The launch of new plans from Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom will drive more competition in the wireless market, analysts said after the new $0 phone plans were unveiled — warning the new offerings could lead incumbents to reconsider their new equipment financing...
Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom is responding to the wireless industry’s recent moves toward removing data caps and offering $0 upfront financing plans by throwing-in...
Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom, the country’s major fourth wireless player, says it is most susceptible to harm if the CRTC decides to mandate MVNO access to incumbent facilities, and that...
BCE Inc. walking away from the 600 MHz spectrum auction with no licences,...
An ad launched over the weekend depicting a fictitious version of the big...
Shaw Communications Inc. says its wireless business has reaped the fruits...
While much of the debate around the upcoming 600 MHz spectrum auction has centered on implementing spectrum set-asides, issues like imposing a spectrum cap and the size of any set-aside, the ability of small providers to participate, and compensation for TV stations are also being hammered out in the lead-up to the action. The consultation wrapped up earlier this month and reply comments were posted on Innovation Canada’s website last week. In recent months, large providers Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. have been vocal in their opposition to setting aside spectrum...
Shaw Communications Inc. announced Thursday that it would move to redeploy...
Rogers Communications Inc. has expanded its LTE service in Alberta, improving wireless connectivity in Lethbridge and between Banff and Calgary. The company said in a press release Monday the improvements include a new cell...
Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) has approved the transfer of spectrum licences from Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile. ISED said in a Monday release that the...
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has launched a consultation on the licensing of unassigned or returned spectrum. That includes three 700MHz licences in the North, 62 licences in the 2500 MHz band, as...
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has launched a consultation on the renewal process for AWS and other spectrum licences it auctioned off in 2008. It said in a notice Thursday that the licences, which...
The sale last week of Videotron’s AWS-1 spectrum by Quebecor Inc. to Rogers Communications Inc. isn’t likely to have implications for the company’s 700MHz spectrum, according to Canaccord...
The federal government is pledging $3 million this year and into 2018 to produce an analysis on a potential public safety broadband network (PSBN). The departments of Public Safety and Emergency...
Shaw Communications Inc. is “the one player in the industry who is very well positioned” regardless of the direction the Liberal government takes on wireless policy,...
Quebecor Inc.’s chief financial officer Jean-François Pruneau said Thursday the company is content to wait to sell the 700 MHz spectrum it picked up in 2014 and never deployed, given its value continues to grow with time. He said he’s been in “discussions with all the parties,” both incumbents and new entrants, about the seven licences in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia on which the company spent $233.3 million in 2014. It has since declined to expand into those areas. “My job is to create as deep a...
On Friday, Shaw Communications Inc. released Wind Mobile’s first quarterly results since it acquired the wireless company earlier this year, which showed revenues of $132 million for the...
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....
BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. were the only companies that successfully bid for wireless spectrum in an auction that finished Thursday for licences that went unsold in previous competitions. Bell and Telus split the available...
Industry Canada has approved all six companies applying to take part in this month's residual spectrum auction, which deals with licences that went unsold in last year's 700 MHz sale and this year's AWS-3 auction. The...
Canada's three national wireless carriers and regional players have applied to be part of the next spectrum auction, one intended to deal with licences that went unsold in this year's AWS-3 auction and last year's sale of 700 MHz spectrum. A posting on Industry Canada's website, dated for Tuesday, showed BCE Inc., Telus Corp. and Rogers Communications Inc. as applicants for the auction, which is scheduled to start Aug. 25. Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. and northern Internet service provider SSi Micro Ltd. were also listed....
Industry Canada's finalized rules for the next wireless spectrum auction have been published, as four unclaimed licences left over from last year's 700 MHz auction and this year's AWS-3...
Large wireless carriers are arguing for the elimination of set-asides and spectrum caps in the upcoming auction of unsold AWS-3 and 700 MHz spectrum, while smaller competitors say those measures...
Quebecor Inc. is still publicly sitting on the fence when it comes to expanding its wireless service throughout Canada despite bidding $187 million on 2500 MHz spectrum, including for licences outside...
The federal government announced Friday evening that it will auction off unsold portions of 700 MHz and AWS-3 spectrum this August. According to a document posted on Industry Canada’s website, a sealed-bid auction is...
The federal government’s proposal to set aside more spectrum and spend $3 million next year to plan for a dedicated public-safety wireless broadband network, as detailed in the budget released...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it will spend $4 billion on infrastructure and facilities in its home province of British Columbia over the next four years, including $1 billion this year. The company said in a press release that the...
