the season of acquisitions [Jan. 28-Feb. 4]

Rogers’ takeover of Shaw has dominated telecom headlines for the final two years. Whereas it’s the largest telecom acquisition in Canadian historical past, it’s not the one latest one. Bell has quietly acquired Distributel and Telus has additionally reportedly taken over two unbiased suppliers.

For extra data, right here’s a recap of among the largest telecom tales in Canada this week.

Enterprise

Rogers, Shaw, and Québecor have prolonged the deadline to shut their related acquisitions to February seventeenth. The events are nonetheless ready for Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne to approve the switch of Shaw’s wi-fi licenses to Vidéotron. Rogers and Shaw beforehand set their voluntary deadline as January thirty first. However the Minister has acknowledged he’s in no hurry to offer approval and needs Rogers and Québecor to decide to wi-fi affordability.

As the brand new chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Fee (CRTC) Vicky Eatrides needs to waste no time revamping wholesale web pricing. In an interview with MobileSyrup, she promised a brand new mannequin is coming quickly.

SaskTel continues to roll out its 5G network, which is now accessible in Lumsden and different communities.

The Saskatchewan telecom firm additionally partnered with Stafford Communications to extend broadband entry in rural areas within the province.

Bell and Staples have entered an exclusive partnership. The workplace provide retailer will arrange in-store kiosks to promote Bell, Virgin Plus, and Fortunate Cell companies. The kiosks will come within the spring.

The CRTC has a brand new Ontario commissioner. Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez has elected Bram Abramson to the place.

Bell Aliant says a software update led to a 911 landline outage within the Atlantic provinces. The issue occurred within the early hours of January thirty first and impacted residents in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. The outage lasted two and a half hours and resulted from a 10-digit dialling change in New Brunswick.

Bell introduced its plans to accumulate Distributel in September 2022, solely to quietly full the transaction months later. Bell didn’t share any particulars of the regulatory approval course of or how a lot the transaction was value.

Rogers released its final quarterly report for 2022, displaying it added 193,000 wi-fi put up paid prospects. The telecom firm additionally elevated its income by 25 %.

Telus has grown its banner by quietly including web service suppliers Begin.ca and Altima to its enterprise profile.

Offers

Samsung has revealed its new Galaxy S23 lineup and gadgets might be available in Canada beginning February seventeenth. New releases are all the time costly, however Samsung is providing greater than $800 in financial savings by means of trade-ins. Extra particulars can be found here.