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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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent a letter to the largest carriers requesting a status update on negotiations for access to their wireless networks by mobile virtual network operators.
The letter, dated yesterday, asks Bell, Rogers, Telus and SaskTel to provide the commission by February 8 a list of regional carriers that have made requests to begin negotiations for that access and when those requests were made; the current status of any negotiations and whether rates have been discussed; and a timeframe for when they expect agreements can be executed.
If the parties cannot come to an agreement on rates, they…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Members of the House industry committee took issue today with Rogers being allowed to choose Videotron as its competitor to complete its acquisition of Shaw, with one member of Parliament saying it “boggles the mind” to think Rogers would sell Freedom for less if it meant more competition.
Today’s hearing was the committee’s second round at the Rogers-Shaw merger, this time with the new development that Videotron agreed to purchase Freedom from Shaw for nearly $3 billion. It also comes a day after the Federal Court of Appeal upheld a…
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OTTAWA – Rogers’s proposed purchase of Shaw faces just one more hurdle: the innovation minister’s approval of the transfer of Freedom spectrum assets to Videotron, which agreed to purchase the company for nearly $3 billion.
The deal’s prospects improved dramatically when it survived a Competition Bureau challenge at the Federal Court of Appeal, which denied yesterday a request to find in error the Competition Tribunal’s approval of the deal. Even more so when the bureau announced late last evening that it will not appeal the court’s decision.
But now scrutiny will be leveled against it…
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