Public Mobile says on its website that it is eliminating its unlimited wireless plans. The carrier, which was purchased by Telus Corp. in a deal that closed in November, said its unlimited plans would be switched to include only 1 GB of data as of April 4. “If you do use more than 1 GB you may notice slowdowns to your current data service after a reasonable buffer,” its website says. Earlier this month, the Wire Report quoted Joe Natale, Telus’ executive vice-president and chief commercial officer, as saying that the company “made a commitment to keep the $19...
Industry Canada has not extended a five-year moratorium preventing Canada’s largest wireless providers from acquiring their smaller competitors’ airwaves, though it never said they would be able to obtain that “set-aside” spectrum after the moratorium expired, the federal government said in newly filed court documents. In a memorandum of fact and law filed with the Federal Court on Monday, government lawyers said the department “made no promise and gave no...
The federal industry minister has no right to determine the “eligibility criteria” for companies to participate in spectrum auctions in the absence of formal rules from cabinet, lawyers representing Telus Corp. argued...
The Competition Bureau said it would not block Telus Corp.’s proposed deal to buy Public Mobile Inc. The bureau said in a release Friday it had determined “the proposed transaction is...
Industry Canada’s decision to limit incumbent wireless providers’ access to the best airwaves in the upcoming 700 MHz auction was a “pure policy decision” and should not be...
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...
Mobilicity’s management will continue to ask the federal government to approve a proposed deal to sell the company to Telus Corp. after the Tory government indicated last week that it would block the deal, sources familiar with the matter said. In a confidential communication with Mobilicity’s management last week, Industry Canada told the struggling new entrant carrier that the government does not want to see Mobilicity’s wireless spectrum licences transferred to...
Telus Corp. reached a deal to purchase Public Mobile Inc., and received Industry Canada's permission to acquire the new entrant carrier's spectrum licences, the companies said. In a joint release Wednesday, the companies said the deal, which must still be approved by the federal Competition Bureau, would allow...
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...
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...
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...
Telus Corp. will start transitioning its “push-to-talk” mobile customers to its HPSA and LTE wireless networks this month, the company said. In a release Tuesday, Telus said its new push-to-talk, or...
Telus Corp., BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. have several hurdles to clear before they can benefit from shutting down their older IDEN, CDMA and GSM wireless networks, a move that's likely...
Telus Corp. employees consulted federal public office holders 65 times in August, at the height of the company’s public relations battle with the government over the rules for Industry Canada’s upcoming wireless...
Several broadcast companies are opposing the CRTC's proposed “news neighbourhood” regulations intended to help news channels like Sun News Network get a leg up in the broadcasting system. Shaw Communications Inc., Telus Corp., CBC/Radio-Canada, Cogeco Cable Inc., and a former senior...
Telus Corp. has launched a second court challenge of the industry minister’s authority to regulate the wireless industry, this time aiming at the minister’s ability to impose bidding restrictions for the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction, court records show. In an application filed with the Federal Court last week, Telus asked the court to prohibit the minister from using the “eligibility criteria” outlined in the government’s auction rules to limit Telus’...
Industry Canada would most likely block a deal to acquire Wind Mobile it it involved significant funding from Rogers Communications Inc. or another wireless incumbent, industry analysts said. In a...
BCE Inc. chief executive George Cope is calling on all 60,000 company employees to write letters to the prime minister as the incumbents' lobbying campaign to change the government's wireless...
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...
Telus Corp. revised the pricing of data packages in its two-year contracts two weeks after new pricing was announced. The company lowered the price of some of its data packages, which must be purchased in addition to its voice...
Industry Minister James Moore’s office told Canada’s wireless providers during closed-door meetings Monday that the government is not changing its mind on the 700 MHz auction rules, said John Lawford, executive director of consumer group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), who met with the minister. “It was clear from speaking to them that they had told everybody yesterday that they weren’t changing their mind,” Lawford said in a phone interview Tuesday, hours after PIAC met privately with the minister and a day after Moore met with representatives from Canada’s wireless providers. “They seem to be very committed to this policy. They had...
Industry Minister James Moore's office said the government is moving ahead with its planned spectrum auction in January as the minister held meetings with telecommunications companies on Monday....
Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. have each filed applications asking the CRTC to clarify whether “tab” billing will be permitted under the commission’s new rules for the wireless industry. In a “tab” model, a fixed percentage of a customer’s monthly bill is applied toward...
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...
Telus Corp.’s summer lobbying efforts will focus on the “potential economic impacts” of allowing a large foreign provider like Verizon Communications Inc. to enter Canada’s wireless market, said John Gossling, the company’s chief financial officer. “We’re...
Canadian consumers need incentives to make the switch to environmentally friendly electronic bills, SaskTel said in response to CRTC questions about telcos' charges for paper billing. SaskTel, a provincial Crown...
BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. are lobbying for changes to the 700 MHz auction cap rule that permit foreign player Verizon Communications Inc. to purchase more spectrum than each...
Telus Corp. acquired 10 MHz of unused spectrum in Alberta and British Columbia from B.C. teleco Novus Entertainment Inc., Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said. “We’ve agreed to purchase a small block of unused...
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...
The presence of a fourth competing wireless carrier in each region of the country would reduce Canada’s mobile prices, which are above the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average in all but one of five categories measured, OECD telecom analyst Agustín Díaz-Pínes said. “In many countries, we’ve seen competition and prices going up and down depending on how many competitors you have,” Díaz-Pínes said in a telephone interview from Paris on Friday. “Our view is that you have significantly more competition with four—or...
Telus Corp. extended its 4G LTE network to Conception Bay, N.L. and Sydney, N.S., the company said in two releases Monday. On July 3, the company announced it also expanded the network to Strathroy, Ont., Fort Nelson, B.C., and...
