In a long-delayed decision, Canada's federal government has opted to ban the country's telecoms operators from using Chinese equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE to build their 5G networks, and furthermore intends to order operators to remove such equipment from their existing networks. Francois-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science...

Canada's Federal Court has this week rejected nationwide operator Telus Communications' attempt to block Quebec-based rival Videotron's rights to 3500MHz 5G mobile licences in western provinces won at auction last year. The ruling follows the same court's refusal of a stay request from Telus and fellow nationwide player Bell Canada in October 2021,...

The Government of Quebec has allocated a portion of funding in its rural broadband connectivity programme for subsidising SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service for 10,200 'hard-to-reach' homes. A CAD9.5 million (USD7.4 million) subsidy is being offered for purchasing hardware for the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite service, currently costing...

Canada's Competition Bureau has filed court applications to prevent the proposed CAD26 billion (USD20 billion) merger of two of the country's largest fixed and mobile telecoms companies, Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications, as it seeks to 'protect Canadians from higher prices, poorer service quality and fewer choices' particularly in mobi...

Canada's Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications gave a joint statement on Saturday disclosing that they were notified of the Commissioner of Competition's intention to file applications to the Competition Tribunal opposing Rogers' proposed merger with Shaw. Rogers and Shaw stated that they remain committed to the merger, while moving their d...

Bell Canada's operating revenue increased 2.5% year-on-year to CAD5.850 billion (USD4.576 billion) in Q1 2022, driven by 4.2% higher service revenue of CAD5.177 billion on strong mobile, residential internet and media division growth. Product (equipment) revenue was down 8.8% to CAD673 million, reflecting fewer new mobile device transactions and lo...

Are you are planning to implement new IT projects such as data center consolidation, server virtualization, cloud computing, or perhaps adding new applications on the network?  Do you understand exactly how these upgrades will affect the existing applications and the user experience?  What strategy are you going to use to ensure application performance is not compromised?  It is imperative that you understand how each of the components can affect overall application performance. A...

The Vancouver Sun reports that Vancouver's Aquilini family (Aquilini Investments) is interested in buying Shaw Communications' cellular network operating division Freedom Mobile, which is up for sale as Rogers Communications attempts to offload the unit to gain regulatory clearance for its proposed merger with Shaw by the end of this quarter. It wa...

Over the last couple of years, the growth of IP-based video communtications and IP videoconferencing has explodied due to the the substantial increase of work from remote locations. Video communications are expected to be smooth. Network teams need to be prepared, as video brings several unique challenges. This article will explore key video requirements and monitoring strategies to ensure the technology meets user expectations. Managing in Real Time The primary challenge differentiating managem...

More mobile devices are now connecting to more data from more sources. IT challenges are complicated by increasingly high customer expectations for always-on access and immediate application response. This complexity creates network "blind spots" where latent errors germinate, and pre-attack activity lurks. Stressed-out monitoring systems make it hard, if not impossible, to keep up with traffic and filter data "noise" at a rate that they were not designed to handle. Network blind spots have beco...

Canada's Rogers Communications reported 'solid operational improvements' in its Wireless (mobile), Cable (fixed internet/pay-TV/voice) and Media divisions in Q1 2022. Total revenue improved 4% year-on-year to CAD3.619 billion (USD2.871 billion) in the three months ended 31 March 2022. Group quarterly EBITDA rose 11% y-o-y to CAD1.539 billion, with ...

Canada's Rogers Communications has announced the successful testing of 8Gbps symmetrical fibre broadband access speeds in lab and customer trials, under a plan to launch the new download and upload speeds commercially 'in summer 2022 for customers in select areas across Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland'. Rogers claims that the launch will mo...

Canada's Shaw Communications posted a 2.0% year-on-year decrease in consolidated revenue to CAD1.36 billion (USD1.08 billion) in its fiscal second quarter ended 28 February 2022. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA fell 0.8% y-o-y to CAD632 million while net income in the period dropped 9.7% y-o-y to CAD196 million. Shaw noted that the quarter experienced th...

Cubro Network Visibility commissioned Tolly, a leading global provider of third-party validation services for vendors of IT products, components and services, to evaluate the usability, storage efficiency and approach to data structure used in Custos. Tests were run by evaluating a live network simultaneously using Cubro Custos and legacy NetFlow/ ...

Bell has claimed 'the fastest internet speeds of any major provider in Canada' with the launch of a fibre broadband service offering download and upload speeds of 3Gbps, noting that its new premium fibre option provides 'total speeds three times faster than cable'. A press release noted: 'Many customers have multiple devices connected throughout th...

Xplornet Communications, Canada's largest rural-focused broadband provider, has completed the acquisition of the high speed internet business of Full Throttle Networks in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Full Throttle operates a fixed wireless network providing broadband access service to over 1,600 residential and commercial customers in Winnipeg and surroundi...

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) yesterday announced the launch of the second phase of the Connecting Families initiative in partnership with 14 ISPs which are offering CAD20 (USD16) per month high speed internet services aimed at low-income families and seniors. Connecting Families 2.0 introduces significantly faster ('fi...

Rogers Communications has announced the launch of Canada's first commercial 5G Standalone (SA) network services, enabling mobile customers with 5G SA capable devices including Google Pixel 6/6 Pro smartphones to connect to the new network, which was built exclusively with Ericsson. Users with suitable devices will automatically connect to the 5G SA...

ZTE Canada announced that its Connect-Hub 5G home internet gateway CPE device is now available to customers on the Telus network. The Connect-Hub 5G is offered in two variations – an Indoor Unit and Outdoor Unit – with the latter designed to boost weak signals to improve data throughput to the indoor Wi-Fi router. The Indoor and Outdoor Units suppo...

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved Rogers' acquisition of Shaw's broadcasting services, subject to a number of conditions and modifications. The CRTC has also set out several safeguards to ensure that the transaction benefits Canadians and the Canadian broadcasting system. As part of this transaction...