By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Until now the CRTC regime in place to compensate owners of conventional TV signals distributed by cable companies outside of their markets seem to work fairly well.
Terrestrial BDUs offer distant signals for ‘time shifting’ purposes. It allows subscribers to watch popular shows at a different time by watching a station in a different time zone. Since local stations are losing advertising money (advertisers only pay for local viewership) a compensation regime was put in place.
To distribute such signal, the cable company needs consent from and provide compensation to the owners of conventional television stations. Before…
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VANCOUVER — Telus announced Wednesday the launch of wireless service to the underground Dunsmuir SkyTrain tunnel between Stadium-Chinatown and Waterfront stations, allowing its customers to stay connected on the entirety of TransLink’s Expo SkyTrain line in downtown Vancouver.
TransLink says it provides more than one million journeys across its integrated transit network each day, and the 1.4-kilometre route through the underground Dunsmuir Tunnel is one of the busiest stretches along the SkyTrain network. The extension of wireless service to the route includes the Granville and Burrard station platforms.
Eros Spadotto, Telus executive vice-president of technology strategy and business transformation added: “Any…
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VANCOUVER — Telus announced today it is bringing wireless connectivity to a 20-kilometre stretch of Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Terrace, B.C., as the result of investing more than $1 million in building a new cell site.
Construction on the new cell tower was completed in December and connects users to Telus’s 4G LTE network. The new cell site is located approximately 60 kilometres west of Terrace, and brings coverage to an area that was previously one of the longest stretches of Highway 16 without any cellular service, the news release says. Telus now provides coverage to more…
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OTTAWA – Telus and Cogeco are arguing in court that the standstill rule that has effectively forced Quebecor to deliver its TVA Sports signal to Bell customers is a completely valid way for the CRTC to enforce the status quo in the public interest, contrary to the claims of the two principal players in this legal battle.
The role of the CRTC under section 10 of the Broadcasting Act is to ensure consumers don’t become “collateral damage when either attempts to leverage its market position in an anti-competitive fashion to extract unfair benefits from its counterparty,” Telus said in…
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VANCOUVER — Telus announced Monday it has invested $2 million to build two new cell sites in Gold River and Tahsis, bringing wireless voice and Internet services to these west coast Vancouver Island communities for the first time.
In addition to this investment, Telus is collaborating with the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation to upgrade wireless services in the community of Tsaxana later this year, says the news release.
Last week Telus announced it had achieved the milestone of bringing wireless connectivity to every community in British Columbia with a population of 1,000 people or more.
Telus said it is committed to…
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Renews call to remove foreign ownership restrictions
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – It’s been 18 years since Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus, has personally appeared in front of the CRTC at a formal hearing. So why come to one?
“I’m frustrated,” he said to a small group of people in the hearing room in Gatineau a few minutes before he sat down for his four-plus-hour turn in front of the Commission as it examines wireless policy in Canada.
How frustrated? Enough to reduce network investments by $1 billion with a corresponding loss of 5,000 jobs, apparently.
While the entire Telus presentation was…
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VANCOUVER — Telus announced Wednesday it is selling 25 million common shares to a syndicate of underwriters in a deal valued at $1.3 billion (C$52.00 per share).
The group of underwriters is led by RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities, together with CIBC Capital Markets, BMO Capital Markets and Scotiabank as joint bookrunners.
Telus says in its news release that it intends to use the net proceeds from the equity offering for general corporate purposes including funding growth opportunities, capital expenditures and debt reduction.
Completion of the offering is subject to customary conditions and the receipt of all necessary stock exchange…
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BELCARRA, B.C. – Telus announced today it is investing more than $500,000 to connect more than 90% of homes and businesses in the village of Belcarra directly to its fibre optic network.
Construction on the PureFibre network is already underway, and the company anticipates the majority of homes and businesses will be connected by the end of the year. Belcarra is a part of Metro Vancouver, but is somewhat isolated as it is located on Indian Arm, a side inlet of the Burrard Inlet, northwest of Port Moody.
“We are delighted with Telus’ investment in our village to provide residents with…
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VANCOUVER – On Thursday Telus reported solid gains in the fourth quarter of 2019, as it announced customer growth of 176,000 net additions, which included wireless net additions of 130,000 and wireline customer additions of 46,000.
The wireline additions broke down as 28,000 Internet, 15,000 TV and 15,000 security net new clients, combined with residential voice line losses of 12,000.
The company added 713,000 net customers in all of 2019, up 21% over 2018.
For the quarter, consolidated operating revenue of $3.9 billion increased by 2.5% over the same period in 2018, driven by growth in wireless network revenue and wireline data…
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Critics say that claim is misguided
VANCOUVER – Telus’s claim that it has reached, on one of its wireless plans, a 25% reduction in price, as promised to Canadians by the Liberal government, is wrong, according to critics, because the intent was always for a further reduction in prices from December 2019.
This month, Telus created a page on its website advertising that its Peace of Mind plan for a family of four, with 10 GB of data each, with an annual cost of $2,880 meets and beats the Liberal government’s annual goal of reducing wireless prices by 25% –…
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