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Wireless Federation » archive for 'Rogers'

MobiTV crosses 4million subscribers mark (USA)

  • August 5th, 2008
  • 12:06 pm

MobiTV has crossed the mark of 4 million subscribers since it’s launch as first mobile television service in November in 2003. MobiTV has successfully sparked a new market for the mobile TV services, installing its  Emmy Award-winning television offerings on more than 15 carrier networks, including Sprint, AT&T Wireless, Alltel, Telus, Rogers and Bell Mobility among others.

   

New iPhone 3G commercials on air

  • July 24th, 2008
  • 7:30 am

Apple has begun airing iPhones ads around the world, feature similar aspects, but are stylized differently depending on the country in which they are aired. They feature a hand operating an iPhone 3G while a voice explains the possibilities of using newer 3G networks. The emphasis is on the speed of data transfer that the 3G networks allow, accelerating tasks such as surfing the web, finding directions and downloading, all of which can be done “really fast”. All of the ads feature the same background music and show of the same features but each show the features with country relevant information.

A second variation of the commercial has also shown up in Australia, it is shot in the exact same style but features slightly different dialogue.

Thus far the commercial has been spotted under four different carriers, Rogers/Fido, TIM, Optus Australia and Movistar.

Rogers, Yahoo! sign mobile agreement in Canada (Canada)

  • November 5th, 2007
  • 12:01 pm

Canadian operator Rogers Communications and Yahoo! have signed multi-year agreements that provide Rogers customers with mobile internet services. Rogers and Yahoo! will continue to offer Canadian high-speed internet access subscribers with a broadband service, a Rogers Yahoo! customised portal and browser, Yahoo! Search, as well as premium services and content from both Yahoo! and Rogers. Rogers and Yahoo! have signed a new agreement to bring Yahoo! Go 2.0, Yahoo!’s all-in-one mobile application, to Rogers Wireless users throughout Canada. Under the terms of the expanded mobile agreement, Rogers and Yahoo! will also bring Yahoo!’s mobile products such as Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0 and Yahoo! one Search to customers across Canada. Starting in November, users can download Yahoo! Go 2.0 on selected smartphone devices, including the Blackberry 8100, 8300, 8310, 8700, and 8800, Motorola Q9, Palm Treo 750 and HTC Touch. The companies expect to expand the availability of Yahoo! Go 2.0 to Rogers Wireless customers in 2008.

   

Wireless data market ’set to explode’ (Canada)

  • November 4th, 2007
  • 2:30 pm

According to a recent report by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, mobile data services in the country will explode in popularity over the next three years. Non-voice services such as SMS, video calls, music downloads and wireless email currently account for about 10% of ARPU, and are expected to grow to about 30% by 2010, translating to USD3 billion per year.

Canada’s largest three operators by subscribers – Rogers Communications, Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility – all have live 3.5G networks in operation and have been investing heavily in 2007 in expanding coverage. Between them the three cellcos control 95% of the wireless subscriber market.

   

 

Rogers reveals solid third quarter (Canada)

  • November 2nd, 2007
  • 2:34 pm

Rogers Communications has posted a 13% year-on-year rise in third quarter operating revenue to CAD2.6 billion (USD2.7 billion), while operating profit climbed 26% to CAD986 million. The solid results come on the back of strong subscriber growth: in the three months ended 30 September 2007 the company added 200,000 users to its post-paid subscriber base; gained 81,200 cable telephony customers to take the total to 590,500; and increased the number of internet subscribers by 55,000 to 1.42 million. Despite the growth, CEO Ted Rogers said his company isn’t looking for any major acquisitions in the country, nor are there any plans to expand overseas. ‘We want to finish the job here in Canada, we want to finish the job of fixing up what we have and maximizing our strength,’ he said. ‘We’re over our heads in work to improve what we have.’

   

 

Rogers begins trial of HSPA network in Atlantic Canada (Canada)

  • October 19th, 2007
  • 2:13 pm

Canadian operator Rogers Wireless has announced that a field trial of its HSPA network is underway in Moncton, New Brunswick. This High Speed Packet Access network is the fastest mobile network in Canada, according to the company, and will allow Rogers to offer customers in Atlantic Canada a suite of its Rogers Vision data services, including video calling, video on demand and radio on demand. When the technical trial in Moncton is complete, the company will announce the readiness of these services to the public in the first quarter of 2008.

