TORONTO – Rogers Communications is hoping that its wireless customers will help with its lobbying efforts to prevent Industry Canada from giving special treatment to new entrants during next year’s auction of the 700 Mhz wireless spectrum. But at least one of those new entrants has taken issue with the tactic, calling it “a thinly veiled attempt at manipulating government regulators and public perception”.
Rogers, the country’s largest mobile operator, posted a sample letter on its website asking customers interested in its new LTE service to email it to their elected officials to demand a “fair and open auction for…
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WHILE SAYING HIS company has not yet decided on a course of action, Bell Canada’s regulatory chief says thanks to the CRTC’s new vertical integration policy, he wants to start over when it comes to our broadcasting laws and its regulation.
(Explained here, the new policy: prohibits exclusives on linear TV content when it comes to mobile and online platforms; bans tied selling of specialty services ensuring BDUs can buy them from programmers one at a time; calls for consumers to be able to buy more specialties one at a time in a pick-and-pay format; outlines a specific code…
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VANCOUVER – Telus is partnering with U.S. based Stratacache to provide digital signage services to customers across Canada.
Telus Digital Media Solutions will use Stratacache’s digital signage software ActiVia for Media, in the creation of a new digital signage and broadcasting service that allows businesses to use digital signs to communicate with customers or employees. Using high-definition graphics, businesses may place digital signs on their premises and adjust the content over a wireless interface running on Telus’ 4G network.
The service includes digital video and audio content caching and streaming for advertising, webcasting, and digital signage to companies ranging…
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HALIFAX – Telus has upgraded its wireless network to HSPA+ dual cell in Atlantic Canada and is now offering faster wireless Internet speeds in Moncton, Charlottetown, Halifax, and St. John’s.
Telus said Thursday that its HSPA+ dual cell network offers manufacturer’s rated peak wireless Internet download speeds of up to 42 megabits per second with an expected average of 7-14 Mbps, and is now available to 70% of Canadians across the country.
"We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars year after year to bring the most advanced network technologies to our customers across Canada," said Brent Johnston, VP of mobility solutions,…
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OUTSPOKEN CONSUMER GROUP OpenMedia.ca is miffed that it has yet to be invited to meet with new Industry Minister Christian Paradis.
After a report on Bloomberg noted that Minister Paradis held meetings earlier this month with 13 of Canada’s largest telcos – including Bell, Rogers, Telus, and Shaw – the organization issued a statement claiming that “positions the Industry Minister to create key digital policies in the Big Telecom lobby’s narrow commercial interests rather than those of Canadians”.
“Time and again the Big Telecom lobby has shown its neglect, and even disdain, for the Canadian public’s communications interests”, said OpenMedia.ca executive director Steve…
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ANTHONY LACAVERA CARRIES two BlackBerrys with him wherever he goes. One is a Wind Mobile handset, of course. The other, Rogers (with the logo scratched off).
The Globalive chairman and Wind Mobile CEO wants to make sure wherever he goes, he can do a real-time comparison of his own of his company’s network performance versus the Canadian mobile market leader, via his own handset. Just last week he was doing that in Kitchener-Waterloo, Wind’s newest market.
In a couple of years, he hopes to be able to do the same thing in many more places using a more robust bit…
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GATINEAU – While Shaw Communications continues to evaluate technologies for its plan to launch a wireless service in Western Canada, Scotia Capital Equity Research re-entered the debate by suggesting in a report published last week Shaw should not restrict its wireless solution to 4G/LTE but also consider cable Wi-Fi.
Scotia Capital (among others) had earlier speculated that Shaw team up with Rogers Communications to build a national LTE network.
“We think negotiations may still be ongoing, but we would like to point out another potential option for Shaw, one which we believe could turn out to be just as effective as…
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VANCOUVER – Telus today reported Q2 revenue of $2.55 billion, an increase of 6.4% over the same quarter last year. This increase was generated by nearly 10% growth in wireless revenue and 3% in wireline revenue, both driven by strong data growth.
Analysts were expecting overall revenue of about $2.52 billion.
The company says it added 94,000 new wireless subscribers in the quarter, and that wireless data revenue surged 49% on accelerating smartphone adoption which more than offset declining voice revenues. This produced a wireless average revenue per unit (ARPU) growth of 2.5%. Telus says this is the third consecutive quarter of…
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TORONTO/MONTREAL – Telus says it has added 900 new team members in Ontario and Quebec in 2011 to help meet the growing demand for its wireless services.
By the end of this year, the new 250 Ontario recruits will join the 7,800 Telus team members who already call Toronto and the GTA home. Since January Telus has also hired nearly 650 new employees in the province of Quebec, with more than half meeting the company’s growing needs in the Greater Montréal Area.
Telus plans to hire even more new team members this year to meet growing customer demand for…
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WATERLOO – Research in Motion has announced five new BlackBerry models that run the BlackBerry 7 OS and will be available for sale around the world later this month.
The new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 are the thinnest BlackBerry phones yet, and combine a touch screen with a QWERTY keyboard. NFC technology has been added making mobile payments a possibility, however no system was announced by RIM to take advantage of it.
"This is the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO of Research In Motion. "The BlackBerry solution offers a best-in-class mobile communications experience…
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