Telus’s CEO Darren Entwistle confirmed Wednesday that the telco is “evaluating a potential plan” to sell a minority stake in its wireless towers to pay down debt.
The Globe and Mail, citing anonymous sources and documents, reported that the company has hired TD Securities to roadshow a 49.9-per-cent stake in its portfolio of 3,000 towers.
“We have engaged with advisors to explore the monetization of our tower infrastructure,” Entwistle said in a press release. “If we are able to do this within the parameters of our desired economics, it would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our network…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Industry Canada’s new fee structure for spectrum below the 10 GHz band is contrary to the challenges facing the Canadian economy, the trajectory of mobile wireless prices, and out of touch in relation to peer countries, the largest wireless service providers are arguing.
Earlier this month, the department changed how it would charge for those spectrum fees in certain low and mid bands. Instead of the existing annual base rate with a multiplier based on MHz held and population served, the department has opted instead for a three-rate fee system that applies discounts to an annual base rate…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TekSavvy is warning this month that a telco requirement to buy a minimum percentage of what it says is unnecessary capacity to get access to higher gigabit services on aggregated fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks will result in higher costs and lower sales.
The independent telecom is responding to an application by Bell, filed last month, that requests approval of the CRTC to remove the 10 Mbps, 50 Mbps, and 300 Mbps speed tiers for competitors’ residential customers in its Aliant operating territory in Atlantic Canada. Bell explains that it has no customers on the tiers proposed to be removed…
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By Connie Thiessen
Telus, in collaboration with NVIDIA, has announced plans to build a Sovereign AI Factory, a secure facility promising to provide supercomputers and software needed to train AI, while keeping data safe within Canada’s borders.
The telco says the factory, which will leverage its high-speed fibre-optic network, will give Canadian businesses and researchers access to cutting-edge technology to develop smarter AI products, streamline operations and stay competitive.
NVIDIA’s latest Hopper- and Blackwell-based supercomputers will power the AI Factory. Telus plans to deploy NVIDIA’s latest-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), following NVIDIA Cloud Partner (NCP) Reference Architectures and software stack, at its data…
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Rogers charges OUTtv using regulatory system to stop it from making commercial decisions
By Ahmad Hathout
LGBTQ+ TV broadcaster and streamer OUTtv is alleging Rogers is violating Wholesale Code rules by shuffling the network into a less popular cable TV package.
The subscription-based service is alleging in a Part 1 application dated March 5 that the cable company is violating section 9 of the code by not putting the network in the “best available” package, negatively impacting its wholesale fee revenue. The complaint alleges that Rogers shuffled the service it must carry out of a “Premier” package and “into a different and…
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Bell says it will withdraw court app challenging lack of action on rate-setting before new attach rules
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Tuesday made interim the current wholesale rates competitors pay to attach to the poles owned by Bell and Telus, paving the way for the setting of final rates that will apply retroactively.
The decision, effective today, locks in Bell’s current charges of $1.04 per pole per month in Ontario and Quebec and Telus’s going rate of $1.61 to do so in British Columbia and Alberta as the commission evaluates the telcos’ request to bump up those aging rates.
More importantly…
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The CRTC last week asked Bell, Rogers and Telus to make available as soon as possible new international roaming offerings the big three telecoms have told the commission they are planning to introduce, and to ensure these new offerings are easily found on their websites.
In response to an October 2024 letter from the CRTC calling on the telecoms to reduce international roaming fees and provide more flexible options, Bell, Rogers and Telus reported to the commission they have introduced or plan to introduce new international roaming offerings that include:
monthly…
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Telus and Rogers have reached a distribution agreement for the latter’s new Food Network, HGTV, Discovery, Investigation Discovery, Bravo and Magnolia channels.
Telus announced Wednesday its Optik TV customers are now getting an exclusive free preview of Rogers’s premium lifestyle and entertainment channels until April 14.
Starting April 11, Optik TV customers will be able to add the individual channels to their existing plan for $5 each or choose from two theme packs: Food & Home for $10 per month, which includes Food Network, Magnolia Network and HGTV; or Discovery & Reality, also $10 per month, which includes Bravo, Discovery and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is accusing the CRTC of putting the cart before the horse when it ordered new pole attachment obligations without first updating the cost for competitors to put their equipment on its structures.
In late January, the CRTC imposed on the legacy telcos – Bell, Telus, and SaskTel – new obligations to speed up the ability of competitors to attach their broadband equipment to the poles: absorb the full cost of “corrective work” or getting poles up to compliance standards; schedule both make-ready and corrective work together on strict timelines set by the commission in…
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Regulator also designates small ILECs as ONPs
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday extended by two years the deadline to decommission the legacy 911 system, after public safety groups said they wouldn’t be able to make the March 4, 2025 deadline to implement the new system.
The regulator said a majority of proceeding intervenors – including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, and the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada – said they would not be able to implement the system by this week.
The CRTC has now set March 31, 2027 as the deadline for the…
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