   

Rogers’ revenues up 16%

  • August 1st, 2007
  • 3:26 pm

Rogers Communications has announced its consolidated financial and operating results for the three months ended 30 June 2007. Consolidated second quarter operating revenues grew by 16% year-on-year to CAD2.53 billion (USD2.38 billion), whilst the company posted a net loss of CAD56 million, compared to a profit of CAD279 million in the corresponding period of 2006, although adjusted consolidated operating profit increased by 20% year-on-year to CAD898 million. Rogers ended the quarter with 509,300 residential voice-over-cable telephony subscriber lines, with net additions of 68,800 lines, of which 13,500 were migrations from its circuit-switched platform. The combined number of business and residential local telephony lines on both the cable and circuit-switched networks stood at 1.089 million at the end of June. Digital cable households increased by 33,500 in the seasonally slow second quarter to reach a total of 1.237 million, while residential high speed internet subscribers grew by 21,100 to 1.364 million, and basic cable subscribers declined by 11,700 to 2.266 million. Quarterly post-paid mobile net additions were 133,000, up from 130,000 in 2Q06, with a net increase of 5,400 pre-paid wireless subscribers in the three months, compared to a loss of 15,900 users a year before. Rogers’ total wireless customer base reached 6.912 million at the end of the quarter. Post-paid monthly ARPU increased 8% year-on-year to CAD72.65, driven in part by a 51% hike in data revenues.

   

 

War for the wireless world

  • July 29th, 2007
  • 6:30 pm

Technology giants Apple and Google have the desire and the market power to bust up North America’s telecom oligopoly.
Canadians anxiously awaiting the arrival of Apple Inc.’ s iPhone are in for a bit of a shock: they may need to move to Rwanda to afford it. That’s because the hotly anticipated device is an Internet-connected mobile multi-media device first and a phone second, and as such requires large amounts of wireless download capability, the kind for which providers such as Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada Inc. currently charge an arm and a leg. Embarrassing as it is, all this wireless data is cheaper almost anywhere else, including some African nations.

That has Apple, and another large and deep-pocketed technology company, search giant Google Inc., hopping mad — and vowing that they’re not going to take it anymore.

With demand for the iPhone bordering on rabid, Apple is daring to call the shots with wireless carriers. Google, meanwhile, has pledged billions of dollars to buy wireless airwaves in the United States in an effort to shake up what it sees as a cozy oligopoly. Apple and Google see the status quo in North America as holding back the spread of mobile Internet usage, and thus their own growth, so both are moving to fundamentally change the business. Given the gargantuan market capitalization and brand power of both companies, industry experts say a wireless future ruled by Apple and Google — not the likes of AT&T Inc. and Rogers –is imminent.

They see the wireless and mobile space as the hot place to be where all the fire hoses meet, so clearly they’re beginning to use their market power to go into it,” says Solutions Research Group president Kaan Yigit. “There’s no question that in the next three or four years a new wireless landscape is going to emerge because of what Apple and Google are doing today.”

Apple unveiled the iPhone last month to massive consumer demand, selling 270,000 units in its first two days. The company this week forecasted it would sell 10 million units worldwide and announced the device would be available in Europe this quarter. Analysts expect it to arrive in Canada before Christmas.

The device has garnered the label of “game changer,” not just for its sales momentum and technological accomplishments, but also for how it is being sold. In the traditional supplier-operator model, a handset maker manufactures a phone and sells it to the carrier, who in turns sells it to customers. The manufacturer, therefore, maintains little or no relationship with the end customer.

   

 

 

Rogers, HTC announce new Windows Mobile handset

  • May 30th, 2007
  • 11:59 am

Canadian carrier Rogers Wireless and phone manufacturer High Tech Computer (HTC) have released the HTC TyTN, a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC handset that features Tri-Band HSDPA, Quad Band Edge and a slide-out QWERTY keypad. HTC is billing the new smartphone as a “complete office in your pocket.”

“As the only wireless carrier with the advanced broadband HSDPA-based network in Canada, Rogers Wireless is committed to bringing the most powerful HSDPA-enabled devices to market,” John Boynton, senior vice president and CMO at Rogers Wireless, said in a statement. “This new device brings together the combination of power, design and connectivity into one amazing device so our customers can save time and have access to the latest in mobile innovation while on the go.”

The HTC TyTN is available for $399.99 with a 3-year contract, at Rogers retailers or on the carrier’s Website.