Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile has expanded its LTE network into Calgary and Edmonton, the company announced Wednesday. “The launch of our powerful new LTE network furthers our commitment to providing Freedom Mobile customers in Calgary and Edmonton access to the same enhanced experience that those in the Greater Toronto Area, Southern Ontario and the Greater Vancouver Area currently enjoy,” Paul McAleese, Freedom’s chief operating officer, said in a press release. When McAleese was hired to replace former Freedom CEO Alek Krstajic last month, Canaccord Genuity...
The number of anglophone Canadians who have smartphones climbed up to 80 per cent in the fall of 2016 from 77 per cent a year earlier, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor (MTM). At the same time, the percentage of anglophones who specified they had basic phones dropped from 11 per cent to eight per cent over that time. “Although they are still available for purchase, the vast majority of Anglophones are opting to get a smartphone when getting a new phone,” the report said. Half of anglophone smartphone owners now use their devices to stream music,...
As the CRTC banned most forms of differential pricing practices Thursday — including declaring that telecoms can’t pick and chose Internet content to zero-rate and...
Telus Corp. and the government of British Columbia are committing $2 million to offer subsidized smartphones to up to 1,000 youth who are currently, or were previously, in government care. The...
Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging service should not be a place “for terrorists to hide,” according to U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who appeared on a Sunday BBC program...
Following a quiet first quarter, wireless companies’ flanker brands stepped up the competition in March, ramping up promotional activity through data increases and handset discounts, according to Barclays Capital. Just...
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 the 178,910 who eliminated their service the previous year. That made for a two-per-cent decline compared to a 1.6-per-cent fall in 2015, when cord-cutting appeared to accelerate five-fold in comparison to the prior year, which had the first fall on record,...
On May 27, members of the Conservative Party of Canada will select who will succeed former prime minister Stephen Harper as permanent leader of the party, relieving interim Opposition leader Rona...
More than 400 Canadian radio stations across the country are now available on a newly launched app featuring both public and private broadcasters. The free Radioplayer app launched Wednesday “gives radio listeners...
A Swiss corporation and two of its subsidiaries are alleging that Shaw Communications Inc.’s new IPTV service is infringing on a handful of its patents, according to a statement of claim...
Amazon.com Inc. announced Wednesday a new service that provides video, voice, chat and screen sharing for meetings, called Amazon Chime. The ecommerce giant’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) said in a...
In a departure from the positions of its fellow wireless providers, Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile suggested Wednesday the CRTC should forbid carriers from charging...
Almost 100 tech companies in the United States have filed a brief in a court case against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order blocking entry of citizens from seven countries and all refugees into the United States....
Forming a national consortium for the development of next-generation 911 (NG911) services would disrupt relationships formed under the current ILEC model, a British Columbia public-safety answer point...
BCE Inc.’s business customers now have access to IBM Corp.’s MobileFirst enterprise apps for devices running on Apple Inc.’s iOS operating system. “Bell will combine its expertise in...
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 of Things devices (IoT). Released Monday, the white paper projects that the move by consumers to OTT messaging services and social media will cost network operators around the world “nearly $104 billion” in 2017, up 23 per cent from $84 billion last year, which they say is equivalent to 12 per cent of their service revenues. Mobile network operators...
As Shaw Communications Inc. released its first quarterly earnings report since rebranding its wireless segment to Freedom Mobile, CEO Brad Shaw said the company is looking to have a...
The Competition Bureau said Friday it has discontinued an investigation into whether Apple Inc. engaged in anticompetitive practices related to sales of its iPhone. The bureau was looking at “contractual...
OTTAWA — The federal government hasn’t made its case for why law enforcement and intelligence agencies need stronger powers to intercept, decrypt and share citizens’ information, the...
Heavy handset promotions during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last month hint at a December that is shaping up to be “hyper competitive” for the wireless market,...
Shaw Communications Inc.’s Wind Mobile will be rebranded as Freedom Mobile and its LTE roll-out will come sooner than expected in two cities, the company’s CEO said Monday. The move comes despite some analyst concern about the availability of handsets compatible with its spectrum. Alek Krstajic made the announcement at a press conference in Toronto. He said the rebranding was a fresh start, part of an effort to eliminate “baggage” associated with the Wind name and to make the company, which was previously held by foreign owners, more Canadian. He also...
