TAGGED AS BELL
CanCon relief will help commercial radio compete with Spotify: Bell Media
Media | 11/19/2020 5:40 pm EST
Canadian content programming relief from the CRTC would allow BCE Inc.'s radio stations to more effectively compete with streaming giants like Spotify AB, according to Bell...
CRTC orders Bell to sign agreement with CloudWifi
telecom | 03/26/2020 5:22 pm EDT
The CRTC has ordered BCE Inc. to sign an agreement that would allow CloudWifi Inc. to progress its application to become a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC), finding Bell’s continued refusal to do so is “unnecessarily hindering competition and consumer choice.” CloudWifi applied to become a registered CLEC in August 2018, but lodged an application with the regulator in March 2019, claiming Bell was refusing to sign a Special Master Agreement for Local Interconnection (MALI) necessary to progress its CLEC application. The CRTC denied CloudWifi’s application to complete its...
Telecoms deadlocked ahead of 5G rollout: analyst
telecom | 01/10/2020 5:32 pm EST
No major wireless provider stands out as most likely to benefit from Canada’s looming 5G network rollout, despite two players’ extensive combined wireline footline placing them on the “front foot”, RBC Capital Markets...
Bell hardware malfunction causes Raptors fans to miss out
Media | 06/11/2019 3:28 pm EDT
BCE Inc. confirmed today that several thousand of its Fibe TV and Alt TV...
CRTC has no jurisdiction over content on single programs, SCC hears
Media | 12/04/2018 5:18 pm EST
OTTAWA — The CRTC can’t decide what commercials broadcasters can show...
Bell retiring MTS brand for mobile customers
telecom | 10/15/2018 3:08 pm EDT
BCE Inc. is beginning to phase-out its Bell MTS wireless brand in Manitoba, according to a company...
ISED funding 777-km fibre line in Northern Canada
telecom | 06/21/2018 2:34 pm EDT
Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) is putting $30 million from its Connect to Innovate program toward a 777 kilometre-long fibre cable that will improve internet connectivity for residents in Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and northern British Columbia. The fibre network will stretch between Dawson City in Yukon and Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. The release said it will help close a 4,000 kilometre-long northern fibre loop, meaning the new line will add redundancy that will reduce outages to critical services, such as hospitals and debit and credit...
Bell beefs up security, web performance with Akamai deal
telecom | 10/18/2017 5:47 pm EDT
BCE Inc. is looking to strengthen cybersecurity and web performance for its...
Bell providing customers energy management through IoT
telecom | 07/25/2017 5:35 pm EDT
Business customers of BCE Inc.’s network will be able to use an energy...
Federal appeal court to reconsider Bell prepaid lawsuit
telecom | 10/21/2016 5:10 pm EDT
The Ontario Court of Appeal has been ordered to reconsider a class-action lawsuit against BCE Inc. involving the expiration of prepaid account contracts. The Supreme Court of Canada...
Bell, MTS announce post-merger plans for Churchill, Man.
telecom | 08/29/2016 7:26 pm EDT
Gigabit-speed Internet will be introduced to Northern Manitoba under a BCE Inc.-owned Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., the companies announced Monday. The improvement in Churchill,...
MTS shareholders to vote on Bell deal
telecom | 06/01/2016 10:12 pm EDT
Shareholders in Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. will have their say in the proposed merger with BCE Inc. later this month. The company announced in a Wednesday press release that a special meeting...
CraveTV gained 100,000 subs after launching as standalone
Media | 04/29/2016 8:36 pm EDT
BCE Inc.’s CraveTV streaming service gained more than 100,000 “direct to consumer” subscribers in 90 days after launching as a stand-alone service in January, the company said in its...
Juno Awards to be broadcast in 4K
telecom | 03/31/2016 4:29 pm EDT
Sunday's Juno Awards ceremony will be broadcast in 4K, BCE Inc. announced Thursday, with the company calling it the first music awards show in North America to be broadcast in the ultra-high-definition format. Fibe TV...
Bell expands TMN to West
Media | 03/02/2016 9:39 pm EST
BCE Inc.’s media division announced Tuesday it has expanded The Movie Network (TMN) and TMN Encore to Western Canada. In November Bell said that along with becoming the sole operator of HBO Canada, it was planning to expand TMN into a “national pay TV platform.” Previously the...
PIAC asks CRTC to deny Bell’s review-and-vary request
telecom | 11/24/2015 9:31 pm EST
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is telling the CRTC to reject an application by BCE Inc. that asks the commission to amend its wholesale wireline decision. In October, Bell asked the CRTC to change the new wholesale system it announced this July, in order to require wholesale Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to invest in their own transport to the central office or head-end, to ensure that ISPs using the wholesale system serve the end-users directly, and to limit wholesale access to ISPs with revenues of $500 million a year or less. It submitted the application on the same day it...
CRTC hearing on complaints commissioner scheduled for 4 days
telecom | 10/30/2015 5:33 pm EDT
The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) will kick off next week’s CRTC hearing on the structure and mandate of this office, while an appearance by BCE Inc. will...
