Another Saturday, another weekly telecom roundup.
This week’s roundup focuses on Rogers’ merger with Shaw (the roundups would be incomplete without it), Bill C-11, and Apple’s new iPhone 14 series. Let’s get into it.
Business
Two months after Rogers’ nationwide service outage, Hamilton residents woke up to yet another service disruption. However, unlike the July outage, Rogers was quick to state a local fire impacted wireline services only, and service was back up in a couple of hours.
The trial between the Commissioner of Competition and Rogers and Shaw is roughly seven weeks away, and the parties appear to be having difficulty sharing information with one another. The Competition Commissioner and Rogers have filed separate motions with the Tribunal, arguing the other is withholding information it needs for trial.
The Commissioner of Competition replied to one of Rogers’ requests about statements on the sale of Freedom Mobile to Vidéotron. In his application, the Commissioner says Rogers’ request focuses on information that’s “out of context.”
Telus is proposing changes to home phone services for its Quebec customers as it migrates from copper facilities to fibre. The company filed two applications with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) detailing changes to its pay-per-use billing option for three-way calling and call return, and its call screening service.
Xplornet is a thing of the past. Well, at least the name is. The rural broadband provider has rebranded to Xplore. The company says the change represents its identity, vision and future.
Bell says it will merge two internet service providers (ISPs) it recently acquired. At BMO’s 23rd annual Media and Telecom conference earlier this week, Glen LeBlanc, Bell’s chief financial officer, shared Bell will consolidate Distributel with EBOX. Bell announced its plans to acquire Distributel earlier this month and has yet to receive regulatory approval.
More on Bell, the company’s subsidiary, Bell Technical Solution, was hacked by ransomware group Hive. The group shared the details on its leak blog earlier this week, stating it accessed the information on August 20th.
Government
The Senate Committee on Transport and Communications held several panels concerning Bill C-11 over the past week. Known as the Online Streaming Act, the bill faces ongoing concerns on how it will impact user-generated content. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Philippe Dufresne, says the bill should also consider user privacy.
Infrastructure
Bell continues expanding its fibre footprint under its capital expenditure acceleration program with an announcement benefiting Barrie residents. The telecom giant says it will expand access to 40,000 locations in the city.
Deals
Chatr Mobile is offering new customers 2GB of bonus data on select plans until September 19th. More details are available here.
Not much of a deal, but more of a reminder for Canadian Apple fans, the iPhone 14 SE series is now available in Canada. Read more about getting your hands on one of the new devices here.
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