BCE Inc. and Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. announced another feature of their proposed merger Thursday morning in Manitoba. As part of the promised $1 billion investment Bell has said it will make in the province as a result of the $3.9-billion acquisition of MTS, the new company will pump funds into Northern Manitoba, the companies said in a press release. The improvements announced include full LTE and HSPA+ wireless coverage for the Highway 6 corridor to Thompson, an 860-kilometre stretch to the U.S. border, and enhanced broadband service for Flin Flon, a key...
The Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) is facing a lawsuit from former president and CEO Alyson Townsend, who is accusing the organization of wrongful dismissal. In a statement of claim filed in a New Brunswick court on June 30, Townsend is identified as the CCSA’s first employee, who incorporated the company in 1993. It now represents more than 115 independent cable, telephone and Internet television companies across the country. The CCSA confirmed Townsend’s departure last month, with little details as to the circumstances. “For a period of 23 years, Ms. Townsend had...
Small Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are asking the CRTC not to approve wholesale rates proposed by large telecoms, given that many of them “are subject to very high and unjustifiable...
Sugar Mobile, an affiliate of Iristel Inc.-subsidiary Ice Wireless, can continue roaming on Rogers Communications Inc.’s network while the CRTC considers its final decision in a...
The Affordable Access Coalition, whose members include the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), is asking the CRTC to reimburse it $484,123 for participating in the basic telecom services hearing. The other members of the...
Rogers Communications Inc. is eliminating Cuba as a destination for its Roam Like Home service starting July 12. Andrew Garas, Rogers’ manager of media relations, said in an email Wednesday that the...
NextRadio LLC is bringing its FM radio app across the border into Canada. The Indianapolis-based company said in a press release Wednesday that its app has been live in the Google Play store since the beginning of the month. The company added in the release that it expects to reach over a million consumers in Canada with FM radio compatible smartphones. “The expansion is the next step in growing handset support for FM radio across North America,” the release said. It claims that the app allows for radio playback with “significantly” less battery or data use, emergency updates if cell coverage goes down and the ability to purchase songs that are playing, among other features. It is touting the app’s efficient use of battery and data, at 75 per cent less of the former and 20 times less of the latter...
Fired CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan is asking the Federal Court to “urgently” intervene in the order-in-council issued last month that ended his appointment with the regulator. On Tuesday, lawyers for Shoan filed a...
Canaccord Genuity analyst Aravinda Galappatthige said in a research note Tuesday that Shaw Communications Inc.’s Wind faces “volatility and uncertainty over the short run,” though it also has a “genuine and sizable long-term opportunity.” However, in notes issued ahead of...
Tariffs on 201 tech- and information-related products are on their way to being eliminated as the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) expanded Information Technology Agreement came into force on Canada Day, the federal international trade minister announced Monday. The agreement “will benefit Canadian exporters of many products, including...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. announced Tuesday that its Code division multiple access (CDMA) network is entering its last year. In a press release, SaskTel said CDMA-reliant devices would no longer...
Canadians are some of the heaviest users of public WiFi, according to a new study by Symantec Corp.’s Norton, which also suggests that most public WiFi users “exhibit risky public...
The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) has issued a press release reminding a small Ontario voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) provider that it must abide by its...
Eleven more set-top box retailers will have to make their case to the Federal Court after being named as defendants in a legal fight against set-top boxes that can be used to circumvent paid TV subscriptions. On June 20, lawyers...
Canadian and U.S. regulators have clarified the rules regarding cross-border radio roaming for public safety agencies. A statement of intent between Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) updated rules of a 1952 agreement that allows “certain cross-border communications by mobile...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Monday is ready to start connecting customers to its InfiNet fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Weyburn. Some residential areas of the city, located south of Regina, will be able to connect to SaskTel’s highest-speed Internet offering once their neighbourhood is connected, the company said in a press release. “SaskTel is proud to be the only provider in Saskatchewan that offers a direct to home fibre connection,” Ron Styles, SaskTel president and CEO, said in the release. The connection is part of a...
