Saskatchewan full-service operator SaskTel shut down its legacy Wireless Broadband Internet (WBBI) service on 30 January 2015 after successfully migrating customers to its new High Speed Fusion Internet service based on fixed-wireless TD-LTE technology, it reported on its website. In addition to completing existing WBBI customer migrations, SaskTel said it also commercially launched High Speed Fusion Internet services for new subscribers at 38 wireless tower locations around the province, and pl...

Indebted Canadian cellco Mobilicity has secured the necessary CAD62 million (USD50 million) funding from debtholders to place a deposit by the end-January deadline for entering the upcoming AWS-3 wireless spectrum auction scheduled for 3 March. The Globe & Mail reports that Mobilicity placed an application before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to approve the ‘second debtor-in-possession (DIP)’ financing arrangement, structured off an earlier CAD30 million DIP financing arrangement the...

Financially-stricken Canadian cellco Mobilicity has confirmed that it is still searching for funding to meet the deposit deadline of 30 January in order to participate in the upcoming AWS-3 mobile frequency auction in March, a report from Ernst & Young disclosed on Friday. Mobilicity, which is under court protection from its creditors, needs to secure a CAD62 million (USD50 million) refundable deposit by the end of the month to bid in the auction of unallocated 3G/4G spectrum in the regions ...

Industry Canada has approved a localised transfer of spectrum licences held by Inukshuk to the wireless broadband joint venture’s equal partners Bell Mobility and Rogers, reports Cartt.ca. Two Broadband Radio Service (BRS) spectrum licences in the Lower St. Lawrence and Gaspsie areas, valid until 31 March 2021, are being transferred to Bell and Rogers, which previously jointly operated a national WiMAX-type wireless broadband network via Inukshuk but have more recently been re-using the venture’...

Fiscal 2015 first-quarter revenue at cableco Cogeco’s Canadian division increased by 1.8% year-on-year to reach CAD315.2 million (USD263.5 million) in the three months ended 30 November 2014, attributable to a rate increase implemented in April 2014 in Quebec and Ontario, alongside customer base growth. Operating expenses in the quarter remained virtually level y-o-y at CAD155.4 million, as additional marketing initiatives related to the launch of TiVo digital advanced TV services in early Novem...

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) has agreed a CAD594 million (USD520 million) cash-and-stock deal to buy independent cellphone retailer Glentel, the Globe & Mail reports. The deal will give Bell ownership of Glentel’s roughly 500 own-brand retail locations in Canada, as well as kiosks at Target Canada and Costco under the names ‘Wirelesswave’, ‘Tbooth wireless’ and ‘Wireless etc’. BCE previously bought another phone retail chain, The Source, with around 750 locations, in 2009. The Source now ex...

Canada’s fourth largest cellular operator by subscribers Wind Mobile has added a third domestic network roaming partner, Telus, to add to its existing partners Rogers and Bell, raising its combined on-net and roaming coverage footprint to 97% of the population, reports MobileSyrup. The company indicated that its roaming (‘WIND Away’) network coverage has expanded by 14% across the country and 40% in Telus’ home province of British Columbia via the deal. Earlier this year Canada’s telecoms regula...

Indebted Canadian cellco Mobilicity has received its eighth court-sanctioned extension to its creditor protection, from 1 December 2014 until 30 January 2015, while it continues to seek a buyer for its business, the Globe & Mail reports. In its latest court filing Mobilicity reported 154,900 active subscribers at 31 October, down by 1,400 since August, Canadian website MobileSyrup noted, as the struggling operator continues to compete via discount offers and promotions. The court document al...

In a press release, Canadian full-service telco Telus announced it is introducing two new solutions to enable Canadian businesses leverage cloud-based technology ‘to improve how they communicate with their customers, employees and partners.’ TELUS Cloud Collaboration provides businesses with access to a full suite of unified communications services, and TELUS Cloud Contact Centre offers a fully featured contact centre solution hosted in the cloud. Both products are powered by the Cisco Hosted Co...

Canada’s Bell Media has reached its first distribution deals to deliver its new premium on-demand video streaming service to subscribers – with parent telco Bell Canada and newly merged Atlantic subsidiary Bell Aliant, alongside western Canadian incumbent telco Telus, while it says that the service, ‘codenamed Project Latte’, will be made available to ‘every TV provider in the country’ in due course. Customers will be able to access ‘thousands of hours’ of TV content including HBO’s entire off-a...

