By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has put out a contract notice Thursday for a consultancy firm that will assist in analyzing the network outage at Rogers last summer and improvements the company has committed to going forward.
The July 8 network blackout brought down critical services for millions of Canadians, including government, banking and emergency services in some cases.
This week, the regulator announced the launch of the first of a number of proceedings on telecom network resiliency, the first of which will include mandatory notification requirements on all service providers when outages like these happen. As…
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By Samer Bishay, pictured above, founder, president and CEO of telecom Iristel.
On one hand, my telecom company and I have top secret security clearance from the federal government, and yet another part of the Ottawa bureaucracy is convinced we’re crooks.
It doesn’t add up.
There has been much talk lately about Canada feeling broken and our story does little to dispel such talk.
Unequivocally, we are not crooks.
And just as unequivocally, Ottawa is broken when one department – Canada Revenue Agency – accuses us of stealing from the taxman while law enforcement agencies see the value of us helping protect the treasury…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said on the company’s fourth quarter conference call Thursday that he is “not surprised” by the “little progress” the company has made on negotiating a deal to roam on the large carriers’ wireless networks, but said things may change with the new head at the CRTC.
The company’s Videotron subsidiary was denied last week an arbitration hearing with the regulator about a price for access to Bell’s wireless network, alleging Bell is stalling on negotiations. The CRTC, which asked about the status of those negotiations…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A thorn in the side of third party cable companies told to bear the full cost of a pole replacement to attach their telecom equipment on wood structures has been addressed Wednesday by the CRTC, which ruled that attachers should not bear more than 50 percent of the cost of a replacement in most instances.
Pole owners – mainly legacy telephone companies Bell and Telus – have historically charged full price for the pole replacement if a third party wanted to put their equipment on the wood structures (the regulator said this is “often” the case)….
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Government “disagreed” with incumbent arguments about direction usefulness and legality
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada has kept its proposed policy direction to the CRTC largely intact, as the final version released Monday shores up language to reinforce the government’s perspective on the importance of competition and affordability in the wireline and wireless sectors of the telecommunications industry, while maintaining that the direction will encourage innovation and network investments.
The department clarified language in the final version that made clearer the importance in CRTC decisions of network reliability, fair roaming rates, and “just and reasonable” rates at which smaller internet service…
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VANCOUVER – Former deputy prime minister John Manley has been appointed chair of the Telus board of directors.
The long-time board member is succeeding Dick Auchinleck, who is retiring after 20 years, according to a press release today.
“John’s appointment as our new Board Chair is a testament to our robust succession planning process,” Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of TELUS, said in the release. “Over the course of his tenure on our Board, John has demonstrated exceptional professionalism, thought leadership and integrity, playing a key role in TELUS’ industry-leading growth strategy. We look forward to his continued contribution with his…
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Company said two recent ISP acquisitions will help deliver on its home security business
By Ahmad Hathout
VANCOUVER – Telus executives said today they are “bullish” on the revenue generation that connected devices will deliver, especially as 5G wireless connectivity becomes more of a mainstay.
The company reported a 16% increase in its connected device base – and year-over-year growth of 30.9% — as it added 106,000 new devices in the fourth quarter of 2022 for a total of 2.5 million.
Despite the growth, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle told investors on the company’s quarterly conference call that “it still has not yet scaled…
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BURNABY, B.C. – A union representing Telus workers is threatening to escalate actions in the absence of a better labour deal with the telecom giant.
Hundreds of Telus workers and members of the United Steelworkers union have been going through picket training over the past several weeks after the union and the country’s third largest telecom could not hammer out a tentative agreement on a new labour deal.
Since then, the union has said Telus has refused to resume negotiations.
“In the coming days we will commence a new phase of escalated actions across the country, which we intend…
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VANCOUVER — Telus last month completed the integration of customers of internet service provider Start.ca after acquiring the small outfit, the company confirmed.
The customer networks of the London, Ont.-based provider of internet, television and home phone services were integrated into Telus last month, “giving customer access to TELUS’ global-leading wireless network, suite of home automation and security, health and entertainment products and services,” Telus told Cartt in a statement.
Richmond, B.C.-based Altima, another ISP that Telus acquired, was integrated into Telus’s network in June 2022.
The purchases further narrow the range of service providers to choose from, as various factors have…
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By Bronwyn Howell, a fellow at think tank American Enterprise Institute with a PhD in economics and public policy, an MBA, and a BA in operations research, all from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She has undertaken contract work for Telus.
Canada and Australia are similar in many ways, but one area of significant difference is mobile telecommunications. While both countries share similar geographic and demographic features – vast territories very sparsely populated on average, yet highly-urbanised first-world economies, so likely face similar telecommunications costs and demands, Canada has fared less well in comparison to…
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