Facebook Inc. and AT&T Inc. have waded into the CRTC’s review of differential pricing practices, arguing that the commission should allow carriers to offer zero-rated services...
AT&T Inc. has finalized a deal to purchase a Canadian video-streaming platform, the company announced Tuesday. The American telecommunications company announced in May its intention to purchase...
Sirius XM Canada Holdings Inc. had to cough up $650,000 after being investigated by the CRTC for breaking telemarketing rules, the regulator said Wednesday. “Further to an investigation, the CRTC’s Chief...
The first round of an auction in the United States to convert spectrum in the 600 MHz band from TV to wireless use has wrapped up, setting a price of $86.4 billion for 126 MHz of the frequency, the Federal Communications...
The federal government will be moving forward with another consultation in the coming months, this time as it prepares to review cyber security measures. A briefing note prepared in advance of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Minister Navdeep Bains' spring meeting with BlackBerry Ltd.’s CEO John Chen highlighted the coming review. “I will be working with the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in a review of the existing measure to protect Canadians and our critical infrastructure from cyber threats,” said one of the listed “key points” for Bains in the document acquired by The Wire Report under Access to Information legislation. “ISED will be engaging in a consultation on the cyber review in the coming...
The vast majority of Canadian travellers take their smartphones with them when they go on summer vacation, a survey by Rogers Communication Inc. suggests, as the company pushes its roaming...
Questions around telecoms’ usage of data caps should be at the centre of the CRTC’s proceeding on differential pricing practices, advocacy groups said in interventions, calling for the...
A short, localized disruption of wireless service for those next to the presidential motorcade may not have been out of the question Wednesday, when U.S. president Barack Obama visted Ottawa for...
Awareness of the country’s telecommunications ombudsman is on par with other ombudsman agencies around the world, according to the results of a new survey by the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS). Published Wednesday, the CCTS’ first public...
The CRTC has denied three applications to review recent decisions relating to competitor access to infrastructure, according to notices posted on the regulator’s website on Wednesday. BCE Inc. had applied for review of last year’s wholesale high-speed access policy stemming from a review of wholesale wireline services...
BCE Inc. and Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. have cleared yet another hurdle in their quest to combine, as the deal has now received court approval from the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, according to...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron said it will begin offering Internet download speeds of up to 940 Mbps to consumers and business costumers on July 13. The company said the roll out of its Hybrid Fibre Giga service, which...
Minimal exposure to the United Kingdom and Europe will leave the Canadian telecom and media industries relatively unscathed following the U.K.’s vote to exit the European Union last week,...
Heritage Canada’s announcement of an expert advisory panel for its review of Canadian content in a digital age, which includes representatives from a number of broadcasters, was met with both praise and criticism Tuesday. The panel will “provide advice and ongoing feedback” to the Heritage Minister during the consultations and review, the heritage department said in a press release Tuesday. The 12 members of the panel “represent a cross-section of the Canadian arts and culture sectors,” the release added, noting members were “selected on the...
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains told international counterparts at the OECD’s 2016 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting that Canada “supports private sector leadership in the...
In a “highly unusual” move, Raj Shoan, the CRTC commissioner representing Ontario, was removed from his post by the federal government on Friday, capping off a 14-month period of legal strife between Shoan and the...
Ministers from 41 countries and the EU have committed to upholding certain initiatives to adjust to the new realities of a digital economy. Members at the OECD’s 2016 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting held in Cancun,...
OTTAWA — Changes to the country’s patent and trademark legislation will make it easier for Canadian companies to operate on a global stage, the head of an intellectual property professional organization...
The CRTC has given Telus Corp. permission to get rid of its radio-phone service in British Columbia. Radio-phone service is used in remote areas without landlines, the CRTC noted in its decision Thursday. Telus had argued that “the technology and infrastructure supporting the services are obsolete,” maintaining and repairing the services is difficult, and that “it incurs recurrent annual losses by providing the services.” The CRTC directed Telus to compensate affected customers with a one-time payment. Residential customers switching to satellite...
