After a little more than one year on the job, Telus Corp. announced Monday that Joe Natale has stepped down as president and CEO, and has been replaced by Darren Entwistle, who was Natale's predecessor in this job and has been the company's executive chairman ever since the previous changeover. In a press release, Telus listed Natale's reluctance to move to Western Canada for family reasons as a reason for the change, and said the decision was made following an "extensive review" by Telus' board of directors that concluded late Friday. Telus said that "the board determined that the company would be best served by having its chief executive officer reside in...
At some point this summer, Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service will be made available to customers of other TV and Internet service providers (ISPs), expanding its user base beyond Rogers and Shaw subscribers. Shomi senior vice-president and general manager David Asch said Wednesday in a phone interview that Shomi would be available to all Canadians with an Internet connection on an over-the-top (OTT) basis. The set-top box version of the...
GATINEAU, Que. — While the public will generally back the CRTC's decision to require TV service providers to offer pick-and-pay to customers by the end of next year, they don't understand the full consequences for the Canadian TV industry, one media consultant said in the wake of Thursday's announcement....
The CRTC has dismissed a complaint by BCE Inc. against Rogers Communications Inc.’s GamePlus service, ruling that Rogers could offer the NHL hockey app exclusively to its own customers because the content wasn’t produced primarily for traditional television. The regulator said in the decision that the CRTC...
Wind Mobile will work to roll out LTE connections on its network by the end of 2016, as long as the technology to take advantage of the AWS-3 spectrum it picked up in this week’s auction is ready, Wind chairman Anthony Lacavera said Friday. The results of the March 3 auction were...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) on Friday asked the CRTC to prohibit Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. from restricting the availability of their streaming...
A financial market analyst on Thursday expressed concern over a filing by Shaw Communications Inc. vice-chairman Jim Shaw to sell 1.05 million shares in the company. Dvai Ghose, of Canaccord Genuity, said in a research note that while such a transaction "does not impact Shaw's fundamentals," it could be an indication of "deteriorating results" and also "suggests no near to medium term plans to sell the company to Rogers [Communications Inc.]," as has been speculated. Ghose added that Shaw's most recent financial results for its first fiscal quarter were lacklustre relative to the operational performance the company has projected for the full year. Ghose said Shaw is depending largely on recently implemented service rate increases to achieve its...
In June, wireless carriers face a higher-than-usual number of expiring contracts, as a result of the wireless code effectively banning the previously standard three-year agreements. But experts...
Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose says concern over hockey viewership is among the reasons he downgraded the stock of Rogers Communications Inc. this week. In a research note Wednesday, the telecom industry analyst pointed to...
Mobilicity's intent to access up to $65 million in debt to participate in the upcoming AWS-3 auction has important implications for Wind Mobile, which would otherwise face no competition for the...
The telecommunications services sector should weather the storm of economic uncertainty facing Canada right now, though some negative effects are likely, Canaccord Genuity telecom analyst Dvai Ghose. Following the Bank of Canada's interest rate cut Wednesday and its downward revision to its economic forecast for the...
Wind Mobile's offer of free wireless service to customers of Mobilicity, with unlimited data, text and calls for six months, could be an offensive move to help clear away competition for set-aside spectrum in the upcoming...
Shaw Communications Inc.'s first-quarter financial figures showed its consumer network and media businesses bringing in less money than a year earlier, while there was some growth in its business-services operations. The company said in a press release Wednesday it had overall revenue of $1.39 billion in the three...
A Federal Court judge has affirmed the government's authority to block transfers of wireless spectrum whenever it sees fit, though at least one telecom analyst says the government's reluctance to let incumbents accumulate...
Canada's two biggest cable companies on Thursday reported losses of more than 100,000 television subscribers each over the last year. Roger Communications Inc.'s earnings release showed that it had 2.04 million TV subscribers at the end of the third quarter on Sept. 30, down 111,000 from a year earlier. Shaw...
GATINEAU, Que. — Legislation introduced earlier this year that caps wholesale wireless roaming rates to what host carriers charge their own retail customers doesn't create the conditions necessary for smaller operators to compete, representatives from Wind Mobile and Mobilicity told the CRTC on Monday. It was the first day of a weeklong hearing looking into Canada's wholesale wireless market. Representatives from Wind and Mobilicity told the hearing that their entry into the market in 2009, after buying set-aside spectrum in the 2008 AWS auction, was hindered by expensive roaming rates. Legislation that came into effect in June capped these rates at a formula based on the...
Cogeco Cable Inc. wants the CRTC to set up regulated access to established wireless carriers’ networks, president and CEO Louis Audet said during a conference call with media Thursday....
Cogeco Cable Inc. said Tuesday it will hold a conference call with journalists on Thursday to discuss "the future of mobile services in Canada." Cogeco has indicated an interest in launching wireless service, and it is...
New details about the government’s push for new-entrant carriers in the 2008 AWS auction were revealed in a lawsuit filed this week against Industry Canada by two of the original investors in...
Much has been made this week about the practice of levying extra fees for the privilege of getting a physical bill for telecommunications services, and some industry watchers are downplaying the...
Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. officials say they’re confident the launch of their Shomi over-the-top video service will not eat into their cable business, though industry experts are less convinced. The companies on Tuesday announced they would launch a streaming service containing TV shows and movies for $8.99 a month, starting in November. The service will initially be available to Shaw and Rogers Internet and TV customers, though Rogers Media president Keith Pelley said during a press conference he is “comfortable” other broadcaster distributors will jump on board by the launch date. “Our goal is to launch with as many BDUs as we...
