TORONTO – Rogers Communications said Monday it has turned on 5G service in the busiest sections of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway system for transit riders who are customers of all major Canadian wireless carriers.
Starting Oct. 2, subway riders who subscribe to any of the country’s major wireless providers are now able to connect to 5G and talk, text and stream in the core parts of the TTC’s underground system, including all stations and tunnels in the so-called “Downtown U” plus Spadina and Dupont stations on Line 1, and 13 stations on Line 2…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has set Friday who will be subject to regulation under the new Broadcasting Act regulations as part of its implementation of the new Online Streaming Act, setting the threshold at $10 million and higher in annual broadcasting revenues in Canada.
The new entities will need to register by November 28, 2023, so that the regulator can keep tabs on them.
Registering requires the entities to provide their basic information like name, phone number, mailing and email addresses, what services they offer and out of where they are incorporated.
The CRTC said it will publish the list…
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OTTAWA – British Columbia has filed a Part 1 application to the CRTC requesting that the regulator consider mandating an environment where testing can be done on the next generation 911 networks.
The new emergency networks set up by Bell and Telus, which will be able to carry images and videos from distressed callers, don’t have a pre-live testing environment to iron out any kinks before being operational, BC said.
The implication of that, the province argues, is that complex troubleshooting issues and upgrades will have to be done with multiple service providers live, which could be highly disruptive to critical…
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced Monday it is introducing a new tier of PureFibre X home Internet service in Alberta and British Columbia, providing symmetrical upload and download speeds of 3 Gbps.
“PureFibre X 3.0 gigabit Internet marks a substantial leap in the next generation of Internet technology,” reads a Telus press release. “Telus is the only 100 per cent fibre-to-the-home in Western Canada, with the ability to seamlessly increase bandwidth and capacity to deliver unparalleled speeds to PureFibre customers.”
The Telus PureFibre X 3.0 gigabit Internet service, starting from $115 per month…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC rejected Monday an application by Quebecor to force the legacy telephone companies to refund amounts collected and impose a pay-per-use system as they work to fully implement the next-generation 911 network.
Quebecor said in the application filed in December that it’s not fair for providers like itself to simultaneously pay for both the existing 911 and future next-generation network – which will include the capacity to handle audiovisual information from distressed callers. It asked the CRTC to refund the fees paid toward the NG 911 network development – expected to fully replace the…
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Cogeco hopes for mobile wireless launch by this time next year
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Tuesday that Freedom’s competitive mobile wireless offers ahead of the back-to-school season didn’t have a “material impact” on its market share in Ontario.
“They launched a few, I would say, price points didn’t have a material impact on the market, frankly,” Staffieri said during the BMO telecom conference.
“So one of the things we’ve gotten a lot better at is to let the competition do their thing, we’ll do our…
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MONTREAL – NBCUniversal’s all-reality TV subscription streaming service Hayu is now available to Videotron customers in Quebec through Videotron’s Helix platform, the companies announced Tuesday.
Videotron customers will be able to access more than 300 reality series directly through their Hayu subscription, with the streaming service accessible via Helix voice command on their Videotron remote, a press release says.
A Canadian subscription to Hayu costs $6.99 (plus taxes) per month.
Hayu’s extensive content library includes shows such as Love Island, Below Deck, Vanderpump Rules, and franchises such as The Real Housewives and Million Dollar Listing, plus exclusive content like Watch What…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne announced Monday that all carriers will need to provide service to their customers on Rogers’s wireless network in Toronto’s subway system by October 3.
All carriers will need to provide service within three weeks from Monday and will have to enter commercial agreements within the next 100 days – or December 20. Those stipulations, which will apply to Bell, Quebecor’s Freedom and Telus, are as of Monday conditions of those carriers owning spectrum, the technology powering wireless communications.
Government officials said on a technical briefing with media Monday that carriers will need to…
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By Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant
An opinion piece in Monday’s Globe and Mail included a line that caught my eye. “A 2022 study found that Canada’s wireless rates were the second most expensive in the world – seven times more expensive than Australia, 25 times more expensive than France and Ireland and 1,000 times more expensive than Finland.”
Canadians complain about mobile prices, but does anyone in Canada actually believe that they are paying one thousand times more than what they would pay in Finland?
In fact, we don’t.
So how did the author, a university professor and academic…
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MARKHAM, ON – Rural telecom provider Xplore Inc. announced Tuesday the company’s president and chief commercial officer, Rizwan Jamal, has been promoted to president and CEO, effective immediately.
Jamal also becomes a member of Xplore’s board of directors. Interim CEO Fran Shammo will continue in his role as executive chair of the board.
“We are delighted to appoint Rizwan to the role of CEO,” Shammo said in a press release. “Rizwan’s appointment to CEO of Xplore comes as the result of a thorough search process. He has deep knowledge of and connections within the Canadian…
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