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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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GATINEAU – The sale of advertising time on American cable channels, by a new third-party company, can help fix what ails the broadcasting system, says former Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell.
His new company, Mediadenovo (Italian for “media of the new”, we’re told) would be a new programming undertaking that would sell the two minutes per hour of local availability ad time to national advertisers. Mediadenovo submitted its application for a license to the CRTC months ago, said O’Farrell, but it has yet to be made public.
American cable channels like CNN, A&E, Golf Channel and others…
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OTTAWA – We choked a little on our coffee when we read the co-signers, but a letter to Industry Minister Tony Clement – to be printed Monday in an ad in the Hill Times newspaper – urges him to respect the Telecom Act as he reviews the CRTC’s decision on Globalive’s lack of Canadian ownership.
Signed by western competitors Telus and Shaw Communications, along with the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association (which often doesn’t see eye-to-eye with carriers) and wireless newbie Public Mobile, the letter reinforces to the Minister that the CRTC was and is right to tell Globalive…
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TORONTO – As his wireless company nears its launch in the new year, Public Mobile CEO Alek Kristajic was talking tough this week, addressing how the company plans to attack the Canadian marketplace while applauding the CRTC for standing firm on Globalive’s ownership shortcomings.
Speaking at the Scotia Capital 2010 Telecom and Tech Conference on Tuesday, Kristajic (a former Rogers Cable and Bell Canada executive) emphasized how he believes his company is going after a market that no one else has tended to yet: “the low end of the market that doesn’t have a cell phone,” he said.
When western markets…
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TORONTO – A new website called myCELLmyTERMS is promising to match cell phone users with their ideal cell phone plan.
In a concept that seems similar to a match making service, the company asks customers to input their wish list for their cell phone services, including preferred device, specific features and ideal month fee, and then shops the plan anonymously to their network of wireless dealers.
The dealers compete for the business, and MCMT ranks the bids based on the requested criteria. The customer can review them and either propose a counter-offer, or select the deal that they like best.
“What our…
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OTTAWA – In a letter to incumbent telcos and others involved in the recent review of Globalive’s ownership by the CRTC, Industry Minister Tony Clement has asked for even more information as he examines the Commission’s call on the prospective new wireless entrant.
On October 29 the CRTC decided that since Egypt-based Orascom Telecom owned 65% of the equity in Globalive and virtually all of the debt, that the company was not Canadian controlled and could not operate as a telecom company in Canada. Our Telecom Act says our telcos, cablecos and broadcasters have to be majority Canadian-owned and…
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