Iristel Inc. said Tuesday it has acquired two small telecoms, Toronto’s Trutel Inc. and Montreal’s Exelia Inc. "Our culture is not one filled with 'old phone guys' and neither is Trutel's or Exelia's. These two companies are strong strategic fits," Iristel president Samer Bishay said in the release. The release added that Trutel president Frank Auciello would join Iristel as vice-president of networks and infrastructure, while Exelia co-founder Dimitri Stathis would become vice-president of enterprise strategy and operations and co-founder Harry Villeneuve would become vice-president of enterprise sales. ...
Iristel Inc. has filed a complaint with the CRTC over what it says is a “refusal” of Bragg Communication Inc.’s Eastlink to “implement local competition” in an eastern Ontario community. In a Part 1 application posted to the CRTC’s website Tuesday, Iristel said the complaint was being brought about following a dispute beginning in December 2015 and that “for completely unjustifiable reasons, Eastlink still refuses to implement local competition in Aylmer, despite having received a bona fide request from Iristel,...
The CRTC announced Thursday a new memorandum of understanding with its counterpart in the United States to help combat unwanted calls. In a press release, the CRTC said the new formal agreement with the Federal...
Telecom companies will soon be required to put in place measures to block “unwanted nuisance calls” on both wireless and wireline networks, the CRTC announced Monday. The regulator...
Rogers Communications Inc. is expanding a service aimed at businesses that brings landline features to mobile. The company, which launched Rogers Unison for small businesses earlier this year, said in a press release Wednesday it...
The CRTC has issued a consumer alert letting customers of Téliphone Navigata Westel Communications Inc. (TNW) know they may be disconnected in November. It said in...
Toronto-based Comwave Networks Inc. will fork out $360,000 for misleading ads that represented its Internet and home phone services as “unlimited,” the Competition Bureau said Tuesday. In a press release, the bureau said Comwave agreed to pay $300,000 in administrative penalties as well as $60,000 to cover the costs of the investigation as well as “establish a corporate compliance program designed to help it avoid similar issues in the future.” According to the Competition Bureau, Comwave’s ads “misrepresented the charges...
The CRTC has approved one but rejected another application on number portability. On Friday, the regulator released its decision on an application by Telus Corp. to “establish a special location porting zone (LPZ)...
The CRTC is requesting comment on whether regulatory measures are required to prevent service interruptions after a dispute between two telecommunications providers in January. In a notice of consultation posted to its...
Over the course of the past year, several Canadian telecoms have introduced systems that allow small businesses to use their mobile phones with landline functionality, a move that highlights a shift away from landline services in...
Four months after issuing its annotated guide to the CRTC’s wireless code, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) has put out one for the regulator’s...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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. “Customers can expect to see a rate adjustment of [up to $5] for television, approximately $2-$3 for Internet and $1 for phone services depending on the services they subscribe to," Chethan Lakshman, Shaw’s vice-president of public relations and corporate communications, said in an email statement Wednesday. Shaw said it will notify customers in advance...
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,...
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...
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...
BCE Inc.’s Total Connect VoIP service for enterprises is now available to small businesses in Ontario and Quebec. The company said Tuesday that previously, only large businesses and...
BCE Inc. announced Monday morning that it will purchase Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in a $3.9 billion transaction that, if approved, will see the number of players in Manitoba’s telecom market fall from four to three. Some experts said the deal is likely to be approved, especially given a pre-emptive move to shift some subscribers to Telus Corp. The deal is subject to approval from shareholders, the CRTC, Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada and the Competition Bureau. Bell CEO George Cope said in a Monday conference call with analysts that he expects the regulatory...
Rogers Communications Inc. experienced a nearly 65-per-cent drop in complaints accepted by the Commissioner of Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), according to the commissioner's mid-year report....
NetTalk.com Inc. announced Wednesday evening that its VoIP service has been restored to all its customers in Canada. The Florida-based company said in a Facebook post that all Canadian telephone numbers and services are...