Corus Entertainment Inc. has launched History Vault, a subscription over-the-top (OTT) service featuring programming from its History channel. The service, which costs $5.49 a month, “features hundreds of hours of...
GATINEAU, Que. — Those who innovate shouldn’t be penalized because their competitors can’t keep up, the CRTC heard Friday from representatives of the telecom company...
BCE Inc. reported Thursday that its over-the-top (OTT) product Crave TV has surpassed one million subscribers, as it announced its Internet protocol TV (IPTV) service Fibe TV is getting distribution...
Anglophone millennials spend more than 30 hours a week on the Internet, and about four-fifths of that generation watch TV online, according the latest report from Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The...
Rogers Communications Inc. reported increased third-quarter revenues but lower net profits, in light of cutting its over-the-top (OTT) service Shomi last month. For the three-month period ended September 30, the company...
Corus Entertainment Inc. is making seven of its news talk radio stations available for free internationally on Apple Inc.’s Apple Music streaming service. The company said in...
VMedia Inc. has rolled out live TV to Canadian users of Roku Inc.’s devices, Roku said in a press release Friday. Canadians can “watch up to 20 live TV channels, including Canadian and US networks such as...
Carriers are capitalizing on demand for Apple Inc.’s new iPhone with heavy discounts on older models, according to Barclays Capital. Despite a $400 price tag for the 32GB iPhone on a two-year...
Twitter Inc. has launched apps that allow viewers to access its live-streaming video through Apple Inc.’s Apple TV, Amazon.com Inc.’s Fire TV and Microsoft Corp.’s XBox One. The Xbox and Apple TV apps are available in Canada, Twitter said in a Wednesday press release. The social media service has been expanding its live sports offerings, including football, golf and tennis, in recent months. “The free apps will feature all live streaming video available on Twitter (including live streams of 10 NFL Thursday Night...
Asian mobile phone manufacturers helped drive global smartphone sales to a 4.3 per cent year-over-year increase in the second quarter of 2016, despite slowing overall sales, according to data released by Gartner...
OTTAWA — The federal minister of public safety indicated Wednesday a willingness to engage with a freshly passed resolution from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) calling for a...
The significant number of new postpaid wireless customers reported by service providers in the second quarter of 2016 can partly be explained by the aggressive push toward handset subsidies as new phones enter the market and drive demand, according to analysts. Wireless providers reported...
The over-the-air (OTA) market has been slowly growing over the past three years, according to data collected by Media Technology Monitor, a trend industry observers said doesn’t come as a surprise. According to a report...
Rogers Communications Inc. announced Wednesday that it has appointed Anne Martin-Vachon as president of The Shopping Channel, effective August 16. She succeeds Steven Goldsmith, who spent four years at the helm between 2012 and June 2016, according to a press release. Martin-Vachon will be relied on to drive “the retailer’s multiplatform strategy, initiating new areas of revenue, and overseeing all operations of the business,” the release said. Quebec-born and raised, she has over 30 years of experience with expertise in beauty and cosmetics, consumer...
The Shopping Channel (TSC) has launched an app for Apple Inc.’s Apple TV platform. Rogers Communications Inc., which owns the Mississauga-based retailer, announced the ShopTSC app in a Thursday press release. The...
TORONTO — Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien told a telecom industry audience Wednesday that companies should be prudent about the collection and use of metadata, and cautioned companies that...
Despite the fact that large wireless carriers have been offering WiFi calling for months, the emergence of WiFi calling provider Sugar Mobile, and hinted-at-plans by Shaw Communications Inc. to integrate Wind with its...
The number of anglophone Canadians with smartphones reached 77 per cent in the fall of 2015, up from 73 per cent in the spring of that year, according to a new report from Media Technology Monitor, a project...
Canadians will now be able to use Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay service with Visa, MasterCard and debit cards, according to a Tuesday press release from payment processing company Moneris Solutions Corp. Previously, the service...
Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp will automatically encrypt all communications going through its service, the company announced. “From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call...
The United States government called off its bid to compel Apple Inc. to create a workaround to get into a phone connected with a Dec. 2 attack in San Bernardino, Calif. According to court documents...
The U.S. government's order for Apple Inc. to create software allowing the FBI access to a phone connected with a Dec. 2 attack has no bearing on the company's relationship with foreign lawmakers, according to new court...