BCE Inc. announced Wednesday it has extended its LTE service to 120 rural and remote communities in Ontario and Quebec. The company said in a release it aims to bring LTE connectivity to 98 per cent of Canada’s population...
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...
As data consumption by smartphone users increases exponentially every year, wireless technology companies are looking to harness the unlicensed spectrum normally used for WiFi connections to improve cellular performance. Ericsson AB, which claims to be the largest wireless equipment provider in the world, and Qualcomm Inc., which makes mobile chips for both consumer devices and enterprise clients, released information about their efforts to expand LTE into unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum (LTE-U) during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week. Eric Parsons, head of...
Industry Canada on Thursday announced March 3 as the date for the beginning of the AWS-3 auction and proposed policy changes to make 600 MHz, AWS-4 and 3500 MHz spectrum available for mobile use in...
As the new year approaches, Canadian wireless carriers of all sizes await a CRTC decision on domestic roaming that could, in the words of one analyst, “disrupt” the industry with...
OTTAWA — Lawyers for Telus Corp. said Thursday they regretted the "foolish" decision to not dispute Industry Canada’s power over so-called deemed spectrum transfers when the...
As Wind Mobile’s chief operating officer, Pietro Cordova, steps into the CEO role vacated by Anthony Lacavera Monday, his top priority will be to put an LTE network in place, the outgoing CEO said in a phone interview....
GATINEAU, Que. — The CEO of Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron told the CRTC Friday that her company needs the regulator to lower the legislated rate for domestic roaming if it is to build a national alternative to the incumbent wireless carriers. Manon Brouillette asked the commission to place its own cap on domestic roaming charges below the retail-based cap the government brought into force in June. The CRTC’s week-long hearing on the wholesale wireless market wrapped up on Friday and has heard testimony from BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. that the cap needed...
Wind Mobile CEO Anthony Lacavera says his $285-million buyout of majority shareholder VimpelCom Ltd., announced Tuesday, brings stability to his company after years of ownership uncertainty. Lacavera will buy out the majority...
In newly released documents Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. all criticize the set-aside for new entrants in the upcoming AWS-3 auction, with Bell is asking the government to...
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....
Rogers Communications Inc.’s CEO on Tuesday said his competitors underestimate the value of wireless spectrum — something Rogers spent multiple times more money on than any other company in this year’s 700...
A new technology that is part of the next generation of LTE could help wireless carriers more than double the speed of their networks and make the most out of their limited spectrum holdings. Each spectrum band, be it PCS, AWS or...
Last summer, a conflict between the federal government and Canada’s three biggest wireless carriers, centering over rules around the 700 MHz spectrum auction and the prospect of a large U.S. carrier entering the Canadian...
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...
TORONTO — Wind Mobile CEO Anthony Lacavera said Tuesday that his company needs access to LTE spectrum, perhaps from unused space held by Quebecor Inc. or Shaw Communications Inc., if his company is to continue to be a viable...
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney has been nominated to be chairman of Quebecor Inc.'s board of directors, according to a corporate filing the company made on Wednesday. Mulroney would replace Françoise Bertrand, the chairwoman since March 2011, who Quebecor said in its filing has chosen not to seek re-election. Mulroney is currently vice-chairman, a role he was appointed to in March after Pierre Karl Péladeau stepped down from this role and other board positions as he prepared to run in the Quebec election for the Parti Quebecois. Péladeau, who according to the...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it is investing $130 million to upgrade its infrastructure in Manitoba between now and 2016. Telus said the money will go toward expanding its wireless LTE network, using the 700 MHz spectrum it bought...
OTTAWA — Proposed federal legislation that caps wholesale wireless prices is a good start but “doesn’t solve the issue,” Wind Mobile co-founder and chief regulatory officer Simon Lockie told a Senate...
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...
The federal government’s meddling in the wireless market over the past seven years and its focus on bringing a fourth carrier into every region has failed to bring about meaningful competition,...
OTTAWA — Participants at a conference discussion about the wireless industry on Thursday blasted the federal government for its approach in trying to bring more competition to the sector, and a consensus emerged that there is too much overlap between Industry Canada, the CRTC and the Competition Bureau in regulating the mobile-services industry. Mobilicity founder John Bitove said during a discussion at the New Developments in Communications Law and Policy conference in Ottawa about this year’s 700 MHz spectrum auction that the government's statements about promoting new...