While some observers are saying the deployment requirements for the upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction are the strictest the industry’s ever seen, others say they’re pretty much in line...
More than eight months after its implementation and more than a year after it was announced, effects of CRTC's wireless code include higher prices and slower growth in mobile-service subscribers,...
The minimum opening bids for the entirety of the available spectrum in the upcoming AWS-3 auction total $162.45 million, with a $97.45 million minimum for the blocks set aside for smaller carriers, Industry Canada said Monday as it launched a consultation on its proposed auction framework. In a Monday research...
Telecommunications companies increased prices most, proportionally, over the last year for those subscribing to the lowest-end wireless, broadband-Internet and home-phone plans, according to a report...
Cogeco Cable Inc. has abandoned a multi-year project to establish an Internet protocol-based TV platform in Canada and will instead launch a service in partnership with TiVo Inc. that its CEO says gives it "all of what we...
The federal government on Monday announced another auction for wireless spectrum will be held next year and, like previous auctions, it will have rules meant to increase the viability of companies competing against the three incumbents. "They are bound and determined to get that fourth national carrier," Gregory...
After pronouncements from Rogers Communications Inc. about improving the customer experience and simplifying the options available to customers, analysts from Barclays said the company appears to be "shifting away from...
Quebecor Inc. said explicitly Wednesday that it intends to become Canada's "fourth wireless competitor," though it needs "a fair and competitive federally regulated roaming...
The growth of existing over-the-top (OTT) streaming services and the potential emergence of new ones, as well as a transition to an à la carte television distribution system, could place “significant pressure on the broadcast business model” in Canada, a new report from Cannacord Genuity says. The fact that cord-cutting hasn’t yet reached “material levels” in Canada has “nourished the notion that OTT is additive to the regular TV services rather than cannibalistic,” wrote Aravinda Galappatthige and Haesu Lee in the report, released Tuesday. “However, we believe that the emerging changes in this landscape will aggressively test this...
Broadcast distributors across the country are likely to pay for a big chunk of the billions of dollars for which Rogers Communications Inc. is on the hook as a result of the deal it struck for 12...
Analysts speculated Wednesday about the possibility of Quebecor Inc. stepping up to purchase Mobilicity following a report that Telus Corp. has withdrawn its offer. An article, which appeared on the...
Wind Mobile said the first quarter of 2014 was its “best quarter ever” as it gained more than 25,000 subscribers and saw its average revenue per user jump to 12 per cent more than it was a year earlier. The company...
A financial market analyst covering the telecommunications sector says the federal government could cause harm to those with a stake in Mobilicity, and possibly even face a lawsuit, if it continues to thwart attempts by Telus...
A telecom-industry analyst is questioning whether Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron can maintain its relatively low wireless-plan rates given the subsidies it must now pay to offer the iPhone to its customers. Canaccord Genuity analyst Dvai Ghose, in a research note issued Friday, noted how Videotron’s price for Apple Inc.’s iPhones, which it just started carrying, is similar to incumbent carriers. He noted that Videotron is selling the 16 GB iPhone 5S for $229.95 on two-year contracts, which is almost identical to Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc.’s pricing. It is less...
Genuity Canaccord analyst Dvai Ghose said the $5 increase that all the incumbent wireless carriers in Canada recently placed on their monthly voice-and-data share plans will help offset discounts they...
Analysts from Barclays Capital said there is little risk to Quebecor Inc.’s businesses from former CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau’s candidacy for the sovereigntist Parti...
Wind Mobile CEO Anthony Lacavera said it’s “business as usual” at his company following the decision by majority owner VimpelCom Ltd. to write down the value of its $768-million US stake in the Canadian wireless...
Rogers Communications Inc. spent more than expected in the government’s 700 MHz spectrum auction, while Videotron, owned by Quebecor Inc., expanded its network across the country for a relatively low price, analysts said on Thursday. The results of the 700 MHz wireless auction, released on Wednesday, showed...
OTTAWA — Industry Canada is updating its wireless tower-site rules to remove “loopholes” that allowed wireless providers to build shorter towers without first consulting local...
Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday reported higher fourth-quarter earnings as revenue in its wireless business rose faster than its other operations, which also include Internet, television and...
The long-anticipated 700 MHz spectrum auction begins Tuesday, Jan 14. Among the rules set out by Industry Canada, each of the three incumbents, Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc., are each only allowed to acquire...
Former Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi picked up a new gig this year, as pitchman for voice-over-IP provider Comwave Networks Inc. in which he urges customers to “stand up to the big guys” by switching home-phone services. The cheaper home-phone offerings provided by companies like Comwave—which advertises its rates as low...
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 frequencies set aside for new entrants, and will delay the department’s 700 MHz spectrum auction until early next year, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said. In an early morning announcement Tuesday at Industry Canada’s offices, Paradis said the deadline to apply for the upcoming 700...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Shaw Communications Inc. is focused on improving customer service, leveraging its new WiFi network, and selling more Internet service subscriptions to retain customers in its battle with Telus Corp....
The incumbents' new wireless plans appear to be more positive for their revenues than similar plans launched recently by incumbent telcos in the United States, Canaccord Genuity said in a report issued Dec. 5. “[T]he U.S. plans eliminate domestic long distance charges, while unlimited long distance costs $10 per...