Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS Allstream) has reported a 6.5% year-on-year drop in consolidated revenues (including Manitoban and national ‘Allstream’ services) to CAD406.7 million (USD404.9 million) in the first quarter of 2013, which it attributed mostly to legacy revenue declines, including CAD14.1 million in planned reductions at Allstream, and a CAD4.8 million reduction in MTS wireless wholesale revenues as other carriers move their customers from MTS’s legacy CDMA network in Manitoba to th...

Canada’s Rogers Communications has rebranded its dual-band 2600MHz and AWS (2100MHz/1700MHz) LTE network under the banner ‘LTE Max’, while announcing LTE footprint expansion to more than 20 new locations. The Samsung Galaxy S4 device supports the LTE Max dual frequencies (with automatic switching between frequencies to optimise performance), while the BlackBerry Q10 and LG Optimus G devices also support the 2600MHz range, with Rogers promising more fully-compatible devices this year. The newly c...

Atlantic Canadian full-service telco Bell Aliant reported on the progress of its ‘FibreOP’ fibre-based triple-play network expansion in the first quarter of 2013, passing an additional 23,000 premises with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) in the three-month period (compared to 58,000 new premises passed in 1Q12), taking its FTTH coverage footprint to 679,000 premises at 31 March 2013. 5,000 net new customer premises were connected to the FTTH network in 1Q13, taking FibreOP penetration of premises to 19...

Canadian cellco Mobilicity (the trading name of Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises Holdings) released a statement on 26 April 2013 announcing that it will ask its debt holders to approve a restructuring plan that involves a recapitalisation of the company and a potential sale. Mobilicity obtained two orders of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) authorising it to hold meetings on 21 May 2013 at which two arrangements will be voted on by security holders pursuant to the Canad...

Rogers Communications has posted revenue of CAD3.03 billion (USD2.95 billion) for the first quarter of 2013, up 3% year-on-year as sales growth in each of its wireless, cable and business divisions offset a decline in media revenue. Adjusted net income for the period grew 15% year-on-year to CAD414 million. Rogers added 32,000 post-paid wireless subscribers during the quarter, below the 47,000 added during the first quarter of 2012, amid increased competition from established rivals Bell and Tel...

Saskatchewan telco SaskTel has announced that it has completed another 22 different 4G wireless network infrastructure enhancement projects across the province in March. The company says it is using a variety of infrastructure options to enhance its wireless service based on usage patterns and demands. In addition to traditional towers, SaskTel says it is also installing carrier antennae to increase coverage strength inside buildings. The communities to have received 4G network enhancements in M...

Rogers Communications has purchased BlackIron Data from Primus Telecommunications Group for a cash consideration of CAD200 million (USD195 million), subject to certain adjustments. BlackIron Data is a provider of data centre and cloud computing services in Canada with approximately 4,000 customers, and Rogers announced that the acquisition enables its Rogers Business Solutions division to enhance its suite of enterprise-level data centre and cloud computing services along with fibre-based networ...

The minister of Industry Canada, responsible for telecoms policy decisions, indicated to reporters yesterday that he is against a deal under which nationwide mobile operator Rogers Communications gained an option to buy cableco Shaw Communications’ 2100MHz AWS frequency licences in 2014 when they become valid for sale having been awarded in a 2008 auction to encourage new wireless entrants. Quoted by Reuters news agency, Industry Minister Christian Paradis responded to questions about Shaw’s spe...

Canada’s Cogeco Cable has reported its results for the second quarter and first six months of its fiscal year 2013, which include three months operating results of its recent acquisition, US cableco Atlantic Broadband, and one month of results for internet infrastructure provider Peer 1 Network Enterprises. Group revenue increased by 35.2% year-on-year to reach CAD429.7 million in the three months to the end of February 2013, and by 19.7% to reach CAD757.6 million in the six-month period. Operat...

Moose Jaw residents are the first to gain access to SaskTel’s new ‘inifiNET’ fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network, the telco announced, adding that all 26,000 residential broadband customers in the locality will be covered by direct fibre within a year, while deployment to businesses will begin this autumn, with no installation fees for those signing up. SaskTel’s FTTP programme represents a seven-year CAD670 million (USD662 million) investment, including a CAD32.5 million four-year project star...