The $350-million bid by Telus Corp. for Mobilicity could set up a test of Industry Canada’s regulatory power over the sale of wireless spectrum and competition within the wireless industry,...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Thursday it has deployed its new 700 MHz spectrum in parts of Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Rogers said the launch of the spectrum means customers in these locations will have an easier time...
Telus Corp. said Friday it has closed a $1-billion offering of senior unsecured notes, which it said in a press release “will be used to repay bank indebtedness incurred to pay for the 700 MHz spectrum licences and for...
A group that promotes open access to the Internet said the federal government should use funds from the 700 MHz spectrum auction to improve accessibility to high-speed Internet in Canada. In a press...
Telus Corp. said Tuesday it has extended its LTE network to new communities in Ontario and New Brunswick. It said in separate news releases that customers in Bradford, Ont., and Bathurst, N.B., would now be able to enjoy data...
Mobilicity, the startup wireless carrier in bankruptcy protection, will have information to share on its efforts to find a buyer in the “near term,” according to a court document filed...
It will go down in history as the great telecom lobby of 2013. BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. lobbied Industry Canada to change the spectrum auction rules favouring a foreign entrant, while Industry Canada...
Pierre Karl Péladeau’s decision to run for the sovereigntist Parti Québécois in the upcoming Quebec election could cause problems for the company he used to lead and of...
Rogers Communications Inc. said Monday that it closed about $2.1 billion in financing transactions, which it will use to fund its recent purchases of 700 MHz spectrum licences. The company said in a release that the proceeds of the financing will be used to help “fund the 'beachfront property' — 20 year licenses for two contiguous, paired blocks of lower band spectrum — acquired in the recent 700 MHz spectrum auction." "We went after and won this spectrum because we know it will pay off for our customers for the next 20 years and likely beyond,“...
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. shelled out billions in this year’s 700 MHz spectrum auction for what was once “second-class” spectrum and what could now be the most coveted wireless real...
Industry Minister James Moore blocked a spectrum-transfer request on Thursday between NextWave Wireless Inc. and a joint venture between two of Canada’s incumbent carriers, a decision that could...
Bids in Industry Canada’s 700 MHz spectrum auction topped $7 billion, according a report in the Globe and Mail. The article published on the Globe’s website Tuesday evening reported...
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Tuesday said it has approved Mobilicity’s request for an extension of its creditor protection until March 31. This marks the third extension the wireless carrier, which became operational in 2010, has been granted since filing for bankruptcy protection in September. An affidavit filed last week by Mobilicity’s chief restructuring officer, William Aziz, said the company’s quest to find a buyer will make more progress now that the 700 MHz spectrum auction is over....
Mobilicity is seeking to extend its creditor protection until March 31, according to a report on the website of its court-appointed monitor, Ernst & Young. The report from Ernst & Young, dated Feb. 20, recommends that the...
Ron Styles, president of Saskatchewan telecom services provider SaskTel, said Thursday that the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction’s format was “clearly biased against regional...
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...
Industry Minister James Moore will announce the results of the government’s 700 MHz spectrum auction Wednesday afternoon in Ottawa, the federal government said Tuesday. The auction opened Jan. 14 and was a chance for...
The Canadian Press reported that Industry Minister James Moore has backed off on the government’s commitment to having a fourth strong wireless carrier in every region of the country. In an interview Wednesday, Moore said:...
Former Quebecor Inc. executive Luc Lavoie registered in December to lobby the federal government on mobile broadband licensing, the federal lobby registry shows. In a French-language registration filed with the lobby...
Eastlink’s purchase of a small municipally-owned telecom provider in southwestern Ontario might indicate it intends to buy spectrum there in the 700 MHz auction that got underway last week, said...
Rogers Communications Inc. is urging the Federal Court to dismiss Telus Corp.’s request for a review of Industry Canada’s new spectrum transfer rules and how they would apply to the...
John Bitove’s Feenix Wireless Inc. could have access to prime spectrum at lower prices following the withdrawal of Globalive Wireless Management Corp., owner of Wind Mobile, from the 700 MHz auction that starts Tuesday, industry experts said. One day ahead of the auction that begins Tuesday, Wind said in a emailed statement that it has withdrawn from the process because its majority owner, Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd., “decided not to fund Wind Mobile’s participation in this auction as it continues with discussions with the federal government and Wind Mobile’s other...
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...
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...
Telus Corp. has lost its legal battle to overturn Industry Canada rules that limit large mobile providers to acquiring a single block of the most coveted airwaves in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. In a decision released...
