TAGGED AS GREG MACDONALD
Telus says smartphone-specific adds at least on par with competitors
telecom | 05/18/2018 2:54 pm EDT
When paring the first quarter numbers down, Telus Corp.’s smartphone plan uptake rivaled its peers, if not beat them, despite comparatively lower new postpaid additions, a...
How big a threat are OTT sports services?
Media | 10/10/2017 5:55 pm EDT
Sports remains one of the last bastions of defence for traditional TV against a wave of over-the-top (OTT) services that continue to push audiences toward cord-cutting, though for now at least, they appear to form a stronger barrier in Canada than south of the border....
Joly’s cultural policy continues drawing mixed reaction
Media | 09/29/2017 5:20 pm EDT
Various groups praised the promised investment in production and promotion...
Bell Apple Watch advantage unknown: experts
telecom | 09/15/2017 4:06 pm EDT
Wearable use in Canada and around the world is trending up, but the numbers for smartwatches are still...
Shaw poised for boost from new iPhones
telecom | 09/12/2017 5:17 pm EDT
Apple Inc.’s new iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, announced Tuesday, are compatible with spectrum bands...
Skinny TV has room to grow: Macquarie
Media | 08/21/2017 11:52 am EDT
Skinny-basic uptake will only grow in Canada and that could spell bad news for broadcasters’ bottom lines in the future, according to Macquarie Capital Markets analyst Greg MacDonald. In a Monday note, MacDonald highlighted...
New OTT offerings pose threat to BDUs, opportunity for producers
Media | 08/17/2017 4:47 pm EDT
A proliferation of new streaming TV competition in Canada is set to benefit content producers even as it causes problems for the country’s broadcasters and TV service providers through fragmented audiences and higher content costs — though it doesn’t yet signal an...
Quebecor, Shaw to benefit from 600 MHz set-asides: analysts
telecom | 08/08/2017 3:27 pm EDT
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile will be the big winners if Innovation Canada goes ahead with its plans to set aside spectrum for smaller players in the...
BDU revenue losses accelerate to 2.1%: CRTC
Media | 07/27/2017 5:10 pm EDT
Canadian TV providers’ revenues dropped 2.1 per cent in 2016 — a marked increase from the 0.1 per...
Telecoms to compete on service after zero-rating decision: analysts
Media | 04/21/2017 4:11 pm EDT
The CRTC’s decision Thursday to ban most forms of zero-rating means telecoms will have to rely on service in order to stand out from the competition, analysts said. The...
Bell accelerates FTTH deployment with $854M plan for Montreal
telecom | 03/27/2017 8:45 pm EDT
MONTREAL — BCE Inc. will invest $854 million to bring fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) to all of Montreal’s homes and businesses within five years, the company said Monday....
TV subscriber losses steady, wireless adds at record high in 2016
telecom | 03/16/2017 9:10 pm EDT
Following a year in which cord-cutting increased sharply, the trend seems to have levelled out somewhat in 2016, with Canada’s publicly traded telecoms losing 220,990 TV subscribers, compared to...
Data, new revenue sources to make up for OTT messaging impact: analysts
telecom | 01/13/2017 9:24 pm EST
The growth in popularity of over-the-top (OTT) messaging services will cost global mobile network operators over a hundred billion dollars this year, according to Juniper Research Ltd., but some Canadian analysts say the impact will be dampened by increased data usage and new sources of revenue, including uptake in Internet...
Impact of wholesale rates, pick-and-pay will be felt in 2017: Canaccord
Media | 01/05/2017 10:09 pm EST
The initial pinch of the CRTC’s decisions on two important issues in 2016 — wholesale rates and pick-and-pay — will be felt in the new year, according to Canaccord...
AT&T, Time Warner deal shows VI trending in opposite directions: analyst
Media | 10/24/2016 9:18 pm EDT
A potential merger between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. highlights a move by United States-based companies toward vertical integration, just as developments in Canada...
