I LOVE GOING TO confabs like NextMedia. As Telus’ SVP Michael Hennessy tweeted earlier this week: “Finished 2 days at #nextMEDIA looking to future of digital media. No discussion of #FFC, #CRTC. Met real digital entrepreneurs. Awesome.”
Hennessy told me Monday at that conference that when it comes to the debate over value for signal for over the air broadcasters, he’s done. Telus won’t be appearing at next week’s hearing into the issue, the one ordered by the feds.
Indeed, two days at NextMedia (built off a backdrop of my four days in Denver at Cable Connection Week in October,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – As stakeholders ponder Canada’s national digital strategy, Telus took the process a step further.
In a white paper presented earlier this week at the nextMedia conference in Toronto, the telco suggested that the broadband networks could be the “building blocks to support a digital media ecosystem”.
It proposed the following ten principles to help guide the on-going debate:
– Noting that the government cannot afford to fund the next generation of broadband infrastructure, Telus said that Canada should “trust the market” to do so by encouraging private sector investment.
– It proposed that government find “smart ways”, such as through revenues from the…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Telus has issued $1 billion senior unsecured notes priced at $99.42 per $100 principal amount for an effective yield of 5.125% per annum. They will mature on December 4, 2019.
The company also announced the redemption on December 31, 2009 of US$583.5 million principal amount of its US$ 8% notes due June 1, 2011.
The bulk of the new issue proceeds will be used to refinance debt and related derivative obligations maturing in 2011, with any excess applied to “general corporate purposes”, including increasing working capital.
Moody’s Investors Service assigned a Baa1 rating to the senior unsecured note issue, the…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Rogers Wireless has slapped rival Bell Mobility with a lawsuit over its claims that it operates “Canada’s most reliable network”, just days after Rogers itself was forced by Telus to stop claiming the same thing.
In court documents filed Tuesday in Vancouver, Rogers said that Bell’s claim that it’s new HSPA/HSPA + network is “the largest, fastest and most reliable network in Canada” is false and misleading because there are virtually no customers on the new network, and it has not conducted adequate testing.
Bell launched a national advertising campaign with that claim on November 4, 2009, in conjunction…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Rogers must stop referring to itself as “Canada’s most reliable network” by the end of this week, said Justice Christopher Grauer in a written order.
As reported by Cartt.ca, after launching its own HSPA wireless network in partnership with Bell last month, Telus filed a lawsuit to halt the use of Rogers’ marketing claims of being the fastest and most reliable network.
While Rogers has already dropped the “fastest” claim, it steadfastly held on to the “most reliable” title in its advertising. But Justice Grauer has ordered Rogers to drop the reference from its website and all other Internet advertising immediately, and has…
Continue Reading
By Christopher Maule, Professor Emeritus, Carleton University
THE BATTLE BETWEEN CANADIAN BROADCASTERS and cable companies taking place before the CRTC is about the past and the disappearing present and not about the future of traditional television and other forms of video.
If the protagonists and the Commission are to consider the public interest as reflected by how consumers spend their money and time, they need to look for ways to profit from what consumers want instead of struggling over what consumers have been forced to take.
Today, consumers use their Kindle and computers to read books and view pictures, use their iPhones…
Continue Reading
BURNABY – Telus has invested over $70 million in upgrades to its wireless and broadband infrastructure in cities across B.C. for its 3G+ wireless network.
In a flurry of press releases on Friday, the B.C.-based telco announced that the new network is now available in Delta, the tri-cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, Burnaby and New Westminster, North Vancouver and West Vancouver, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, Richmond, Vancouver, Surrey and White Rock, Whistler and Pemberton, Squamish and along the Sea-to-Sky highway corridor.
Covering 1.1 million square kilometres, the network also extends high-speed Internet service to about 2,100 locations in…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Media companies looking to monetize their content with online subscription models would be advised to look for additional sources of revenue.
According to results from the Q3 edition of Digital Life Canada, Solution Research Group’s quarterly trend survey.
The research benchmarked consumers’ willingness to pay for various types of content online. Only 14% said they would pay for newspapers online; TV shows did better at 22%, and books seemed worthy of payment to 29%. At the top of the list was movies which had the most potential, with 37% indicating a willingness to pay.
Those currently paying for online or…
Continue Reading
CAMPBELL RIVER, BC – Telus TV has arrived to challenge the television provider incumbents in more five more communities in British Columbia and Alberta.
Over the last week, the telco has launched its IP-based TV product in Campbell River, Mission and Chilliwack BC, and in Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge, AB. The service offers more than 390 channels, including 35 in HD, as well as an HD PVR, video-on-demand and pay-per-view.
As an added incentive, Telus is pledging to donate $100 for every new subscriber to various local charities such as a park restoration or the local YMCA/YWCA. On Vancouver Island, its donations…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Now that Telus and Bell also operate HSPA wireless networks, too, Rogers Communications can’t call itself “Canada’s most reliable network” any more without proper qualifiers.
As we reported last week, Telus launched a lawsuit over Rogers’ claims to be fastest and most reliable, asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to step in and force the big red machine to alter its marketing messages.
While Rogers dropped the “fastest” claim in early November when the new Telus and Bell net was launched, it has stuck with “most reliable”, a claim Telus insists must end.
After hearing all about HSPA…
Continue Reading