Saskatchewan residents now have a choice of three LTE mobile broadband providers, following the launch this week of 4G coverage in the province by Telus and Bell, who will compete with SaskTel. Regina and Saskatoon are the first cities in the province to get LTE services from Bell and Telus, who share certain infrastructure in their high speed mobile service rollouts. Telus claims to currently cover 24 million Canadians and around 170 markets, or over 70% of the population, with LTE, while it ha...

A trio of Canadian second-tier mobile operators – Wind Mobile, Mobilicity and Public Mobile – have left the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) after claiming that the trade group has shown ‘unacceptable’ bias towards dominant national players Rogers, Bell and Telus. A joint statement alleged a ‘blatant disregard of the new entrants in favour of acting in the best interests of the big three carriers.’ The CWTA immediately refuted the accusation. Thanks to TeleGeography for th...

Canadian cableco Shaw Communications has agreed to acquire high speed data communications operator Enmax Envision from Enmax Corporation for approximately CAD225 million (USD221 million), and intends to integrate the new purchase with its existing business telecoms solutions division. Envision operates one of Calgary’s largest fibre-optic networks and specialises in providing large bandwidth solutions to businesses that require a dedicated internet connection or need to connect multiple location...

Alcatel-Lucent and Canadian operator Shaw Communications have claimed a North American first with a field trial of 400Gbps data transmission over an existing optical link carrying live network traffic. The trial ran over a 400km route between Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, using Shaw’s current high-capacity transport network, designed for speeds up to 100Gbps. Using Alcatel-Lucent’s 400Gbps technology, the trial demonstrated the ability of an existing optical network carrying up to 17....

Investment company Fairfax Financial Holdings, which last year became Canadian device maker BlackBerry’s largest individual shareholder, is the latest firm to be mulling a bid for Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile), following last month’s disclosures indicating that the Canadian cellco’s parent Vimpelcom would be putting it up for sale, reports the Globe & Mail. Sources quoted by the newspaper said that although Fairfax, owned by Prem Watsa, has not yet submitted a formal bid, it is in prelimi...

Canadian mobile VoIP provider Fongo has announced that it plans to table a bid to take over cellular network operator Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile), although the proposed offer – a token one dollar purchase price plus a 49% stake in Fongo’s business – has been dismissed as a publicity stunt by industry analysts quoted in the media, while a Wind spokesperson appeared to pour scorn on the idea. Simon Lockie, Wind’s chief regulatory officer, took to Twitter to comment: ‘I hereby publicly offer t...

Saskatchewan telco SaskTel has revealed that it is expanding broadband internet to 50 additional rural Saskatchewan communities in 2013. At the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) Conference in Saskatoon on Tuesday, it was also announced that a further 200 rural communities that currently have broadband will see their service speed up this year, while SaskTel will also be building 31 new wireless towers in rural parts of the province. Thanks to TeleGeography for this Article

Quebec-based quadruple-play cableco Videotron, part of the Quebecor group, has reported its annual results for 2012, in which total revenues grew by 8.4% to CAD2.64 billion (USD2.57 billion) and operating profit climbed by 11.5% to CAD1.23 billion. Cable broadband internet revenues rose by 10.6% to CAD772.5 million in full-year 2012 and cable telephony turnover increased by 4.2% to CAD454.9 million, helped by an increase in corporate/SME customers, while mobile revenues grew by 52.3% to CAD171.6...

Telus has expanded its commercial 4G LTE mobile broadband network to Saint John, following other recent LTE launches in the Atlantic Canada region, including St. John’s, Moncton, Charlottetown and Halifax. Telus says its LTE service now covers nearly 70% of the Canadian population. Thanks to TeleGeography for this Article

BCE, the parent of Bell Canada, has received Competition Bureau clearance for a revised proposal to take over broadcasting group Astral Media and merge it with its Bell Media division. However, the transaction also requires approval by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which rejected BCE’s earlier purchase offer last October on anti-monopoly grounds. The Competition Bureau approved a new proposed deal under which Bell would divest various Astral TV services ...