Analysts optimistic about Natale at Rogers after Laurence’s surprise exit
Media | 10/17/2016 9:37 pm EDT
In an unexpected move, Rogers Communications Inc. has announced Guy Laurence is no longer CEO of the company and will be replaced by former Telus Corp. CEO Joe Natale, a choice analysts responded to positively Monday. “He’s got a great reputation in Canada within the Canadian telecom space. He did a great job at Telus. He knows the space inside and out. From everything I’ve heard, employees like working with him and he’s just generally considered...
Bell buys Q9 amidst increasing data centre competition: analysts
telecom | 08/08/2016 9:16 pm EDT
BCE Inc. announced Monday it is buying out its fellow investors in Q9 Networks Inc., a data centre operator in which it currently holds a 35.4-per-cent stake, in a move that analysts...
Telecoms’ TV customer losses up five-fold in 2015
telecom | 03/10/2016 10:22 pm EST
The number of subscribers leaving the Canadian TV system appears to be accelerating, as Canada’s publicly traded telecom companies lost five times more TV subscribers in 2015 than a year earlier. They reported having...
How could the Netflix proxy ban affect Canadian OTT?
Media | 02/11/2016 7:26 pm EST
The Netflix Inc. crackdown on virtual-private-network (VPN) use could provide an opportunity for Canadian providers to carve out more of the over-the-top (OTT) market, though a lack of firm figures makes predictions difficult....
Changes ahead for TV sector in 2016
Media | 01/08/2016 9:14 pm EST
If industry and regulators spent much of 2014 talking about the future of TV in Canada, 2016 will provide the first glimpse of what that future might look like. “If 2015 was the year for announcing changes, I guess 2016 will be the year for actually making the changes and implementing them, because there are a lot of things that the CRTC had put...
Pick-and-pay TV prices could reduce cord cutting, say experts
Media | 10/02/2015 8:43 pm EDT
Prices for TV subscriptions in the coming pick-and-pay era will be one of the main factors determining how over-the-top (OTT) video services are affected, say experts, noting that competitive pricing in TV packages might curb the cord-cutting trend. Earlier this year, the CRTC announced that TV providers will have to offer skinny basic TV packages, starting in March of next year, for no more than $25 a month. This package will include public-interest, educational, some community, and local and regional channels. Emilia Zboralska, a researcher of communication and culture at...
‘No demand’ for gigabit Internet: Audet
telecom | 09/17/2015 8:04 pm EDT
Cogeco Cable Inc. CEO Louis Audet says there is currently "no demand" for Internet services with speeds as quick as one gigabit per second, despite recent forays by BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc. into this area. "As I'm sure everyone realizes, there is essentially no demand for that," Audet told a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce...
Quebecor won’t take mobile service national alone: CFO
Media | 09/16/2015 8:47 pm EDT
Quebecor Inc. is not interested in being Canada's fourth national wireless carrier, at least not by itself. That was the message Quebecor chief financial officer Jean-Francois Pruneau gave to a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce investors' conference held in Montreal Wednesday. While discussing options for using...
Gig speeds mainly about marketing for now: analyst
Media | 07/30/2015 8:37 pm EDT
Canadian companies’ recent embrace of gigabit Internet isn’t meeting a need that exists in the market, but it is setting telecoms up for the day customers start demanding such speeds, according to Greg MacDonald,...
New CRTC wholesale rules won’t change telco FTTH strategies: analysts
telecom | 07/23/2015 8:59 pm EDT
A day after the CRTC said it would mandate wholesale access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks by small ISPs, financial analysts said the move likely won’t have a significant impact on...
Wireless price hikes affecting other telecom spending: report
Media | 07/09/2015 8:55 pm EDT
“Sharp” price hikes in wireless service over the past year are prompting people to reduce how much they spend on other telecommunications services, according to a Conference Board of...
Fewer TV subscribers generating more revenue: CRTC
telecom | 05/21/2015 8:53 pm EDT
Television-service providers in Canada took in more revenue last year despite having a smaller subscriber base to draw from, according to new data from the CRTC, and one analyst says that’s due to pricing trends that could...
