OTTAWA – Communications giant Bell Media was batting .500 Friday after the CRTC awarded it a win, and a loss, in two final offer arbitration disputes between it and the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG) and Telus.
In its decision on Bell Media versus the CIDG, a group consisting of the CCSA, Cogeco and MTS, the Commission noted that both sides made “significant strides” to resolve the issues between them, and that both offers provided commercially reasonable terms and more consumer choice.
The CIDG final offer affiliation agreement, however, was “inconsistent” with the standstill rule of the Commission’s vertical…
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TORONTO – Telus has rolled out its 4G LTE network in six more Ontario communities.
The telco said Thursday that the network is now available in Barrie, Bolton, Kingston, Muskoka, Orangeville and St. Thomas with more locations to come this year. Click here for an updated coverage map.
When in Telus’ 4G LTE coverage areas, customers may enjoy manufacturer’s rated peak download speeds of up to 75 Mbps with an expected average speed of 12 to 25 Mbps. If users travel outside the 4G LTE network coverage areas, they will move seamlessly from 4G LTE to 4G, with no…
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NEW YORK – Vocal Telus shareholder Mason Capital Management LLC is taking issue with a research report written by a well-known Canadian telecom analyst.
The U.S. hedge fund distributed a public statement to Telus shareholders on Monday in response to “misleading statements” contained in a research report sent out last week by Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose. According to Mason, the report incorrectly states that Telus could remove the voting rights associated with Mason's voting shares of the telco in order to remedy a potential failure by Telus to meet the Canadian ownership requirements.
As Cartt.ca has reported, Mason is pushing Telus for details on how…
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OTTAWA – The Supreme Court sided with the likes of Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Telus, and Apple Thursday in a number of copyright cases related to the use of music on the Internet.
In the first case, the court determined that Internet service providers (ISPs) and other digital providers that offer music services should not have to pay copyright fees when music is downloaded, but that artists should be compensated when their music is streamed online.
In another case, broadcasters, TV service providers and movie theatres won’t have to pay fees for the music used in a film or a television show that they air. That’s…
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VANCOUVER – Telus shareholder Mason Capital Management LLC has upped the ante in its quest to force the telco to disclose its current foreign ownership levels.
The U.S. hedge fund filed a petition with the Supreme Court of British Columbia this week seeking full disclosure of unredacted copies of the proxies submitted by Telus shareholders at its May 9 shareholder meeting. Mason said that Telus is obligated to disclose how shareholders voted on the now-withdrawn proposal to eliminate its dual-class share structure.
At that time, Telus said that it decided against the move in large part because of a…
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MONTREAL – Telus’ Wi-Xi squad will be peddling along the streets of Montreal this summer to provide free access to its 4G LTE network.
Telus will be decking out Bixi bike’s (used in the city’s bike sharing program) in Telus colours and transforming them into Wi-Fi access points via a 4G LTE modem linked to a battery that is recharged by pedal power. The Telus Wi-Xi allows up to 10 users per bike to connect to Telus' 4G LTE network. Telus says the pilot project exploits the power of the Internet to offer the best technological solutions for households and…
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OTTAWA – As could be expected, no one is completely satisfied with Industry Canada’s proposed 700 MHz auction rules, which were unveiled in April.
Some are suggesting a complete format change, while others are requesting modifications to specific aspects of the combinatorial clock auction (CCA). Still some say in comments to the department’s consultation it must consider a number of elements in the proposed auction framework under a single lens. Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada are two who share this view, but for different reasons.
Rogers, while satisfied with the proposal to use a CCA format,…
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GATINEAU – An annual report commissioned by the CRTC confirms that pricing for wireline, wireless and Internet Services in Canada are generally competitive when compared to other major markets, the big exceptions being high-speed Internet and entry level mobile wireless. Priced on average at $94 a month, Canada’s highest speed broadband service was the most expensive of all the jurisdictions surveyed except the U.S. While the average cost of entry level mobile wireless in Canada ranks as the highest of the surveyed countries.
The report also found that new entrant pricing for mobile wireless was in some cases 44%…
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GATINEAU – On Wednesday, July 4, Globalive Wireless Management (Wind Mobile) asked the CRTC to add a new piece of evidence to its file which says Telus is currently off-side when it comes to Canada’s telecom regulations on foreign ownership.
As we reported previously, Globalive wants the CRTC to launch a public proceeding to examine whether or not the number of foreign investors in Telus is too great. On June 20th in a submission to the Commission, Globalive said that Telus’s recent aborted attempt to convert to a single share structure exposed…
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KAMLOOPS, BC – Telus has commenced construction of its Kamloops Internet Data Centre that it claims will be one of the most environmentally sustainable, secure and reliable operations of its kind in the world when completed by July, 2013.
By utilizing green hydro power and natural cooling the site will use up to 80% less power than a typical data centre of its size and is designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold standard says Telus.
Telus says the data centre will be the cornerstone of its cloud computing business strategy, providing a competitive edge for its…
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