Bell Canada has agreed on the takeover of alternative telco Distributel, a merger which the latter says will support its growth strategy in the residential and business segments for internet services. Bell said in a press release that, via new investment, Distributel – which owns brands including Primus – will benefit from expanded resources and ac...

Canada's Rogers Communications has announced the completion of agreements with holders of senior notes to ensure bond financing remains in place if it cannot close its proposed merger with Shaw Communications before the end of 2022. The 'special mandatory redemption date' for the relevant bond holders has been extended to 31 December 2023. As previ...

Telnet Networks is now partnering with Aukua Systems, Inc. to be the Canadian reseller for Aukua's industry leading Ethernet testing and monitoring solutions. Aukua is an Austin, Tx based company, whose products have been supporting QA and R&D teams at Network Equipment Manufacturer, Semiconductor, Military and Aerospace Telecommunication Servi...

By Keith Bromley, Keysight Technologies, Sr. Manager, Product Marketing Duplicate packets – no big deal right? That answer is most often wrong. While it is normal to have some duplicate packets on your network, the amount of duplicate packets matters. In addition, where are the duplicate packets coming from? You could have a problem and not ev...

Network monitoring can be described in many ways, but very often it is defined in the following way: 'Network management is the process of configuring, monitoring and maintaining a reliable network ensuring connectivity between devices and the people or software applications.' Several frameworks have been developed around network monitoring, for ex...

Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor announced on 12 August that they have entered into a 'Definitive Agreement' for the sale of Shaw's subsidiary Freedom Mobile to Quebecor's cableco/cellco division Videotron, under terms consistent with those agreed by the parties when they originally announced the deal on 17 June 2022. The tra...

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) reported that total operating revenue increased 2.9% year-on-year in Q2 2022 to CAD5.861 billion (USD4.561 billion), driven by 3.8% higher service revenue of CAD5.233 billion – helped in particular by 7.8% mobile service revenue growth and 8.0% higher residential fixed internet revenue – plus media division improvement...

The Ontario government yesterday (4 August 2022) issued funding contracts worth CAD1.25 billion (USD975 million) to eight ISPs to expand high speed fixed broadband internet access to 266,000 unserved and underserved homes and businesses in 339 municipalities across the Canadian province by end-2025. The project forms part of the near-CAD4 billion '...

Bell Canada yesterday announced that it will introduce faster symmetrical fibre broadband speeds of up to 8Gbps next month in selected areas of Toronto, claiming that this will give it the fastest internet speeds of any major North American provider. Having already claimed the fastest download/upload speeds amongst major Canadian providers with the...

Quebecor, the parent of Quebec-based cableco/cellco Videotron, has purchased smaller internet and TV provider VMedia, a move which signifies the group's intentions to expand outside its home province, reports the Hamilton Spectator. VMedia's customer base is primarily concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario province. The independe...

Bell Canada announced yesterday (28 July 2022) the availability of '5G+' mobile services based on 3500MHz spectrum in selected parts of southern Ontario, offering compatible smartphone users in Toronto, Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Barrie and parts of Mississauga faster and more responsive 5G mobile network performance – claiming that in Tor...

Canadian full-service telecoms group Rogers Communications has reported 'solid operational and financial performance across all business units' driving expanded year-on-year growth in the first half of 2022. Total revenue grew 6% y-o-y to CAD7.487 billion (USD5.822 billion) in January-June, with service revenue improving by 8% to CAD6.639 billion. ...

Canada's Competition Bureau said on Friday (22 July 2022) that it requires more time to investigate the proposed sale of Shaw Communications' cellular division Freedom Mobile to Quebecor – the deal which was agreed last month to allay competition concerns over the planned merger of Shaw with Rogers Communications. As reported by Reuters, the Bureau...

Canada's Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications issued a joint statement yesterday disclosing that the mediation held on 4-5 July between the two telcos and the Commissioner of Competition did not result in a resolution of the Commissioner's objections to the pair's proposed merger. The statement added: 'The review process will continue as p...

Shaw Communications' business division has launched 'Fibre+ Gig 2.0', a 2Gbps internet service aimed at supporting demand from businesses of all sizes across Western Canada to connect their data-heavy applications and cloud services. Katherine Emberly, President, Business, Shaw Communications, said: 'Businesses are more connected today than ever be...

Why Cloud Monitoring Should be an Essential Part of Every Company Network Monitoring Strategy Most companies are making use of public and private cloud assets which can lower hardware cost and enable efficient use of network resources but has the challenge of being able to uniformly manage the increasingly diverse network environment . This ar...

Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications have agreed to begin a mediation process with Canada's Competition Bureau to overcome the agency's opposition to the two telcos' proposed merger on anti-competition grounds. The Canadian Competition Tribunal told Reuters in a statement on Friday that the parties advised the tribunal that they wish to pa...

Canadian network operator Telus announced that it is beginning to deploy the 3500MHz 5G spectrum it won at auction last summer, naming the first deployment locations as Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and Victoria. Telus says customers with compatible devices located in areas covered by 3500MHz spectrum will be able to take advantage of an 'Unl...

Canadian telecoms groups Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications have announced an agreement to sell Shaw's subsidiary Freedom Mobile to Quebecor on a cash-free, debt-free basis at an enterprise value of CAD2.85 billion (USD2.19 billion), subject to regulatory approval, as the pair continue to seek clearance for their own proposed merger. Rog...

Anyone who has tracked the network and application performance monitoring space over the past few years knows that User Experience is a hot topic. But what does it really mean? Understanding, click-for-click, what the users are doing, how long they have to wait, whether they are experiencing error messages, web pages that fail to load properly, or other connectivity issues are some of the elements that can positively and negatively impact User Experience. With mission-critical corporate applicat...