The auction for 700 MHz spectrum — for years the focus of much anticipation within telecommunications circles — is almost upon us. In an age when wireless waves are a key part of the infrastructure that allows people...
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must do more to entice broadcasters to take part in an “incentive auction” of their broadcast airwaves if it wants to reallocate that spectrum for mobile use, the head of a U.S. broadcast coalition told American senators Tuesday. “The FCC has not attracted the critical mass of spectrum sellers that will be necessary to have a successful auction,” Preston Padden, executive director of Washington-based Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition, said during a meeting of the Senate’s commerce, science and...
Wind Mobile is the “big winner” of Catalyst Capital Groups Inc.’s decision to drop out of the 700 MHz auction in the absence of other potential bidders for the much-coveted airwaves...
Catalyst Capital Group Inc. has withdrawn its application to take part in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction, Industry Canada said. In an updated list of auction participants posted on the department's website Wednesday...
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...
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...
Canada’s telecom companies should find new ways to invest in shaping public policy since they can no longer donate to political parties directly, said Lawson Hunter, counsel at Stikeman Elliott...
Two of the three small telecom companies who registered to bid in Industry Canada’s 700 MHz auction have now withdrawn from the auction. Victoria-based broadband equipment manufacturer Vecima Networks Inc. and rural Alberta...
Telus Corp. continues to challenge the federal industry minister's power to impose caps in January's 700 MHz spectrum auction, arguing in court documents that there is no “viable...
Fourteen companies have been provisionally qualified to take part in Industry Canada’s auction of 700 MHz spectrum next year, the federal department said. In a notice posted on its website Tuesday, Industry Canada said all...
It’s been described as the most valuable wireless spectrum the federal government has ever auctioned off, yet few—if any—bidders are expected to try to acquire those airwaves in three of Canada’s most lucrative wireless markets. With Industry Canada’s auction of 700 MHz spectrum now less than three months away, industry analysts are pondering who will step up to bid on a fourth available block of prime airwaves in Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta, which...
Toronto-based private equity firm Birch Hill Equity Partners Management Inc. withdrew its application to take part in Industry Canada’s 700 MHz spectrum auction, Industry Canada said. In an updated list of auction...
Rural Internet service provider Corridor Communications Inc. will attempt to make the jump into mobile wireless if it can secure wireless airwaves during Industry Canada’s 700 MHz spectrum...
Companies owned by Mobilicity executive chairman John Bitove, as well as two private equity firms, registered for Industry Canada’s auction of coveted 700 MHz wireless spectrum, along with most...
None of the four largest wireless providers in the United States has submitted applications to participate in Canada's 700 MHz auction, Scotia Capital telecom analyst Jeff Fan said in a note to...
Analysts expect to see fewer speculators participating in Industry Canada's 700 MHz auction following the passage of the deadline for deposits to participate. "Unlike in the 2008 auction, where you might have gotten some speculation, I don't think you're likely to get a lot of speculators in this auction. The risk profile is now higher, given that you can't sell to an incumbent," Macquarie Capital analyst Greg MacDonald said in a phone interview. He said he assumes companies coming into the auction intend to be involved in wireless operations largely due to...
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...
Mobile providers and advocacy groups met at a Liberal party roundtable on Parliament Hill Monday to discuss the future of Canada’s wireless industry, one day before the deadline to apply to take part in a key auction of...
A new report commissioned by Telus Corp. said the federal government should relax its regulation of the mobile wireless sector to avoid harming investment in Canada’s wireless networks. In a...
New entrants to Canada’s wireless industry are doomed to fail due to a “natural limit” on the number of competitors the market can support, said a report by a University of Calgary...
Guy Laurence, the head of Vodafone Group plc's U.K. division, will be in familiar territory in December when he becomes the new CEO of Rogers Communications Inc., a role that will involve dealing...
A group of 35 executives and digital entrepreneurs are joining with advocacy group OpenMedia.ca to pressure the federal government to provide more support for small mobile providers. In a letter...
Wireless incumbents and the Conservative government continue to trade punches as the Industry Department pressed ahead with more public information about its wireless policy, putting a new interactive...
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...
Verizon Communications Inc. has resumed talks with Vodafone Group Plc to acquire a full stake in the companies’ joint wireless company in a move that industry analysts said could either assist or deter Verizon’s potential Canadian expansion. In a statement Thursday morning, U.K.-based Vodafone confirmed that the two companies have renewed negotiations for Verizon to acquire Vodafone’s 45-per cent stake in Verizon Wireless Inc., after the Wall Street Journal reported that the...