Bell drops 5 cents per post donation for Let’s Talk Day [Jan 7-13]

2023 is just two weeks old, but the telecom news isn’t coming in slowly. Some companies have already released Q1 financial results for the year, while others have changed the way they’ll make financial donations.

As a recap, here’s almost everything that happened in Canada’s telecom sector this week.

Business

Bell is changing its donation method for Bell Let’s Talk Day. The company typically gives five cents for every message shared on the day. But it’s now retiring the practice for a $10 million donation instead. It’s unclear why Bell went this route.

The telecom giant also rolled out 3Gbps speed and 5G+ in Atlantic Canada. The latter service is now available in Moncton, Riverview, Mount Pearl, and Halifax.

ISP TekSavvy says Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne must block Rogers’ $26-billion takeover of Shaw. Peter Nowak, the company’s spokesman, said ISPs are being “squeezed out,” and the Minister must take action.

The Competition Bureau is set to face the Federal Court of Appeal on January 24th to argue against the Competition Tribunal’s approval of Rogers’ merger with Shaw. In its original appeal, the bureau argued the tribunal should’ve solely focused on the Rogers-Shaw merger instead of Vidéotron’s commitment to acquire Freedom Mobile. The tribunal said it would’ve reached its conclusion to support the larger merger either way. In its updated appeal, the bureau said the tribunal failed to explain why that would’ve been the case.

SaskTel has launched Cloud PVR service on maxTV Stream, allowing users to record up to 300 hours of content.

The University of Waterloo is leading a group of companies and academics to create technologies that will protect Canada’s national security through 5G. École de technologie supérieure in Montréal, University of Regina, BlackBerry, NoviFlow, Rockport Networks and Rogers are part of the consortium.

Shaw reported adding 12,000 new wireless prepaid customers in the first quarter of 2023. However, the company’s overall revenue decreased.

Cogeco also released its Q1 financial results for the year, bringing in $762 million in revenue. Despite the revenue increase, the company projects growth will slow this year.

The House of Common’s industry and technology committee will hold a second hearing on Rogers’ merger with Shaw, according to The Globe and Mail. 

Deals

Public Mobile is offering new customers 5GB of bonus data per month for eight months. Read the details here.

Koodo and Virgin have increased the cost of their unlimited talk and text plans to $33/ month. This is a significant price increase, considering the plans used to close $27 back in August 2022.

Fido has discounted some of its plans by $10/month for Lunar New Year. More specifics are available here.