Shaw Communications Inc. is now offering a network security service aimed at small and medium businesses. The company said in a press release Wednesday the SmartSecurity service will give businesses “the ability...
Adjusting the existing legislation governing the telecommunications and broadcasting industries and putting more power in the hands of the CRTC could help address issues in Canada’s concentrated...
The shareholders of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. have nearly unanimously approved its acquisition by BCE Inc. Of the just over 43 million votes cast, 99.66 per cent were in favour of the acquisition, according to...
Vice Media Inc. has teamed up with Groupe V Média Inc. to launch the Viceland TV channel in French Canada, the companies said in a Wednesday press release. The deal includes “the creation of a television...
Mobile advertising revenue and music streaming activity will see dramatic increases over the next four years, as technological innovation takes hold over traditional methods of media consumption,...
Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service continued to lead peak period network traffic, but the percentage of traffic has declined since late 2015, according to a new Global Internet Phenomena...
TORONTO — A reasonable person could make the link between the comments that CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais made as a witness during a harassment investigation...
Axia NetMedia Corp. said it is looking to see if there is enough interest in the United States to extend its fibre network south. The Calgary-based company said in a Monday press release that it’s gathering...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. is injecting $11.8 million to expand its LTE wireless network to include “nearly everyone in Saskatchewan.” “We anticipate that LTE will be available to almost everyone in Saskatchewan by April 2017,” Ron Styles, SaskTel president and CEO, said in the June 15 news release. It will “lay the groundwork for future network enhancements, such as the deployment of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) which we expect to start rolling out around mid-2017,” he added in the release. The investment is part of a promise to spend...
The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the CRTC’s ban on BCE Inc.’s zero-rated mobile-TV plans, a year and a half after the commission ruled the company couldn’t exempt the service from data caps. In a...
All wireless service providers must provide the same basic level of 911 service, the CRTC said Monday. In a policy decision posted to its website, the regulator set out new rules stating that...
Whether a patent encompasses technology used by BCE Inc.’s IPTV service will be a central issue as a patent case two-plus years in the making gets its date in court Tuesday....
The biggest risk to Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. in the wake of BCE Inc.’s proposed $3.9-billion takeover of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. is the...
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada has put a moratorium on the licensing of satellite spectrum used by commercial non-geostationary satellites. It said in a notice on its website Tuesday that the moratorium is effective immediately, and will last for at least six months, pending a review of current licensing procedures. Those procedures, it noted, “were developed prior to the increased global interest in large, complex [non-geostationary satellite orbit] systems.” The Wire Report reported last year that companies...
A nearly nine-year spat between Rogers Communications Inc. and a Quebec municipality over the location of a wireless tower came to an end Thursday, with the Supreme Court of Canada handing the company...
Stingray Digital Group Inc. said Wednesday that it has acquired the Festival 4K television channel, which broadcasts live performances, including festivals, concerts and theatre productions, according to the press...
The CRTC said Wednesday it will hold a public hearing to renew broadcast licences held by large ownership groups, including Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., Corus Entertainment...
Another Canadian company is joining the ultra-high-definition field, with Quebecor Inc. announcing its media division was producing its first 4K show. Videotron’s over-the-top (OTT) service Club Illico said in...
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) will be looking for a new president and CEO following the departure of Bernard Lord. As of Sept. 1, Lord, who has helmed the CWTA since the fall of 2008, will take on a new position as CEO of Medavie, the health company said in...
A group of privacy and police accountability organizations is asking the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) to come clean about the use of stingrays after new information revealed the RCMP has been...
Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall told reporters he would rather sell Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. than take the company public and sell shares on the open market, Bloomberg...
Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA) president and CEO Alyson Townsend has left the organization, vice-president of corporate and regulatory Chris Edwards confirmed Wednesday. Jenny Bosien, CCSA’s finance director,...
When Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said “there will be no Netflix tax,” at the end of her department’s review of cultural institutions, that leaves both the taxation of foreign streaming services and the requirement for those services to pay into Canadian content creation off the table. Pierre-Olivier Herbert, spokesman for Joly confirmed in an email that Heritage is “not considering either option.” Joly made the comments in an interview with the Financial...