Too much reliance on landline-phone-service revenue, combined with a heavy debt load, has resulted in Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc. being placed in creditor protection and awaiting court...
Iristel Inc., a Markham, Ont.- based telecom company, announced Tuesday it is working with the CRTC to resolve an ongoing dispute with Florida-based VoIP provider NetTalk.com Inc., in order to...
Barclays Capital analyst Phillip Huang said Monday that providers of telecommunications services in Canada will feel the effects of the struggling economy. He said in a research note that most of repercussions from things such as...
The CRTC is asking Canadians what telecom services they need, as part of the second phase of its proceeding on basic telecom services. The CRTC said in a press release it wants to know what telecom services Canadians consider...
Nokia Corp. said Monday that it has won control of telecom-equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA with almost 80 per cent of the company's outstanding shares tendered in response to Nokia's acquisition offer. Nokia said in a...
Ericsson AB announced Thursday that it has renewed its agreement with Eastlink to expand and upgrade its LTE and HSPA networks, as well as continue to be the exclusive supplier for radio access network equipment for another three...
Cogeco Cable Inc.’s Canadian cable division has appointed Daniel Boisvert as vice-president of marketing and innovation, and Antoine Shiu as vice-president of business solutions sales, it said in a press release Monday. Cogeco said in the release that Boisvert will provide leadership on rolling out products and services, as well as being in charge of launching a “new brand expression,” for Cogeco Cable Canada in the Ontario and Quebec regions. The release said that Shiu will be responsible for growing the business customer base by developing offerings to match the needs of...
Subscribers to BCE Inc.’s TV services will pay more for CraveTV starting in February, though the company isn’t saying how much customers who get the streaming service through other TV-service providers, or those...
Nokia Corp. said Wednesday that its shareholders have approved the company's proposed acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent SA. Nokia said in a press release that it has also received all necessary regulatory approvals earlier than...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. CEO Jay Forbes on Monday downplayed the likelihood that the whole company could be sold in the wake of a deal to unload its business communications division, Allstream....
Ontario residents are not moving as fast toward newer ways of getting TV content, such as IPTV and Netflix, as other parts of the Canada, according to newly released figures. Survey results released last week from Media...
Officials from BCE Inc. told a CRTC panel Friday that the mandate of the Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) shouldn’t be expanded to allow it to become a consumer advocacy body. Ruby Barber, assistant general counsel of legal and regulatory affairs at Bell, said during the final day of a four-day hearing into the structure and mandate of the CCTS that some interveners “have proposed a different vision for the CCTS. They would like to transform it from an independent, non-partisan industry ombudsman into a consumer advocate that serves as an...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. on Wednesday reported lower revenue and profits compared to a year earlier. It said in a press release that revenue was down one per cent to $398.4 million for the three months ended Sept. 30. Net...
Representatives from the Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) told the CRTC Tuesday that making telecom companies' participation in the CCTS voluntary would affect the...
The notion that "content is king" is challenged in a new report that points out that connectivity services take in significantly more revenue than content providers in Canada and have seen...
The CRTC announced Monday it has created an online public forum as part of its review of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) and is inviting Canadians to participate...
Cogeco Cable Inc. reported higher revenue and profit numbers this week, with its U.S. operations bringing in substantially more money as it benefited from a favourable trend in the U.S.-dollar exchange rate. The company said in a...
Revenue from telecommunications services in Canada grew 2.4 per cent in 2014, the CRTC said Tuesday, falling short of the six per cent hike in average spending on communications services that year....
Canadians spent 14.1 per cent more on wireless services in 2014 than they did in 2013, while last year also marked the first time there were more Canadian households that relied exclusively on mobile phone service than households...
BCE Inc.'s Bell Media has parted ways with more senior employees, a spokesman confirmed Friday. Bell Media's Scott Henderson said in an email: "I can confirm there have been some director-level departures at Bell...
