INDUSTRY MINISTER CHRISTIAN PARADIS’ head is spinning. After a couple of days on the ground at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Minister had talked to so many people and seen so much interesting new technology, he pronounced himself overwhelmed, impressed and excited by it all, in an interview with Cartt.ca on Tuesday.
MWC is one of the largest wireless industry conferences in the world with about 70,000 attendees – and it is known as the get-together where you’ll find the highest number of CEOs and other senior wireless executives. Thousands of vendors, app developers, handset makers and…
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TORONTO – No more zombies, slick ad salesmen, or meth dealers on Rogers? That’s the warning that AMC has gone public with as its contract negotiations with Rogers Communications appear to be festering.
Sunday night, during the airing of The Walking Dead, a crawler appeared at the bottom of the TV screen informing viewers to “take action” by going to www.keepamccanada.com. There viewers could choose from email, phone, Facebook or Twitter to contact Rogers and urge it to keep AMC in its channel lineup.
While AMC’s shows such as The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today pared back some of the rates which large internet service providers can charge independent ISP competitors for using their networks.
This battle has raged on for a number of years as independent ISPs like Teksavvy, Telnet and others attempt to carve out a market for themselves as ISPs serving a small slice of the Canadian populace who’d rather not be subscribers of one of the big telcos or cablecos. In order to do that though, those small ISPs need access to the big networks owned and run by Bell, Telus, Rogers and others just the…
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GATINEAU – If adopted, the draft wireless code of conduct will likely cause some significant unintended consequences, SaskTel told the CRTC during the last day of the hearing Friday. The provincial Crown corporation pointed to the potential for unsatisfactory experiences, increased use of notifications and mandatory caps on overage fees as ones that could have big negative impacts on Canadians.
The amount of information that consumers will need to know can be considered excessive and will hinder wireless operators’ ability to improve efficiencies, according to SaskTel executives. Under the draft code, consumers would be subjected to a lengthy process involving…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced late Thursday evening the company's president and CEO, Nadir Mohamed, has decided to retire in January 2014.
Mohamed was named CEO shortly after legendary company founder Ted Rogers died in late 2008. He began his communications career more than 30 years ago and joined Rogers in August 2000. He was president and CEO of Rogers Wireless from 2001 to 2005 and was appointed president and COO of Rogers Communications Group in 2005. Prior to joining Rogers, Mohamed spent 19 years at BC Tel (and later, Telus, when BC Tel was purchased).
"Nadir is a highly regarded…
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OTTAWA – Responding to the growing use of mobile devices, the Greater Toronto Area beginning March 25, 2013 will be getting two new area codes says the Telecommunications Alliance (Bell, Rogers, Telus and Vidéotron). In Toronto, the 437 area code will be added to the 416/647 area codes. In the 905/289 region, the 365 area code will be introduced.
The new 437 and 365 area codes will provide additional telephone numbers with no impact on existing telephone numbers says the alliance. The new area codes will coexist with the current ones and will come…
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GATINEAU – Upstart wireless operator EastLink had its opportunity to address the contentious issue of a mandatory $50 cap on overage charges on customers bills as a way to prevent bill shock on day three of the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct hearing.
The Commission’s draft wireless code calls for a cap on additional fees of $50 (usually driven by data usage), but also says that once the cap is hit, the service provider is to suspend all service so that no more charges are incurred.
“We feel basically a cap is just not necessary or necessarily…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association urged the CRTC to take national responsibility for regulating consumer cell phone contracts. The CWTA made the comments during the first day of hearings into a wireless code of conduct.
Canadians “would be best served by a single set of regulations, not today’s patchwork of provincial laws, regulations, guidelines and interpretation bulletins,” said CWTA president and CEO Bernard Lord. He urged the Commission to adopt a code that “supersedes any current or future provincial legislation in this area.”
Under questioning, the CWTA said multiple pieces of guidelines, codes or legislation will only increase costs…
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GATINEAU – CRTC commissioners said they are concerned Canadian wireless companies are overcharging their customers when the device subsidy is paid off and there isn’t a corresponding drop in their monthly bill.
On Tuesday morning during day two of the Wireless Code of Conduct hearing, chairman Jean-Pierre Blais wondered if Telus customers who have paid off their device subsidy will see a reduction in their monthly bill. The company said it doesn’t happen automatically and consumers have to request it.
David Fuller, chief marketing officer at the “future is friendly” wireless operator, said customers can see a bill reduction, but only…
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INDUSTRIES CONSOLIDATE. All industries. That’s the natural growth path. The big get bigger. If you doubt that, check the retail, mining, automotive, heck, any sector. Shareholders decide to divest, or need to divest and sell to the highest bidder. Sometimes they go bust. That’s our global economy.
So at this point, we have to accept the fact that unless we are going to slap some mighty regulations on wireless, all but nationalize the networks and force-feed Canadians many carriers (all of whom would then be undercapitalized weaklings), our market is not going to develop any more telecom companies. It’s too…
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