WELL, THAT WAS predictable.
We awoke Wednesday morning to a new report on wireless – this time on data roaming charges – from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The press release bellowed: “More effective competition and better regulation needed to cut high mobile data roaming costs, says OECD”.
When an international body with an unwieldy membership and fuzzy, broad mandate such as the OECD says we need more regulation of this or that, my automatic bullshit antenna engages. I also wondered aloud right away where Canada would rank in the report and in the press release (the only bit…
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VANCOUVER – Telus and the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) have completed a new collective agreement following a series of ratification meetings.
Telus said Wednesday that more than 80% of its employees who cast their ballots in more than 30 communities voted to accept the new contract. The new agreement, covering approximately 12,100 employees nationally, takes effect Thursday and expires on December 31, 2015.
"I am pleased the agreement was endorsed by our team members across Canada," said president and CEO Darren Entwistle, in a statement. "This is great news for Telus, our team members and our customers, enabling us to…
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OTTAWA – The Governor in Council (GIC) did not exceed its authority under the Telecommunications Act when it ruled that Globalive Wireless met the Canadian ownership and control test, the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) said in a June 8 decision.
In a statement, Globalive’s Wind Mobile proclaimed its vindication.
“We and our 300,000 customers are thrilled with this decision,” said Anthony Lacavera, chair of Globalive. “Now we can continue delivering value and choice to Canadian consumers without the distraction and expense of challenges by our competitors to our right to operate.”
The ruling comes after the Federal Court of Canada…
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Dear Greg,
MY COMPLIMENTS ON YOUR superb coverage of the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit. I was hoping to grab a chance to speak while we were there, but we didn’t seem to cross paths. Maybe next time.
Regarding this article (CTS 2011: Don’t punish us for being early, good, says Telus’ McFarlane), I noted the following Editor’s Comment which I think it is important to correct:
"(Ed note: However, if Industry Canada likes Videotron’s other idea – to consider the HSPA network-sharing Telus and Bell, or “Belus” as Videotron CEO Robert Dépatie called them Wednesday – as a single entity, neither…
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TORONTO – Telus has launched a new suite of communications services earmarked for companies with less than 100 employees.
The Telus Future Friendly Office was built in collaboration with Cisco and features Cisco Unified Communications technology, including wi-fi capability and extension mobility. Available nationwide, it is designed to help small and medium-sized businesses grow without having to manage a complex system, plus offers “flexible payment options”.
“Telus Future Friendly Office transforms the way SMBs communicate by providing a complete solution designed to help small and medium companies set up and run their office phone and data networks”, said Jim Senko, vice-president…
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TORONTO – Making a passionate case for greater government support of wireless competition, Globalive Group Chairman Anthony Lacavera lambasted the nation’s three incumbent mobile providers, called for a full set-aside of 700 MHz spectrum for newer entrants and urged that the government ease its current restrictions on foreign investment in Canadian telecom providers.
In a wide-ranging keynote at the Canadian Telecom Summit here Thursday morning, Lacavera lit into Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Telus for raising legal and regulatory challenges to Globalive’s entry into the Canadian market because of its international investors (wireless giant Orascom). Further, he knocked Rogers,…
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TORONTO – It was no surprise when the last member of the Canadian wireless triumvirate to address this week’s Canadian Telecom Summit made his pitch for an open auction the next time wireless spectrum goes on the block.
As George Cope, president and CEO of BCE and Bell Canada, put it during his luncheon keynote address on the final day of the Telecom Summit: why would the Canadian government put a spectrum auction process in place that would prevent one of the big three incumbent wireless carriers from participating fully in the 700MHz spectrum auction (expected in late 2012)?…
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TORONTO – It’s a message the entrenched telecom incumbents have been hammering home all three days of the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit: Don’t hate us because we’re beautiful.
Okay, maybe “beautiful” is kind of a stretch, but executives from Bell Canada, Rogers and Telus are dying to make it clear to anyone who’ll listen that while they do have millions of subscribers and excellent profits, they have also been the ones who have taken most of the risks on wireless and other telecom investment in Canada – so how can that mean rules have to be built (like those to…
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I SHOULD BE FIRED as moderator. It’s as simple as that.
As referee of the lively Canadian Telecom Summit “Regulatory Blockbuster” panel in Toronto Wednesday, I accepted questions from the floor, via text and on Twitter while Ed Antecol (Globalive), Mirko Bibic (Bell), Ken Engelhart (Rogers), John Lawford (PIAC), Chris Peirce (MTS Allstream) and Michael Hennessy (Telus) lobbed verbal brickbats at each other.
How great would it have been if, while these regulatory lawyers were hurling oral grenades, the chairman of the CRTC, Konrad von Finckenstein, were to ask them a question? Turns out he did, on Twitter. And I missed it as…
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TORONTO – Canadians are changing the way they consume Internet TV services now that they are connecting the Internet to their television sets, according to a new study from the Media Technology Monitor.
The report, The Rise of Netflix and How the Internet TV Market Has Changed, examines the shifts in the consumption of Internet TV plus the company that best symbolizes this change: Netflix. It predicts that with the underlying technologies to watch the Internet on a TV set already in many Canadian homes (e.g. broadband and a game console), the conditions are ripe for this consumer trend to spread rapidly.
Among…
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