Bell asks court for permission to appeal Wholesale Code
Media | 10/26/2015 10:58 pm EDT
BCE Inc. is again turning to the courts over a CRTC decision, this time asking the Federal Court of Appeal for leave to appeal the CRTC’s Wholesale Code. In documents filed Thursday, Bell...
Bell Media launches Discovery GO
Media | 10/26/2015 8:49 pm EDT
BCE Inc.’s media division has launched a TV-everywhere app for five Discovery Canada channels, and said Discovery GO would soon begin offering 4K content. The company said in a press release Monday that programming from...
Bell asks federal government to eliminate wholesale access to FTTH
telecom | 10/21/2015 10:31 pm EDT
BCE Inc. is fighting the CRTC’s wholesale wireline decision on two fronts, asking the federal cabinet to reverse the commission’s move in July to mandate wholesale access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks and asking the CRTC to put limits on who can take advantage of the new wholesale system it imposed in...
Bell moves forward with appeal in mobile-TV case
Media | 04/10/2015 8:12 pm EDT
BCE Inc. on Friday took the next steps in appealing the January CRTC ruling regarding its mobile-TV service, having been granted leave to appeal the matter last week. The date the appeal will be heard has not yet been determined, according to a notice from Bell's lawyers filed Friday with the Federal Court of Appeal. The proceeding will be held in Toronto unless the court decides otherwise, the notice said. Bell is seeking to overturn a January CRTC ruling that compelled it to treat video streamed through its mobile-TV app like any other data. The Canadian Network Operators...
Bell looks to avoid legal showdown with privacy commish
telecom | 04/07/2015 8:30 pm EDT
Faced with a possible legal fight against another agency of the federal government, BCE Inc. on Tuesday backed down after the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said the company refused to require...
Bell appeals CRTC’s Super Bowl simsub decision
Media | 03/02/2015 7:21 pm EST
BCE Inc. is launching a court challenge of the CRTC’s ban on the use of simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl. Bell Media spokesman Scott Henderson said in an email Monday that “the CRTC erred in law,...
Bell launches CTV Go
Media | 11/19/2013 8:51 pm EST
BCE Inc. has launched CTV Go, an online service that allows viewers to watch live and on-demand programming from its CTV and CTV Two channels. The company said in a release Tuesday that the service includes “livestreams of both networks’ complete schedules,” access to 60...
Bell’s Rick Brace retiring
Media | 11/19/2013 8:19 pm EST
Rick Brace, the president of specialty channels and CTV production at BCE Inc.’s media division, will retire at the end of the year, the company said. Bell said in a release that Brace will retire after a “nearly...
Does the emergence of Fibe signal the end of satellite TV?
telecom | 11/18/2013 4:00 pm EST
Millions of Canadians still receive their television service from signals beamed to space and back, even as the country’s dominant provider of satellite TV has given many of them a reason to...
Bell launching new French-language channel
Media | 11/15/2013 7:52 pm EST
BCE Inc. will launch a new French-language specialty channel on Dec. 12, the company said Thursday. Called “Investigation,” the channel will focus on “on the world of crime and investigation and forensic...
Fibe TV growth accelerated in Q3, BCE says
telecom | 11/07/2013 9:45 pm EST
BCE Inc. added 44 per cent more Fibe TV customers in the third quarter than it did in the previous three months, as it continued to expand its IPTV footprint and lure customers with its wireless set-top boxes, the company said. In a quarterly financial report released Thursday, BCE said it added 72,813 Fibe TV subscribers in the three-month period that...
Incumbents perform well in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver: report
telecom | 11/06/2013 10:14 pm EST
The wireless networks of BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. showed “strong and similar performances” in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, U.S.-based mobile analytics firm RootMetrics said. The company said in a release Tuesday it tested “47,495 data, call and text tests designed to...
Telcos fight for share of growing condo market
telecom | 10/28/2013 9:37 pm EDT
As condo developers erect new high-rise buildings to house the expanding populations of Canada’s largest cities, telecom providers are competing to be the ones to line those buildings with fibre-optic cables, sometimes with exclusive deals. “Every provider nowadays is looking for how best to capture customers as early and as completely as possible,” Stephen Meyer, director of technology at Nordicity, said in an interview Monday. “By offering one infrastructure to those in condos, they’re hoping to form a long relationship.” Some of...
With new roaming plans, customers still vulnerable to extra charges: PIAC
telecom | 10/07/2013 9:28 pm EDT
Some of the incumbents' new and cheaper roaming plans offer small data packages that smartphone users will quickly exceed, incurring extra charges, said John Lawford, executive director of the...
Telus faces wireless battle in West as millions in East still unserviced
telecom | 10/04/2013 3:26 pm EDT
It shouldn't be surprising that Canada's incumbent wireless carriers are targeting Alberta. It has the fastest-growing population in the country, and more than 80 per cent of its residents...