Telus Corp. avoided a $10 million, non-refundable loan by backing out of its $380-million deal to acquire Dave Wireless Inc. by a June 10 deadline, said Ted Woodhead, Telus’ senior vice-president of government and regulatory...
Dave Wireless Inc. will pursue a recapitalization plan after Telus Corp. withdrew its $380-million deal to acquire the company, the new entrant wireless provider said. In a release Monday, new entrant Dave...
Canada’s publicly traded broadcast distribution companies reported “concrete signs” of cord cutting over the past two quarters as their combined subscriber base fell for the first time since cable TV first become a feature in most homes, said Mario Mota, partner at Boon Dog Professional Services Inc. In a release Thursday, Boon Dog...
One day before Industry Canada denied the deal, Dave Wireless Inc. board member William Aziz registered with the federal lobbying commissioner to lobby for approval of the company's acquisition by Telus Corp. as well as the deadline for companies to submit deposits for the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. A registration, effective Monday and posted on the lobbying commissioner's website Wednesday, showed Aziz registered to lobby officials at Competition Bureau and Industry Canada “[t]o obtain Industry Canada and Competition Bureau approvals of the purchase by TELUS of...
TORONTO—Wind Mobile said it is paying “extreme rents” for wireless tower sharing and called for mandated tower access at regulated rates as the Conservative government is said to be considering stronger roaming and tower sharing rules favouring the new entrants. On a panel Tuesday...
OTTAWA, TORONTO—Industry Canada will block Telus Corp.'s proposed deal for Dave Wireless Inc.’s mobile spectrum, as well as any other proposal from an incumbent to acquire wireless...
The federal government should let the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct regulate the mobile wireless sector and back away from its policy objective of ensuring four competing carriers in each region of the country, Scotia Capital analyst Jeff Fan said. In a research note Monday, Fan said the CRTC’s...
Canadian wireless consumers can cancel long-term wireless contracts with mobile phone providers after two years without any cancellation fees, the CRTC said in new wireless code of conduct...
Seven months after VimpelCom Ltd. filed an application to change control of Wind Mobile, Industry Canada still hasn't released a decision. VimpelCom, an international mobile operator based in Amsterdam, filed application last October with an expectation that the agreement would be approved within 45 days, and before an...
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...
The Ontario Superior Court approved Telus Corp.’s deal to purchase Dave Wireless Inc., operating as Mobilicity, for $380 million, the companies said. "Following on last week's vote in favour of the proposal by...
Telus Corp. will invest $1 billion in new infrastructure in British Columbia this year to expand its wireless and fibre networks, the company said. In a release, Telus said the spending, which is part of previously announced...
Telus Corp. has not pursued a false advertising case against new entrant carrier Mobilicity since a British Columbia court struck down the company’s request for an injunction against Mobilicity’s ads in December, Telus spokesman Shawn Hall said. Telus, which said this month it reached a $380 million deal to acquire Mobilicity (operated by Dave Wireless Inc.), took the new entrant wireless carrier to court last year over ads it said were “false and misleading,” and which Telus said unfairly promoted Mobilicity’s wireless brand at the expense of incumbent carriers, Telus, BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. In December, Supreme Court of British Columbia Justice J. Christopher Grauer dismissed Telus’ request for an injunction against the ads. Grauer...
Telus Corp. will invest $700 million this year in new infrastructure and facilities in Alberta, including expansions of its wireless and fibre networks, the company said. In a release Monday, Telus said the investment, which is...
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...
Telus Corp. would be on the hook for at least a $10 million non-refundable deposit to Mobilicity if its deal to acquire the new entrant carrier does not proceed after a June 10 deadline, the...
Former Wind Mobile backer Naguib Sawiris said he is re-entering the Canadian telecom market with a “long-term commitment” and the purchase of Allstream from Manitoba Telecom Services Inc....
Delays in Industry Canada's spectrum auction process are looking more likely by the day, analysts said. They said new wireless entrants will need more time to look at consolidation options after Industry Minister Christian Paradis announces changes to the rules for spectrum transfers, expected as early as this month. Those rules, which Paradis has said will be issued before the next wireless auction, are expected to clarify whether the struggling new entrant carriers can sell their...
Telus Corp. extended its fourth-generation LTE service to the Quebec communities of Beauce, the north coast of Mauricie, Charlevoix and Ile d’Orleans, the company said Tuesday. In a release, François Gratton, the president of Telus Quebec, said the LTE rollout is part of Telus’ $840 million investment to upgrade infrastructure in Quebec by 2014. The company added that it has invested $12.3 billion in...
Telus Corp.'s Optik TV will no longer carry Viacom Inc. channels Spike TV and BET starting Feb. 28, Telus said. In a notice on its website Tuesday, Telus said “all other channels in the Adventure and Entertainment Extra...
New entrant wireless carrier DAVE Wireless Inc. can continue airing ads about “unlimited” data packages and the limited nature of its competitors “unlimited” packages after British Columbia’s top...
New entrant wireless carrier DAVE Wireless Inc. will launch a countersuit against Telus Corp., arguing the incumbent telco uses false advertising in its promotions, said Stewart Lyons, the...
Telus Corp. put OUTtv Network Inc. at a competitive disadvantage by placing its specialty channel in a low-penetration theme pack on its Optik TV service when a higher-penetration theme pack was available, the CRTC said. In a...
Telus Corp. opened a new $65-million data centre in Rimouski, Que., and said it will invest another $13 million on IT infrastructure in the province, the company said Tuesday. In a release, Telus said the new data centre connects to its national network and “is interconnected with major data centres across the...
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...