OTTAWA – “It’s a great day for broadband in rural Canada without a doubt.” That was Chris Johnston, executive VP of marketing at Xplornet Communications Inc., in an interview with Cartt.ca on Tuesday after the company won 42 licences in Industry Canada’s 2500 MHz spectrum auction.
With 25 MHz in 42 markets across the country, the broadband communications company will use the spectrum to rollout a near national fixed wireless LTE network, capable of providing rural Canadians with download speeds of 25 Mbps, the ability to stream HD, and all other manner of things consumers can…
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TORONTO – MTS has become the latest telco to offer their customers the option to pay for purchases with a tap of their mobile device.
According to EnStream, a mobile commerce joint venture company owned by Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus, mobile payments are now supported by Bell, Rogers, Telus, MTS and SaskTel, who collectively provide service to over 94% of Canada's wireless subscribers. EnStream's platform acts as a hub, connecting multiple Canadian banks and mobile network operators, while securely delivering the credit, debit and pre-paid cards offered by financial institutions to wireless handsets, all while preserving each bank's direct relationship…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) is again fighting wholesale service rates of the established telecom and cable companies. The group of independent ISPs is now telling the CRTC that it must make interim all usage sensitive rates from these companies until more fulsome analyses are done.
Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, Rogers Communications, SaskTel, Shaw Cablesystems, Telus Communications, and Vidéotron are all party to the application.
In an application filed on April 29, CNOC argues that evidence has now come to light that demonstrates existing usage sensitive rates are too high. It points to a recent…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Dion says the company is keeping its options open about the idea of becoming a national wireless player after this week’s CRTC decision on wholesale roaming.
In a press conference after the company’s annual general meeting in Montreal on Thursday, Dion said “we will continue to use a very, very disciplined process” in evaluating whether to make use of its spectrum licenses in English Canada to expand its wireless services to other provinces, or come to agreements with other players.
He said “we think that the CRTC is taking a step in the right direction” with…
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GATINEAU – New wireless entrants got their wish. The CRTC has concluded that Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp. “have the ability and incentive” to impose wholesale roaming terms, conditions and rates that wouldn’t “prevail in a competitive market” and therefore will regulate their wholesale roaming rates.
Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-177, released on Tuesday, only covers GSM-based networks (which is the tech most run on now).
Even though wholesale roaming caps as established by the federal government in Section 27.1 of the Telecommunications Act last June offered some relief to the new entrants, “the interests of users are not…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will release its hotly anticipated decision on wholesale mobile wireless services late Tuesday.
The Commission will stage a media “lock-up” from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET on May 5 to provide a technical briefing to explain the different elements of the decision. The decision itself will be released at 4:00 PM, followed by a short statement by chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
With the CRTC's sharp consumer focus, most are expecting the decision will see the allowable rates come down, which will bode well for Wind Mobile (and less so for the big three of Telus, Rogers and…
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CALGARY, MONTREAL and VANCOUVER – Canada’s communications industry is digging deep to help support relief efforts in Nepal after last Saturday’s devastating earthquake.
Shaw Communications said Tuesday that it will match employee donations to the Canadian Red Cross dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000 to help provide critical supplies and aid in rescue and recovery efforts. Aligning with the Federal Government's donation matching program, every dollar donated by Shaw employees could be matched twice, resulting in three dollars of aid to Nepal.
In addition, all Shaw Phone customers will receive complimentary long distance calling to Nepal until May 25, and Shaw TV customers have…
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GATINEAU – Earlier this month, a group of 14 broadcasters met for the first time to begin figuring out how to develop a subscription television set top box data measurement system.
In its TV Policy Review decision, the CRTC said building such a system would be a very good thing and set a deadline of April 13th for an industry-wide working group to start moving. Representatives from Bell Canada, Blue Ant Media, CBC, Cogeco, Corus, Eastlink, the Independent Broadcasters Group, MTS, Pelmorex, Quebecor, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw and Telus met on April 8th saying in its first…
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TORONTO – Wind Mobile has made a pair of new senior executive hires, Cartt.ca has learned.
New CEO Alek Krstajic has named Bob Boron as new chief regulatory officer and Bruce Kirby chief strategy officer and interim chief financial officer. The announcement was made internally earlier this week.
Both men held similar positions under Krstajic when all were at Public Mobile before it was acquired by Telus in 2013. Boron came to Public after he was president of cell site managing company Jade Tower and prior to that was an executive at Call-Net/Sprint Canda. Prior to spending…
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OTTAWA – The country’s free cell phone recycling program Recycle My Cell is calling on Canadians to join in the Earth Day celebrations Wednesday by making sure that all those old cell phones in their junk drawers are recycled responsibly.
Earth Day also marks the launches of Recycle My Cell's "What in Your Drawers?" community challenges in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador. Non-profit and community organizations in those provinces are challenged to collect as many old cell phones as possible between April 22 and May 22, 2015, and the group in each…
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