The CRTC is partnering with 10 enforcement agencies from around the world to combat unlawful spam and unsolicited telecommunications. The regulator said in a press release Tuesday it signed...
OTTAWA — Creating an environment where Canada can compete in the digital world is a “key priority” for the government as it develops its much-touted Innovation Agenda, which...
A U.S. appeals court has denied an industry appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules. The court issued a decision Tuesday in favour of a framework the FCC imposed last year,...
A trio of major telecom companies have received their first victory in a legal fight against companies selling set-top boxes allowing users to illegally access copyrighted material. On June 1, a...
Newly released court documents suggest the RCMP have been using “stingray” surveillance technologies, or IMSI catchers, for at least 10 years, Motherboard and Vice News reported Friday. The news outlets said they obtained thousands of pages of documents from a Montreal court relating to a 2010 drug bust known as Project Clemenza, following the lifting of a publication ban. Testimony captured in the released documents indicated the RCMP purchased its first IMSI catcher in 2005, and that officers were trained to use the devices between 2006 and 2007. “Court filings show that...
According to a new survey, 71 per cent of Canadians think the CRTC should force Internet service providers (ISPs) to build “the infrastructure necessary to ensure that every Canadian...
The office of the privacy commissioner has forced a cable provider to censor the names of customers with overdue accounts it made public, according to an incident summary posted on its website...
The adoption of wearable devices is sluggish in Canada, with only 10 per cent of Canadians indicating they own one, suggest the results of a new Catalyst study. “While the advent of wearables, particularly the Apple Watch,...
Advocacy group OpenMedia is calling on the CRTC to end data caps, which it says are a result of a “broken telecom market,” ahead of a commission hearing on zero-rating. In a Tuesday press...
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...
Broadband infrastructure improvements have been completed in the remote community of Nahanni Butte, N.W.T., the federal government said in a Wednesday press release. The project to replace a...
Shaw Communications Inc. will raise its rates starting Aug. 1, which will affect “select residential Internet, TV and phone plans,” the company said in a customer bulletin posted to its website....
Tom Peddie, Corus Entertainment Inc.’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer, has announced his retirement, the company said Wednesday. Peddie’s retirement, which is effective at the end of August, comes after 17 years with the company. “Tom is a very talented finance executive and...
TORONTO — The Liberal government should continue the previous Conservative government’s push for more competition in the wireless market in the upcoming 600 MHz auction, Manon Brouillette, president and CEO of Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, said at an industry conference Wednesday. “New entrant competition has had a profound effect on the marketplace. It has forced all players to be creative, to innovate, to be better. We now need to nurture and encourage the competitive...
The CRTC said it might consider preventative regulations after a dispute involving two phone service providers resulted in lost telephone service for 27,000 Canadian phone number holders. On Jan. 15,...
An independent proxy advisory company has backed the takeover of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. by BCE Inc., MTS said in a Tuesday press release. International Shareholder Services (ISS) is recommending...
TORONTO — Executives from Canada’s telecom companies took aim at a new bill by the Quebec government that would force Internet service providers (ISPs) to block some gambling websites...
Cogeco Inc. announced it is making a $1.4-million investment in the Laurentides region of Quebec to expand its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network. In a Monday press release, Cogeco Connexion said the expansion would...
Xplornet Communications Inc. said Tuesday it was introducing a new national home phone service, using voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) to reach rural Canadians. The $20-per-month service is a “significantly lower cost compared to traditional landline service,” the company said in a press release. “Our customers have been asking us to take this next step,” Chris Johnston, Xplornet’s executive vice-president of marketing, said in the release. “Rural Canadians who subscribe to Xplornet can now easily switch phone service, keep their current...
Current Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. customers are concerned about the future of their bills if the proposed takeover by BCE Inc. is approved, suggest the results of a new poll...
Data released Tuesday by Cisco Systems Inc. shows Canadian Internet protocol (IP) traffic will double, and overall Internet traffic will nearly triple by 2020, aided by an increase in new...