A stock market analyst has speculated that an acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. by BCE Inc. is likely next year. A research note Wednesday from TD Securities analyst Vince Valentini said that with MTS set to sell off its Allstream division in the coming months, “we believe that the stage will be set for a sale of the remaining Manitoba operations to one of the larger telcos in Canada by mid-2016.” Valentini referenced Bell’s recent purchases of CTV, Astral Media and Bell Aliant as proof of the company’s willingness to use acquisitions to fuel growth. He...
Jobs with BCE Inc.’s Bell Aliant operations in Atlantic Canada are being outsourced to India despite a commitment from Bell when it took full control of Aliant's operations last year to protect these jobs, according to a...
The plunge in oil prices could end up hurting telecommunications service providers like Shaw Communications Inc. and Telus Corp., which have a high proportion of their business operations in Alberta, according to a Bay Street...
The CRTC said Thursday it is has approved an application from BCE Inc.-owned Ontera to receive higher subsidies for serving high-cost areas, due to a change in its tax status. In an application made earlier this year, the phone-...
Distributel Communications Ltd. on Thursday announced that it has hired Gerry Vanderpost as its chief financial officer. Vanderpost had been vice-president of financial at Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., and joined...
BCE Inc. said Friday that it has sold its 15 per cent stake in the Globe and Mail newspaper. It said in a press release it has sold its newspaper stake to Woodbridge Co. Ltd., an investment company run by the Thomson family, which is the majority owner of the Globe. Financial terms were not disclosed....
BCE Inc. says in a filing with the CRTC that it is not violating regulations by requiring customers to pay for various services by the month in advance and not providing partial refunds if subscriptions are ended before the...
Telus Corp. on Friday reported a 5.1 per cent year-to-year revenue gain in its second quarter, boosted by more data-generated cash from both its wireless and wireline operations. The company said in a press release that operating...
BCE Inc. said Thursday that its gigabit Internet service will launch Monday for 1.3 million households in Ontario and Quebec. It added that it will be available to households in Atlantic Canada by the end of September, resulting...
BCE Inc. has been denied an application for relief on making "traffic imbalance payments" to Fibernetics Corp., a smaller provider of home-phone services. In its decision released Tuesday, the CRTC referred to...
Cogeco Cable Inc. reported higher third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, attributing gains largely to its U.S. operations, which benefited from favourable terms when translating U.S. dollars to Canadian. The company said in a press...
Telus Corp. said Tuesday that it has reached an agreement to sell the website of the Blacks photography retail operation to Montreal-based photo finishing company Les Pros de la Photo. It said in an emailed statement the sale will close on Aug. 4, at which time the purchasing company will do...
“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...
Quebecor Inc. has filed an application asking the CRTC to force BCE Inc. to stop charging customers after the date they cancel telecommunications services. An application from Quebecor appearing on the CRTC website Monday said...
Industry Canada’s new guidelines for transparency reports released by telecom companies put unnecessary limits on how information should be reported, according to two academics with expertise in privacy and surveillance. “There is no general legal impediment to making these reports, which means the government shouldn’t be imposing any ad hoc restrictions,” Tamir Israel, a lawyer with the Samuel-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), said in...
The CRTC on Tuesday issued several changes to standards around billing that takes place on behalf of third parties by incumbent landline phone service providers. Phone companies are mandated to provide billing services primarily...
Kelvin Shepherd is retiring as president of Manitoba Telecom Service Inc., paving the way for Jay Forbes to take on the roles of both chief executive and president, the company said Monday. Forbes became CEO at the start of this...
Shaw Communications Inc. on Thursday reported a decline in its quarterly income with much of the drop attributed to a $55-million write-down taken on an abandoned IPTV project. Shaw said in a press release that it started work in...