Major tech companies have filed documents with the U.S. courts in support of Apple Inc.'s position against creating a workaround for investigators to access encrypted information on an iPhone connected with the Dec. 2 attack in San Bernadino, Calif. "The government's demand here, at its core, is unbound by any legal limits," said the brief filed Thursday with the U.S. District Court by a coalition of companies including eBay Inc., Kickstarter Inc., Reddit Inc., Twitter Inc. and Airbnb Inc. Apple is appealing a court order from the FBI to create a new version of its iPhone...
OTTAWA — Canadians should be keeping an eye on the FBI's request to gain access to an iPhone connected to the Dec. 2 San Bernadino, Calif., attack, according to Canada's...
Telus Corp.’s senior vice-president of consumer marketing, Brent Johnston, has left his position at Telus to join Apple Inc.’s Canadian division as its new senior managing director. According to Johnston’s...
As it takes ownership of Wind Mobile, Shaw Communications Inc. will continue positioning Wind as a cheaper option compared to the big three national wireless carriers, according to the company’s chief operating officer....
According to a new report on media technology adoption of baby boomers released Wednesday by the Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio Canada, 89 per cent of baby boomer anglophones aged 50 to 69 have a paid TV service...
Shaw Communications Inc. on Wednesday began publicizing the first phase in a transformation of its television service that it hopes gives consumers reason to choose its TV service over competitors and over the option of having no TV service at all. It announced the availability of an application called FreeRange TV, which Shaw chief operating officer Jay Mehr said will allow the company's TV customers to get the full range of their TV subscriptions on mobile devices within their homes or while out and about. "We think it's a major step forward," he said in a phone interview. "The ability to take everything you subscribe to on your TV, at no extra charge, onto your...
Yahoo Inc. announced Thursday the launch of its Yahoo Video Guide mobile app for customers in the United States to search for video content across multiple services they have installed on their devices. The company said in a blog...
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Thursday that it is launching a mobile-payment function for stores in the United States. It said in a press release that certain stores will start accepting mobile payments from the Walmart app this...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has agreed to pay Apple Inc. more than $548 million US as determined in a court decision earlier this year related to an earlier ruling that Samsung infringed certain...
Worldwide smartphone shipments in 2015 are expected to be 9.8 per cent more than last year for a total of 1.43 billion units, marking the first time that percentage growth for this product has been less than double digits,...
Worldwide wearable shipments rose 197.6 per cent with 21 million units shipped in the third quarter this year, up from 7.1 million units in the same period a year earlier, according to a new report released Thursday...
Global tablet shipments will be down 8.1 per cent for 2015 overall, though tablets with detachable keyboards are expected to see strong growth for this year and in 2016, according to International Data Corp. The technology...
Google Inc. announced Wednesday it is launching in Canada its YouTube app for children. It said in a blogpost that the YouTube Kids app will be a “safer version of YouTube, a family-friendly place for kids to explore...
Demand for affordable devices helped global sales of smartphones hit 353 million units in the third quarter of 2015, up 15.5 per cent from the same period a year earlier, Gartner Inc. said Wednesday. The research company said in a press release that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. “refreshed its flagship devices,” in order to address...
American Express Co. announced Tuesday that Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay is now available for its eligible customers and small businesses in Canada. American Express said that once customers add their American Express card to their Apple Pay account they will be able to pay at select participating merchcants. It added that customers will also have access to real-time notifications of details on all purchases made and easy connection to the American Express mobile app to have more detailed account monitoring. American Express added that “for security, a card in Apple Pay will be tokenized with a different number than the card member’s plastic card,” and every payment will be “authorized with touch ID or a passcode before the transaction is processed.” Apple Pay can be used to pay with on an iPhone 6, 6 Plus,...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. said Thursday that all of its TV customers will have access to BCE Inc.’s TSN GO and CTV GO mobile apps for free. MTS said in a press release that the apps are available through Apple...
Apple Inc. has made its music-streaming app available for Android devices. The Apple Music website now includes a link, that takes users to the Google Play store, to download what it calls a "beta" version of the app...
Rhapsody International Inc.’s music subscription service, Napster, announced Monday that its subscription service is now available in Canada. It said in a press release that, for a limited...
