of $50 (usually driven by data usage), but also says that once the cap is hit, the service provider is to suspend all service so that no more charges are incurred.
“We feel basically a cap is just not necessary or necessarily…
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OTTAWA – Responding to the growing use of mobile devices, the Greater Toronto Area beginning March 25, 2013 will be getting two new area codes says the Telecommunications Alliance (Bell, Rogers, Telus and Vidéotron). In Toronto, the 437 area code will be added to the 416/647 area codes. In the 905/289 region, the 365 area code will be introduced.
The new 437 and 365 area codes will provide additional telephone numbers with no impact on existing telephone numbers says the alliance. The new area codes will coexist with the current ones and will come…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association urged the CRTC to take national responsibility for regulating consumer cell phone contracts. The CWTA made the comments during the first day of hearings into a wireless code of conduct.
Canadians “would be best served by a single set of regulations, not today’s patchwork of provincial laws, regulations, guidelines and interpretation bulletins,” said CWTA president and CEO Bernard Lord. He urged the Commission to adopt a code that “supersedes any current or future provincial legislation in this area.”
Under questioning, the CWTA said multiple pieces of guidelines, codes or legislation will only increase costs…
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GATINEAU – CRTC commissioners said they are concerned Canadian wireless companies are overcharging their customers when the device subsidy is paid off and there isn’t a corresponding drop in their monthly bill.
On Tuesday morning during day two of the Wireless Code of Conduct hearing, chairman Jean-Pierre Blais wondered if Telus customers who have paid off their device subsidy will see a reduction in their monthly bill. The company said it doesn’t happen automatically and consumers have to request it.
David Fuller, chief marketing officer at the “future is friendly” wireless operator, said customers can see a bill reduction, but only…
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SALMON ARM, B.C. – Telus has invested $600,000 to bring its 4G LTE network to customers in Salmon Arm, B.C. The carrier has rolled out its 4G LTE to more than 80% of British Columbians in 2012 and plans to connect even more by the end of 2013.
“Telus is committed to providing the best service to our customers, and that includes offering people in Salmon Arm the fastest wireless technology available in the world today,” said Bert Braybrook, Telus director, Customer Solutions Delivery, Kamloops/Cariboo region.
“With a 4G LTE device like the Samsung Galaxy…
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INDUSTRIES CONSOLIDATE. All industries. That’s the natural growth path. The big get bigger. If you doubt that, check the retail, mining, automotive, heck, any sector. Shareholders decide to divest, or need to divest and sell to the highest bidder. Sometimes they go bust. That’s our global economy.
So at this point, we have to accept the fact that unless we are going to slap some mighty regulations on wireless, all but nationalize the networks and force-feed Canadians many carriers (all of whom would then be undercapitalized weaklings), our market is not going to develop any more telecom companies. It’s too…
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OTTAWA – In tersely worded letters, the CRTC has made it loud and clear it’s losing patience with Telus and three local TV providers for failing to comply with new rules that limit the loudness of TV commercials they broadcast. The companies have all failed to meet new distribution regulations that ensure commercial messages and regular programming are broadcast at an even volume. The amendments came into force September 1, 2012 and the Commission has now set new deadlines for the companies to prove they are in fact moving towards compliance.
The letters, from Andrea Rosen, Chief Compliance…
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IT SEEMS OBVIOUS NOW that the federal government’s attempt at building more competition into the Canadian wireless market has been a failure.
With the benefit of hindsight, looking back at how the Canadian wireless market has evolved since the 2008 advanced wireless spectrum auction, I keep wondering: “what did the federal government think was going to happen?” Back then, in an ill-advised attempt to foster more competition to the burgeoning wireless market in Canada, the federal government offered any Canadian-led wireless newcomer a leg-up in that auction, setting aside spectrum that was just for newbies willing to gamble on becoming…
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