Prices of low-end wireless plans have continued to climb for the second year in a row, while Canada’s rates for broadband, wireless and bundled telecom services remain high compared to other...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has filed an application with the CRTC asking that boundaries be expanded for which customers can transport their existing phone numbers. In an application appearing on the commission's website Tuesday — with the cooperation of the Consumers' Association of Canada and the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia — PIAC argued that the evolution of networks since the rules surrounding number portability were implemented in the 1990s warrant an expansion of such boundaries. The application noted that the...
Almost 60 per cent of the data generated globally by smartphones and tablets will be offloaded to WiFi networks by 2019, Juniper Research Ltd. said Tuesday. Juniper said in a press release that more than 115,000 petabytes from...
The CRTC said Thursday it will hold a public consultation to review the structure and mandate of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS). The consultation will include a public hearing, which will...
Sigma Systems announced Monday that it has received a major investment from Birch Hill Private Equity Partners Management Inc. Sigma, which provides subscriber-management software, said in a press release said the new...
Cogeco Cable Inc. announced Wednesday a series of a new business phone plans for its fibre-services customers. The new service will provide customers with lower costs, better productivity and "scalability" to meet...
The CRTC said Wednesday in a notice of consultation that it is looking for comments on its elimination of 30-day notice requirements for cancelling telecom services, which has been in effect since...
Ciena Corp. said Friday it is moving into a new campus in the west end of Ottawa on a property that was formerly used by BlackBerry Ltd. Ciena, which is headquartered in Hanover, Md., said in a press release that employees will...
Telus Corp. on Thursday reported higher profits and earnings from the year's first quarter, largely on the strength of its wireless business. The company said in a press release its quarterly profit was $415 million, up from...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. said Thursday that, following a strategic review, it will make cuts to staff and capital spending at its Allstream division. MTS's Allstream, which provides business communications services...
Former Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Nadir Mohamed will lead a new venture-capital fund created by the Ontario government, the office of Premier Kathleen Wynne said on Monday. Mohamed will lead a council of about 30 business leaders and entrepreneurs tasked with managing Scale Up Ventures, a $50-million fund for startup companies that "have shown initial market success and that demonstrate strong growth potential," the premier's office said in a press release. Mohamed was replaced as Rogers' CEO by Guy Laurence in December 2013. Laurence is also on the council that will...
Rogers Communications Inc. on Monday reported a 5.1 per cent annual gain in revenue for the first quarter, driven largely by a 26 per cent jump in its media division that benefited from Rogers' exclusive national rights to NHL...
Athletes from across two continents competing in the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto this summer will be able to connect with family and friends back home via high-speed fibre Internet connections...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said it will not drop a CRTC complaint against BCE Inc.’s targeted ad program, despite the company’s plans to re-launch the program according to...
Convergence Consulting Group Ltd. says in a new report that Canada lost 95,000 TV subscribers in 2014, the second year of decline, while TV subscriber revenue continued to grow. A summary of the report posted to the Convergence...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday it plans to make about $313 million in capital expenditures in its home province this year, including $177 million on what it calls its "core Saskatchewan network." Some of the priorities SaskTel highlighted in a press release included spending $45 million on its fibre-to-the-premises network, $37.8 million on upgrades to its wireless network and $79.9 million for "basis network growth and other enhancements."...
Police ask telecommunications service providers for information about their customers in the vast majority of criminal investigations, said an online report by CBC on Friday. "Canadian police...
The CRTC announced Thursday that it will re-examine the definition and role of so-called basic services, paving the way for potential changes to the offerings telecom companies are mandated to make...
Three different CRTC decisions issued on Thursday left the DiversityCanada Foundation more than $70,000 short of what it hoped to get out of applications for reimbursements on initiatives taken in...
Cogeco Cable Inc. reported late Wednesday a decline in profit for its second fiscal quarter, a gain in revenue and fewer TV subscribers. It said in a press release that its profit was $58.9 million for the three months ended Feb....