BCE Inc. has selected the New York-based Videology Inc. to provide software for its programmatic, or automated, TV and video advertising operation. According to the release, Videology’s technology will “look at...
Groupe Maskatel LP announced Monday it was launching gigabit Internet in Saint-Guillaume and parts of Drummondville and Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., this summer. The three communities will...
TORONTO — Conservative MP Maxime Bernier took aim at the CRTC and the previous government’s telecom and wireless policies Tuesday, calling for the commission to be phased out as a telecom regulator and the wireless sector to be opened to foreign competition. “As the industry evolves, the CRTC finds new...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Tuesday that its gigabit Internet is now available in neighbourhoods across Greater Moncton, N.B. “Increasing our digital infrastructure will help ensure businesses have the tools...
TORONTO — Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Ajit Pai said that if the CRTC establishes an income subsidy program for broadband, it should ensure the program has...
Out of the more-than four million 911 calls sent across its wireless and wireline networks last year, Telus Corp. said 15 of them did not complete, the company disclosed. Telus reported the stats in its first 911...
The body that regulates the telecommunications market in the European Union released draft guidelines Monday to ensure providers steer clear of zero-rating policies unless justified, a move that comes ahead of a CRTC discussion on the matter this fall. In a 43-page document, the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) set out to establish “common rules to safeguard equal and non-discriminatory treatment of traffic in the provision of Internet access services and related end-users’ rights,” including handling zero-rating and sponsored...
TORONTO — With customers’ usage of data increasing exponentially, and carriers limited in how much they can charge for that data, telecoms will have to turn to 5G networks, Ericsson...
The consortium of investors that bought VimpelCom Ltd.’s stake in Wind Mobile didn’t make the deal contingent on regulatory approval, a clause it was able to include because...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. is updating its wireless network along a 130-kilometre stretch of highway, the company announced Wednesday. A $2.1-million investment into Highway 18 from the south-eastern...
The CRTC has extended the deadline for comments in its review of “differential pricing practices.” An original deadline of June 17 for the filing of interventions regarding zero rating and...
A new J.D. Power survey has found customers who have a skinny-basic TV package with a pick-and-pay option are more satisfied than TV customers with other types of subscriptions. Satisfaction among skinny-basic customers was 761 on a 1,000-point scale, as compared to 738 among customers with premium service, 708 among those with “a pre-set expanded basic package” and 700 among those with basic cable, J.D. Power said in a press release Thursday. “As cable and satellite television providers in Canada continue to face competition from video streaming services, the Canadian...
Three Canadian media outlets will be able to display their pages faster on smartphones while using less data after adopting a new platform developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according news articles by Corus...
An information package for Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. shareholders sheds some light on the genesis of the proposed $3.9-billion acquisition of the company by BCE Inc., announced May 2. According...
According to a new report, 76 per cent of anglophones used the Internet at the same time as they watched television in 2015. “While multitasking has grown immensely over time, incidence has slowed over the past year,”...
The CRTC has set a new deadline of July 8 for replies in its proceeding on telecoms’ compliance with skinny basic package requirements, the regulator said on its website Tuesday. The previous deadline for replies was July 4, while the deadline for interventions remains June 23. The request for more time came from...
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is recommending giving Canada’s economy a boost by removing foreign ownership rules for telecommunications and broadcasting. In an economic forecast...
The attorney general’s office is arguing that the CRTC chairman has the authority to name panels to decide issues in front of the commission, in response to a court case launched by commissioner Raj Shoan challenging his...
OTTAWA — Canada needs to “come to grips” with its lagging productivity and mobile broadband penetration if it wants to compete on the global stage, panellists said Wednesday during...
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...
Ontario Internet service and television provider VMedia Inc. will expand to Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and Alberta in the next two weeks — a move the company says will see its services become available to about 75 per cent of Canadian households as it aims to compete with Canada’s largest telecom companies. “It’s a very substantial effort for us, because … we’re still largely a start-up company in many respects,” VMedia co-founder George Burger said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We are primarily focusing on the urban markets,...
