TORONTO – While Rogers Communications’ Q2 2010 financial results are expected to be pretty good when they are released on Tuesday, at least one industry analyst is expecting to see some competitive impact on the wireless side.
Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose told investors last week he expects RCI will report consolidated revenue of $3.026 billion or 4.7% year-over-year growth. He pins his adjusted EBITDA estimate at $1.172 billion, “slightly above consensus of $1.163 billion,” meaning a solid YOY increase of 8.2%.
However, strong wireless margins are due to weak subscriber growth. “We only expect 90,000 Q2/10 wireless net additions, compared…
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TORONTO – When Rogers Communications comes to market with its new low-cost brand Chatr (which it says it will, soon), it can expect some legal haranguing from one of its wireless competitors.
Mobilicity chairman John Bitove told Cartt.ca on Friday that since the new brand from the big red machine is aimed solely at killing new competitors like his, he will file a complaint with the Competition Bureau when Chatr launches.
“If they were building a whole new company, a whole new network on their own, that’s one thing, but they’re obviously going to use all the leverage they can…
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TORONTO – Koodo Mobile added HSPA phones to its handset lineup Monday, and rolled out a new way to help customers pay for them.
Over the coming months, Koodo said that it will launch “several exciting HSPA phones that will offer exceptional value and social media connectivity”. The company also said that customers can put a portion of the purchase price on their Koodo Tab, an alternative to fixed-term contracts that allows customers to ‘charge’ up to $150 of a phone’s price. 10% of each monthly bill is then credited to the Tab, and should the customer decide to terminate…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications is preparing for the launch of another new wireless brand this fall, say several reports.
The story was originally broken by the Boy Genius Report late last week and cbcnews.ca added a story here. Others have since done reports, too.
The new brand is said to be aimed at wireless newcomers such as Wind, Mobilicity, Public Mobile and Videotron and will add an additional option for consumers in the low-cost segment of the market. Ostensibly, it will be even lower-priced than Rogers’ Fido – and will put pressure on Bell’s Virgin brand as well as…
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MONTREAL – The federal government’s plan to increase foreign ownership in the telecommunications sector will not result in cheaper wireless service, and could serve to undermine plans for universal access, says Canada’s largest telecommunications union.
Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), said that CEP-commissioned research actually disputes claims that wireless services are more expensive in Canada than in other countries.
"Existing studies compare pricing in markets that have very different usage, that don’t have special plans with unlimited minutes, or free phones, for example, like we do in Canada," Coles said. "When taking all of that…
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TORONTO – The World Fishing Network will dedicate an entire day of programming and commercial airtime on June 30th to support recreational anglers affected by the Gulf oil spill disaster.
The on-air campaign, which will air on its Canadian and U.S. channels, aims to raise awareness of the catastrophic impact this spill is having on the entire fishing industry, and to raise money for organizations providing aid and support to those most negatively impacted by the disaster.
In addition to in-depth coverage of the impact of the spill on recreational and commercial fishing in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, the channel…
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BANFF – All TV programming, including news and sports, will be in 3D within five to 25 years, Geneva Film Co. founder James Stewart told Cartt.ca after his keynote speech on Sunday at the Banff World Television Festival.
“Everything will be in 3D because it can,” he stated. "Besides, 3D sports programming is absolutely interesting. Just take a look at the Masters on a 3DTV.”
During the presentation, it was noted ESPN in the United States was producing 25 games in 3D from soccer’s World Cup in South Africa and some of them will be available on Rogers, Telus and…
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TORONTO – It was easy to see Wednesday that Tony Lacavera was really stung by the critics who decried the level of Canadian-ness of his company.
No less than seven times in his speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit did the Globalive/Wind CEO feel the need to insist upon the new wireless carrier’s Canuck bona fides.
“I won’t shy away from saying that Globalive is a Canadian company… truly a brainchild of Canadians… created by and for Canadians,” he said during his speech.
Lacavera rehashed the 2009 regulatory battles, lashing out at the incumbent operators which used every tactic in their arsenal…
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TORONTO – New players in the Canadian wireless space say they’re happy with how things are going so far, but they admit it’s still very early days yet.
Two of the newest entrants spoke during a panel discussion at the Canadian Telecom Summit here on Wednesday afternoon. Both Wind Mobile Canada CEO Ken Campbell and Mobilicity president and CEO Dave Dobbin said their wireless service launches have been going as planned. Wind Mobile recently announced service availability in its fifth urban market – Vancouver – while Mobilicity launched service in its very first market – Toronto – only three weeks ago….
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EVEN THE NON-SPORTS fan will know there’s a bit of a soccer tournament about to begin in South Africa this weekend. And yesterday was press release day on the TV front.
In Canada, the CBC is leading the coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup with broadcast across multiple platforms, a World Cup CBC mobile app – and the third place and final games are to be available in 3D for the dozens (?) of fans who have new 3DTVs.
After CBC sent out it’s announcement, so did Shaw Cable, Telus, Shaw Direct, Cogeco, Rogers…
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