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...

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 spokesperson. Once a Bell MTS subscriber upgrades their device, they will be migrated over to a Bell Mobility plan, Bell communications director Marc Choma said in an email,...

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...

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 service was only available in Eastern Canada. It added in the release that TMN and TMN Encore subscribers can also access the content via TMN OnDemand, a subscription video-on-demand service that is available through a TV service provider’s set-top-box, as well as the TMN Go TV-everywhere app....

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...

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 that decision. Bell told cabinet in a petition to the governor-in-council that mandated access to FTTH will stop or delay investment “for years” in areas of the country where the investment required wouldn’t be justified by the possible return. “The significant impact of the CRTC's decision will be borne particularly by smaller towns and rural...

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,...

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 replicate real-world consumer behavior” for a trio of reports. In rankings combining data, call, and text results, the three companies were statistically tied in Vancouver, while Bell had the best performance in Toronto and Montreal. The company said the average download speeds on all network technologies ranged from 19.3 Mbps to 33 Mbps. “The LTE download and upload speeds RootMetrics found on each carrier's network were faster than the LTE speeds...

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...

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 services they subscribe to. The channels, it said, include Bell-owned convention networks CTV and CTV Two as well specialty and pay services, including Bravo, A&E, History, TMN, SuperChannel, Movie Central, Teletoon, Treehouse, YTV, TSN, Leafs TV, NBA TV, CTV News Channel, BBC World News, Super Écran, and RDS. According to an advertisement on Bell’s website, customers that subscribe to Bell’s TV service can access up to 70 channels on their mobile devices over WiFi networks with no extra charge, including 48 that offer a live stream of the channel’s programming and 48 that offer on-demand programming. There are no limits on the amount of content those customers...

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...

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 Accelero, based in Paris and co-founded by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, succeeds in its offer to purchase Wind Mobile from VimpelCom Ltd. “In Canada you can give an advantage to yourself, radically, if you own your own infrastructure,” Brownlee Thomas, a telecom analyst with Forrester, said in a phone interview. “Anywhere you need fibre, it's going...

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...

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...