Global smartwatch shipments were up 510 per cent in this year's third quarter from a year earlier, with 6.1 million units shipped compared to one million during the same period the previous year,...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has released a new touch-screen device, powered by Android software and suitable for web browsing and video streaming, but it is "not a tablet," according to a company spokesman. Samsung and BCE Inc. said in a joint press release Thursday that the new Galaxy View, with its 18.4-inch screen, will be "Samsung's first immersive smart-screen experience, designed to turn every room into a TV room." The companies said the Galaxy View will be sold in Canada exclusively through Bell and its electronics retail chain The Source. It will be priced at $699 and available Nov. 19, the companies added. When asked if the product is a tablet,...
Juniper Research Ltd. said Thursday that global smartphone shipments in this year's third quarter totalled 342.5 million, representing growth of 8.4 per cent. It said in the press release that Apple Inc.’s iPhones...
Worldwide smartphone shipments grew 6.8 per cent from a year earlier in the third quarter to 355.2 million units, up from 332.6 million units in the same period the previous year, according to a new report from International...
Apple Inc.'s mobile payment system is coming to Canada but will be, at least initially, limited to holders of credit cards from American Express Co. Apple CEO Tim Cook, during a conference call Tuesday to discuss the...
The European Commission voted Tuesday to set net neutrality rules for the first time in the European Union law. The new law, which was detailed in a fact sheet on the commission’s website, will include no blocking or...
Forty per cent of Canadians are aware of mobile-payment methods, up from 35 per cent a year earlier, but only 10 per cent are using their mobile phones to make payments on a weekly basis, according to survey results released...
Yellow Pages Ltd. announced Monday that data from its online digital platform that provides information on Canadian businesses will be directly linked and offered on Apple Inc.’s Apple Maps. It...
The Competition Bureau said Wednesday it has reached a deal with BCE Inc. in which the company will pay a fine of $1.25 million for urging employees to make positive online reviews about Bell apps. The bureau added in a press...
In the past 18 months, Ottawa-based TV app-maker You.i TV has grown from 20 employees to 130, and the company expects that kind of expansion to continue in the next year, according to Matt Nelson, You.i TV’s director of marketing. “Basically, anyone who has a channel, anyone who has a...
AT&T announced Thursday that its customers can now make WiFi calls from their iPhones while in the U.S. The company said in a blog post that customers’ phones, once set up, will use the WiFi calling setting where there is limited or no cell signal, such as a home or “office with dense building construction.” It said the service is available to customers who have Apple Inc.’s iPhone with iOS 9 installed, and have a postpaid wireless account with the ability for HD voice and a WiFi Internet connection. It noted that calls can only be made within the U.S. and no additional costs will be charged for domestic calls. BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. both recently announced that WiFi calling will be made available to their customers that have the latest iPhone. ...
Apple Inc.’s iPhone owners stream audio and video content more than any other device owners, according to a new report released by Media Technology Monitor (MTM), a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The report said that among...
BCE Inc. and Roger Communications Inc. have begun supporting calls and texts over WiFi networks with the latest iPhone. "You can call and text wherever you have a Wi-Fi connection in places like basements, condos and tall...
Apple Inc. said Monday that more than 13 million iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices have been sold in their first three days of availability, setting a new company record. “Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been...
Technology that’s been around for years, which allows individuals to use services like apps and browser extensions to avoid seeing online advertising, has been causing new controversy in the past few weeks. According to...
BlackBerry Ltd. announced Wednesday it has completed its acquisition of AtHoc Inc., a software provider for secure networked crisis communication. It said in the press release that AtHoc will operate as a division of BlackBerry under the leadership of AtHoc's current CEO, Guy Miasnik. The release noted that AtHoc’s software will help people, devices and organizations exchanging confidential and critical documents securely and in real time. When BlackBerry announced in July its deal to acquire AtHoc, CEO John Chen said the acquisition would help BlackBerry’s...
Executives from BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. said Tuesday they are not interested in offering the type of smartphone leasing or financing plans that are increasingly available to customers in the U.S.,...
The newest version of Apple Inc.’s Apple TV will include its voice-recognition program, Siri, which users can access to search for content across apps, the company said Wednesday. In a live announcement streamed online,...
CBS Corp.’s sports division said Tuesday that next month it will live-stream a regular-season National Football League game for the first time. The game featured is an Oct. 4 matchup between the New York Jets and Miami...
Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video members in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria will now be able to download movies and TV shows for easy offline viewing at no additional cost, the company said in a press...
Google Inc. said Monday that its Android Wear operating system for smartwatches can now work with Apple Inc.'s iPhones. Google said in a blog that LG Corp.'s Watch Urbane is the first device the iPhone-compliant version...