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said it had a meeting with officials from BCE Inc. on Wednesday, and it is keeping its legal options open despite Bell's expressed willingness to follow its direction. Tobi Cohen,...
Faced with a possible legal fight against another agency of the federal government, BCE Inc. on Tuesday backed down after the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said the company refused to require...
BCE Inc.-owned Ontera, formerly a provincial-government-owned telecom operation in northern Ontario, has applied to the CRTC for higher subsidies under established practices for providers serving high-cost areas. In an...
While overall complaints about telecommunications services have continued to decline, according the first-ever mid-year report from the Commissioner of Complaints for Telecommunications Services...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) released a report on Monday that calls on Canada to legislate the requirement that all Canadians have access to "affordable" telecommunications services. PIAC said in its report that affordability should be defined in such a way that people can afford telecommunications without having to give up other essentials, such as heat or food. The document added that any such requirements should respect "consumer control of expenses and choice of services, to the maximum extent possible." The organization said affordable...
Quebecor Inc. on Wednesday reported a net loss for the fourth quarter resulting largely from non-operational factors, while indicating major gains in its wireless operations' revenue and subscriber base. The company said in a...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. CEO Jay Forbes met with three cabinet ministers and the head of Canada’s telecommunications regulatory body over the last five weeks, according the federal lobbying registry. MTS chief...
The CRTC on Wednesday ordered BCE Inc.’s Northwestel Inc. to lower its Internet prices for new and existing customers to address the “disparity” between the cost of Internet in the...
Telus Corp.’s fourth-quarter profits rose 7.6 per cent from a year earlier as the company reported a double-digit jump in data revenue from its wireless and wireline customers. According to the company’s latest...
Sandvine Inc., a Canadian company that provides software to telecommunications service providers around the world, said Wednesday that it has added capabilities enabling it to help carriers offer voice services on both LTE and WiFi networks. Dan Deeth, spokesman for the Waterloo, Ont.-based company, said the "service delivery engine" software it provides to mobile operators will now allow them to create VoLTE (voice-over-LTE) and VoWiFi (voice-over-WiFi) services, as well as generate data on the performance of these services in comparison to competitors. "It's a standard...
The Municipality of Kincardine in southwestern Ontario is interested revisiting the issue of selling publicly owned Bruce Telecom to Eastlink-owner Bragg Communications Inc., according to a news...
BCE Inc.’s net earnings the fourth quarter grew slightly compared to a year earlier, though its wireless revenue gained by a wider margin largely on increased data usage. Bell's reported in a press release that revenue...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. on Wednesday reported lower revenue for the fourth quarter of last year, though unlike the year-earlier period, it was profitable. The company said in a press release...
VMedia Inc. said Wednesday it has become the first independent telecommunications service provider to offer a triple-play bundle of television, Internet and home-phone service in Ontario. The company said its packages start at...
A public proceeding regarding new CRTC powers to impose monetary penalties on telecommunications companies would “not be appropriate,” given “the fact that further guidance will be...
Canadian telecommunications providers are looking to the business market to pick up the slack from the increasingly competitive consumer space, yet financial data from the incumbent service providers shows, in the opinion of one...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp.'s network problems following floods in the company's home province last summer will not result in it owing rebates to companies like BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. that rely on its...
Telus Corp. said Wednesday it has purchased a 20 per cent share in and formed a partnership with a Quebec City-based IT and consulting service. Telus said in a press release it is teaming up with Alithya, which according to...
OTTAWA — The former president of Microsoft Corp.'s Canadian operations is calling on companies involved in wireless technology to be more forthcoming in addressing what he says are health risks associated with exposure to signals transmitted from various devices. Frank Clegg, president of Microsoft Canada from 1990 to 2004, is now CEO of a group called Canadians For Safe Technology (C4ST). He was in Ottawa Monday to help promote a private member's bill (Bill C-648) tabled by...