TED ROGERS TURNED TO AN old friend this week to expand his telecom empire, but was a little unclear whether or not he’ll use his new hammer to nail his cable friends while building local telephony across the country.
Today, Rogers Communications announced it would purchase Call-Net Enterprises, which does business mainly under the Sprint Canada name, in a $330 million all-stock deal. Still a money-losing competitive local exchange carrier (its net loss in 2004 was $78.4 million), Call-Net did book revenues last year of over $818 million and EBITDA of $105 million.
Call-Net CEO Bill Linton is a…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – This year marks the 20th anniversary of mobile telephony in Canada and it will be celebrated for a day in Ottawa at a conference entitled Mobile Telephony in Canada.
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), in collaboration with host sponsors Bell Mobility, Motorola, Rogers Wireless and TELUS Mobility, will present the conference and party in Ottawa on June 8, 2005.
“Mobile Telephony in Canada – since 1985, it just keeps getting better” is a forum on the past, present and future of Canada’s wireless telephone industry. Bringing together Canadian wireless leaders from the last 20 years with…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Sabia, Mohamed, Entwistle, Dalfen, Citron, Linton – all will be featured at the 2005 Canadian Telecom Summit.
Less than three weeks remain to register for Summit – May 30 to June 1 at the Toronto Congress Centre.
Delegates will join 500 of the most influential stakeholders in discussions of the future of telecommunications in Canada. Now in its fourth year, the 2005 Canadian Telecom Summit offers a wide range of topics being reviewed strategically by the senior leaders of the industry.
With 17 keynote speakers and more than 50 panel members, The 2005 Summit will look at…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC said Friday that Shaw Communications was not giving itself an undue preference when denying full pay-per-view service to Telus and it’s yet-to-be-launched digital television service, Telus TV.
Telus filed a complaint in November 2004 saying that Shaw Pay-Per-View was saying it would limit the movie titles made available to Telus TV – which therefore means Shaw has given its PPV and cable divisions “undue preference” and subjected Telus to an undue disadvantage, said the western telco.
Shaw, on the other hand, claimed agreements with certain U.S. movie studios prohibit it from making programming available to…
Continue Reading
WASHINGTON – Stressing he does not know what the CRTC’s voice over IP decision will be, Bell Canada Enterprises CEO Michael Sabia said today that if it reads the way he thinks it will, the company will immediately appeal it to the Federal Cabinet.
Speaking at a media and telecom conference this morning in Washington, Sabia said he believes the Commission will side against the incumbent telephone companies (ILECs) and maintain certain regulatory restrictions on the likes of Bell Canada and Telus when it comes to voice over Internet telephony.
The CRTC’s VOIP decision is due out sometime next…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – After four and a half years of contract negotiations with the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) and an impasse at the bargaining table, western telco Telus today announced it will stop deducting union dues from employees’ wages (1.2% of an employee’s gross pay) and cease remitting the dues to the TWU.
“This action is the latest in a series of lawful lockout measures Telus has taken to put pressure on the bargaining process and achieve a replacement collective agreement. Telus has taken this action due to the lack of any meaningful progress at the bargaining table as well…
Continue Reading
HAVING COVERED THE Cable, radio, television and telecom markets for well over seven years now, you could say I was inspired.
I’ve written about so many entrepreneurs who gambled and won (and a few who gambled and lost, too) that I suppose it had to rub off on me.
Warning, blatant self-promotion now follows.
So, on Monday, May 2 at 4:13 p.m., www.cartt.ca went live and on Tuesday, our first-ever newsletter went out filled with original stories you…
Continue Reading
BURNABY, B.C. – The Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU) issued a statement today saying it was “outraged over statements made by Telus’ CEO at today’s Annual General Meeting.”
According to the union, Telus’ CEO Darren Entwistle talked about their proposed offer to employees at the meeting in Edmonton.
He talked about job security for front line unionized workers and said the language Telus put forward addresses job security. "The proposed language has little or no consequence for Telus, they only have to inform the union in writing if they want to contract out our members jobs" said Hope Cumming, vice-president…
Continue Reading
VANCOUVER – Revenues and earnings climbed for Telus Corp. in the first quarter of 2005, despite losses in the residential local line market.
Consolidated operating revenues of nearly $2 billion in the quarter increased almost 10% from a year ago and operating income was up 46%. Earnings per share for the first quarter were 67 cents, up 139% compared with 28 cents for the same period a year ago. Earnings per share for the first quarter benefited from 15 cents in positive tax related adjustments versus four cents for the first quarter of 2004.
Free cash flow increased $123…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Call-Net Enterprises Inc., otherwise known as Sprint Canada, reported revenue and EBITDA increases during the first quarter, ended March 31, 2005.
Revenue same in at $216 million, a 7% increase over Q1 2004 and EBITDA of $36 million was a 35% increase over Q1 2004. However, Call-Net recorded a net loss in the quarter of $13 million, compared with a net loss of almost $30 million in the first quarter of 2004.
“We delivered very positive results during the first quarter, both as a results of the Bell/360 acquisition and reductions in carrier costs driven by regulatory…
Continue Reading