Canadian cablecos Shaw Communications and Rogers Communications both announced this week the free beta trial launch of their joint subscription video-on-demand (VoD) service ‘Shomi’. The trial service is available for existing Rogers and Shaw customers on selected tablets and other mobile devices, online, and on set-top boxes, with other platforms to follow including Xbox 360 and Chromecast. Shomi will focus on offering ‘the most popular movies and TV shows’. Thanks to TeleGeography for the arti...

The Canadian government yesterday approved the previously announced sale of Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile) to an investor group that includes the company’s chairman, after deciding that the transaction will bolster competition in the cellular market, the Wall Street Journal reports. Federal approval came with conditions including a pledge by Wind Mobile’s new ownership to significantly invest in new spectrum and expansion of network infrastructure across Canada. It was announced in September t...

Canada’s largest telecoms group BCE has announced the successful completion of its privatisation of Atlantic Canadian subsidiary Bell Aliant and its integration into BCE’s nationwide Bell Canada operations. Bell Aliant’s common shares were delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) on 31 October 2014 and Bell Aliant preferred shares were delisted from the TSX on 3 November 2014. In July BCE announced it would delist Bell Aliant by acquiring the interests of public minority shareholders for a...

Canadian quadruple-play operator Rogers Communications’ consolidated revenue increased 1% in the third quarter of 2014 to CAD3.252 billion (USD2.896 billion), reflecting revenue growth of 2% year-on-year in mobile operations and 3% in Business Solutions, while revenue in the group’s Media division was steady, and was partially offset by a decline of 1% in cable operations (TV, broadband and fixed telephony). Mobile revenue was boosted by higher equipment sales and moderate growth in service reve...

Canadian triple-play cableco Cogeco says it will consider launching a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) service if the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) implements stricter regulation regarding wholesale access to the infrastructure of national mobile network operators Rogers, Telus and Bell. As reported by Reuters, Cogeco’s CEO Louis Audet said that he hoped for new regulations to encourage MVNOs, in a statement to the press ahead of CRTC hearings on wholes...

Telecoms group Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and its subsidiary Bell Aliant yesterday announced in a press release the initial results of BCE’s offer to purchase all Bell Aliant’s outstanding publicly held common shares and to exchange all outstanding Bell Aliant preferred shares. BCE revealed in July that it would buy out all minority shareholders in Bell Aliant for a total consideration of approximately CAD3.95 billion (USD3.68 billion); sellers will receive cash and BCE common equity. 81.2% a...

Russian-backed telecoms group Vimpelcom and its Egyptian-based subsidiary Global Telecom Holding (GTH) jointly announced today that they have agreed to sell all of their debt and equity interest in the Globalive group of companies in Canada, including Globalive Wireless Management Corp (Wind Canada), the operator of the Wind Mobile cellular network. Canada’s Globalive Capital (formerly AAL Holdings), the controlling shareholder of Wind Canada, and a group of investment funds are acquiring the en...

Quebec-based quadruple-play cableco and mobile operator Videotron has launched commercial services over its new 4G LTE network, four years to the day since launching its original 3G cellular network. In its press release Videotron announced that its LTE mobile broadband service reaches nearly 90% of Quebec’s population and supports speeds of up to 150Mbps, with data packages aimed at consumers and businesses. The Quebecor subsidiary has rolled out its LTE 2100MHz network in an infrastructure bui...

Canadian cableco Shaw Communications has completed the purchase of US-based data centre provider ViaWest for USD830 million plus USD370 million debt from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners and other shareholders, following the agreement announced at the end of July. ViaWest, based in Denver, Colorado, operates 27 data centres in eight markets in the western US, with around 1,300 mainly mid-sized company clients, and will continue to operate as a standalone entity. ‘The ViaWest acquisi...

Telus Corp, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, reported a 33 per cent jump in second-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by the combination of growth in its wireless and fixed-line businesses. Telus said it signed up 78,000 net contract wireless subscribers, who typically pay more to use high-end smartphones. By comparison, BCE Inc’s Bell and Rogers Communications Inc signed up 66,186 and 38,000 customers, respectively, in the same period. Vancouver-based Telus competes against...