Proposed BDU code inconsistent with unregulated OTT: consultant
Media | 03/26/2015 9:04 pm EDT
The CRTC’s proposed new code of conduct for television service providers is at odds with the commission’s stance that it won’t regulate over-the-top (OTT) services, according to...
Some say Rogers vulnerable to ‘double cohort,’ others downplay issue
telecom | 01/28/2015 9:46 pm EST
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...
Wind promotion seen as shot against Mobilicity
telecom | 01/15/2015 9:08 pm EST
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 AWS-3 auction, analysts say. A offer on Wind's website says Mobilicity customers can get free service from Wind that features no data caps plus unlimited in-province calling and unlimited cross-Canada texting for six months if they sign up before Jan. 26. A free SIM card is also part of the offer, which Wind spokesman Robert Sauer said usually costs $25 for those...
Glentel purchase could help Bell, Rogers avoid competition: analysts
telecom | 01/05/2015 9:53 pm EST
A deal announced Christmas Eve to split the ownership of wireless retailer Glentel Inc. between BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. will help the incumbent carriers stave off competition from a...
Rogers says no decision yet on Shaw spectrum deal
telecom | 11/27/2014 9:06 pm EST
Rogers Communications Inc. says the federal government has not yet informed it of a decision on whether it can buy wireless spectrum from Shaw Communications Inc. A report on the news website Cartt Thursday cited anonymous...
Bell files complaint against Rogers’ online NHL offerings
Media | 10/21/2014 7:17 pm EDT
BCE Inc. has filed a challenge with the CRTC against Rogers Communications Inc.’s plan to offer its own customers free access to its NHL streaming product until the end of the year as well as exclusive content while watching games. Bell claims the free trial of Rogers’ NHL GameCentre, announced in September,...
Cogeco calls for regulated access to wireless networks
telecom | 09/25/2014 8:05 pm EDT
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 to discuss wireless services on Thursday
telecom | 09/23/2014 7:54 pm EDT
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 scheduled to make a presentation to the CRTC on Monday — the first day of a week-long hearing on the wholesale wireless market. Cogeco's advisory on Tuesday said the conference call would be led by Cogeco president and CEO Louis Audet. When reached by phone, Cogeco spokesman René Guimond noted the company's participation in the upcoming...
Videotron cites mobile TV as key in LTE launch
Media | 09/10/2014 8:44 pm EDT
Four years after Videotron flipped the switch on a new wireless network, the carrier is launching an LTE network that president and CEO Manon Brouillette says will help the company deliver TV content to its mobile customers....
Paper billing issue small potatoes for telecom sector: analysts
telecom | 08/29/2014 7:28 pm EDT
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...
Mobilicity less attractive than Wind for Quebecor: analyst
telecom | 06/25/2014 7:07 pm EDT
New-entrant wireless carrier Mobilicity is in a holding pattern after the collapse of a buyout deal with Telus Corp. that could harm its chances of being rescued from bankruptcy protection,...
Can carriers make the switch to become M2M service providers?
telecom | 03/25/2014 7:12 pm EDT
Canada’s big telecom providers have a lot to prove as service providers in machine-to-machine communication (M2M), according to Macquarie analyst Greg MacDonald. Companies such as Rogers...
Rogers spends billions on spectrum, focuses on A, B pairings
telecom | 02/19/2014 10:45 pm EST
OTTAWA — More than half the money raised in the government’s 700 MHz auction of wireless spectrum came from Rogers Communications Inc., which invested heavily in two key blocks in regions...
Wireless sector facing ‘transition year’ in 2014
telecom | 01/06/2014 6:58 pm EST
Carriers still finding their way under the CRTC’s wireless code will face the rollout of 700 MHz spectrum, potential new-entrant consolidation and the recalibration of domestic roaming rates in 2014, in what is poised to be...
Paradis delays auction, says no set aside spectrum transfers to incumbents
telecom | 06/04/2013 1:29 pm EDT
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...
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...
Delays in 700 MHz auction process increasingly likely, analysts say
telecom | 05/23/2013 7:52 pm EDT
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...