CRTC doesn’t have authority to regulate roaming rates: Bell, Telus
telecom | 10/02/2013 6:54 pm EDT
The CRTC lacks the legal foundation or jurisdiction to regulate wireless carriers’ roaming agreements and retail prices, and any effort to do so would undermine Industry Canada’s current roaming rules, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. said. In regulatory documents filed with the commission on Friday, BCE said market...
Bell launches new TV anywhere app
telecom | 08/19/2013 9:31 pm EDT
BCE Inc. launched a new application that allows its TV and mobile subscribers to access TV programming from up to 100 channels on their tablets or smartphones, the company said. In a release Monday, BCE said its new Bell TV app gives subscribers mobile and WiFi access to live and on-demand programming from up to 100 channels, depending on which Bell...
BCE, Rogers, Telus launch more ads against wireless policy
telecom | 07/31/2013 7:53 pm EDT
Incumbents BCE Inc., Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. released new ads this week as part of their campaign against the Conservative government's wireless policy. A new message, bearing the theme “Sweetheart deals for U.S. giants are a bad call for you,” appeared in full-page newspaper advertisements and on a new website at FairForCanada.ca. The ads and website feature employees from the three companies who express concerns about the impacts of a potential market entry by Verizon Communications Inc. under wireless policies that favour foreign entrants. “How...
BCE joins Telus’ campaign against auction cap rule
telecom | 07/25/2013 7:59 pm EDT
BCE Inc. aligned itself with Telus Corp.'s campaign to change the government's wireless auction policy, running ads in daily Canadian newspapers that identify potential competitor Verizon Communications Inc. as a $120-billion conglomerate four times the size of Canada's wireless sector. “[T]he government...
Bell-Rogers mobile TV deal raises ‘horse trading’ concerns, consumer group says
Media | 07/25/2013 7:29 pm EDT
Mobile providers Telus Corp. and Bragg Communications Inc. could pay higher prices to access TV content on wireless devices following a mobile TV rights deal announced last week between BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., said Janet Lo, legal counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre...
Bell, Rogers swap mobile TV content rights
Media | 07/19/2013 7:36 pm EDT
BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. have reached a deal to license rights to each other’s sports and over-the-air television content for distribution on their mobile platforms, the companies said. In a release Friday,...
Bell, Telus roll out rate plans for two-year contracts
telecom | 07/15/2013 8:14 pm EDT
BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. introduced new monthly mobile pricing to support two-year contracts after the CRTC effectively eliminated three-year agreements in its wireless code regulations. Wireless...
Indications of an ‘audacious’ Bell-Astral decision, analyst says
Media | 06/14/2013 8:49 pm EDT
Following the CRTC's wireless code decision last week, the regulator may make a second “audacious” regulatory decision on BCE Inc.’s proposed $3.38-billion acquisition of Astral Media Inc., Veritas Investment Research said. Veritas analysts Neeraj Monga and Desmond Lau, in a research note Thursday,...
Could the CRTC really deny BCE-Astral again?
Media | 06/12/2013 8:19 pm EDT
It's not often that CRTC hearings about mergers and acquisitions draw a room full of laughter. Commissioner Peter Menzies, sitting on the regulator's panel for its hearing on BCE Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Astral...
Rogers, Videotron reach network deal for capex savings, more competition in Quebec
telecom | 05/30/2013 7:09 pm EDT
Rogers Communications Inc. will be better positioned to compete against rival incumbent wireless carriers BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. in the Quebec market under a new network-sharing agreement with...
Allstream’s fibre network supports Accelero’s plans for Wind: analysts
telecom | 05/27/2013 8:15 pm EDT
Accelero Capital Holding's deal to purchase Allstream from Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. will give the company a cross-country fibre network that would provide backhaul support for mobile wireless services and bundled Internet, voice and mobile wireless contracts in the business market. That is, of course, if...
Following value-for-signal, LPIF decisions, analysts question future of CTV Two
Media | 01/14/2013 10:19 pm EST
BCE Inc. will not make any moves to downsize its stable of local television stations while its proposed acquisition of Astral Media Inc. is under consideration by the CRTC, even if the company wishes to drop some money-losing stations, analysts said. Industry analysts are speculating about the potential closure of Bell's CTV Two stations given a new regulatory environment, particularly the CRTC’s decision to phase out the local TV fund and the Supreme Court’s decision late last...
Mobile phone market slowing to 1.4% growth
telecom | 12/05/2012 7:17 pm EST
Growth of the global mobile phone market will slow to 1.4 per cent for 2012, the lowest annual growth rate in three years, research firm IDC said Tuesday. IDC said in a release it projects a record number of smartphone shipments, as a segment of mobile phones, during the 2012 holiday season. Vendors will ship more than 1.7 billion mobile phones in...
Rogers loses 21,000 cable subs in quarter, largely to IPTV
Media | 04/25/2012 2:12 pm EDT
Rogers Communications Inc. lost 21,000 cable TV subscribers during the first quarter of 2012, including a loss of 1,000 digital TV customers, the company said in a financial statement Tuesday. The company said it had 2.276 million TV subscribers at the end of the first quarter ended March 31, down from 2.303 million at...