Wireless charging creates advantages beyond not having to use cords when refuelling mobile devices with electricity, according one British researcher, though a Canadian technology expert says widespread adoption of such technology is far from certain. James Moar, a research analyst with Juniper Research Ltd. in the United Kingdom, said in a phone...
Technology research company International Data Corp. said said in a press release Thursday that the global market for wearables grew 223.2 per cent in this year's second quarter with 18.1 million units shipped, up from 5.6...
A new report released Monday from Media Technology Monitor (MTM) says 85 per cent of Canadian users of Facebook Inc.’s photo and video-sharing app, Instagram, are younger than 50 and most are prone to owning new technology....
Worldwide smartphone sales in this year's second quarter grew at their slowest rate since 2013, largely as a result of the first year-to-year decline on record for sales of smartphones in China, Gartner Inc. said Thursday. The research company said in a press release there were 330 million sales of smartphones in the second quarter, up 13.5 per cent from a year earlier. In China, sales were down four per cent from the year before, Gartner said. "China is the biggest country for smartphone sales, representing 30 per cent of total sales of smartphones in the second quarter of...
Google Inc., in partnership with TP-LINK Technologies Co. Ltd., announced Tuesday it is launching a new WiFi router that it says will provide faster and more efficient Internet connections. OnHub, the router that looks like a...
A South Korean company is aiming to provide blind people with the first-ever braille-display smartwatch this year, and a representative from the Canadian Institute for the Blind (CNIB) says it...
Apple Inc.'s plans to offer live Internet-based television to residents of the United States have been delayed, said a report from Bloomberg on Friday. An article said sources have indicated talks are progressing slowly...
Apple Inc. has told Ingram Micro Inc. to stop selling used iPhones to Wind Mobile for distribution to the carriers' customers, the Globe and Mail reported. An article appearing online Tuesday night said Apple told Ingram, which distributes Apple products in Canada, that providing iPhones to Wind was a breach of the agreement between Apple and...
Corus Entertainment Inc. announced Monday the launch of TreehouseGO, its first kids' app in a "full suite" of TV Everywhere apps based on its kids' television brands. The company said in a press release that the launch of the apps is part of a move to expand Corus’ digital content. The release said the app is safe and easy to use for children and has full-length episodes of some of Treehouse’s popular children’s shows, which can be watched on demand, on live TV, and offline. The app is free and can be downloaded by users of Apple Inc.’s iOS and Google Inc.’s Android software. “If you are not a Treehouse subscriber, you will be able to explore the app and view a limited sampling of popular Treehouse content, but will not have access...
Hexoskin, a Montreal-based maker of shirts that capture biometric information about people, said this week that its products were to become available on the Canadian website of Best Buy Co. Inc. as of Friday. The company said in...
Pelmorex Media Inc. announced Thursday the launch of a new Weather Network app for Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch. “The Apple Watch is one of the must-have tech accessories this year and as Canada’s leading weather...
Google Inc. announced in a blog post Tuesday it will be adding to its current Google Play Music offering a free, ad-supported music streaming service. It will give users “a new way to find just the right music and ......
A mobile payment application owned and supported by Canada's three biggest wireless providers was announced Tuesday for Android and BlackBerry phones, while iPhone users are left waiting for Apple...
The Federal Court has ordered wireless carriers to provide information being asked for by the Competition Bureau as it looks into whether Apple Inc. engaged in anticompetitive practices related to sales of its iPhone. BCE Inc.,...
The Competition Bureau has filed applications in Federal Court seeking information from wireless carriers about how they set prices for Apple Inc.’s devices. The applications involve BCE Inc.,...
Apple Inc. announced Monday its new music streaming subscription service, called Apple Music. The company said in a press release that the service will be available via an app to subscribers in more than 100 countries starting...
CBS Corp. said Wednesday that it will offer Showtime as an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service to customers of Apple Inc. in the United States, starting next month. The launch will coincide with the...
The number of third-party applications for smart wearable devices is expected to surge from 2,500 last year to 349,000 by 2019, International Data Corp. said Tuesday. The research company said in a news release that most of these apps will be consumer oriented, though there is an opportunity for apps in the enterprise space. It said apps targeted specifically for enterprise-related tasks currently make up about 10 per cent of what’s available for smart wearables, and that is anticipated to grow to 17 per cent over the next four years. IDC said Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch will...