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44-400: Xplore Inc. was founded in 2004 under the name Barrett Enterprises. In 2011, Barrett Enterprises rebranded to Xplornet Communications Inc. In April 2012, Xplore entered into a partnership with Shaw Communications to market bundles of its Shaw Direct satellite television service with Xplore internet service. In 2014, the company purchased capacity on ViaSat-2 and EchoStar XIX as part of

88-526: A $ 55 million write-down in June 2015, and announced that it was licensing Comcast 's cloud-based Xfinity X1 architecture. In January 2016, Shaw launched its mobile television app FreeRange TV, based on X1 infrastructure, which allows Shaw subscribers to stream selected TV channels and on-demand content. On January 11, 2017, Shaw launched its X1-based cable service, BlueSky, in Calgary. Shaw also launched BlueCurve,

132-509: A Carling, Ontario resident and chair of the West Parry Sound SMART Community Network, speeds are so slow that audio calls are impeded, and said “Even at the best of times we don’t get the speed that’s promised.”. In June 2020, Xplore announced its sale to New York private equity firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners . The sale did not include Xplore Mobile, which continued as a separate company before shutting down at

176-666: A combined 86% of market share. Federally, telecommunications are overseen by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ( French : Conseil de la Radiodiffusion et des Télécommunications Canadiennes )–CRTC as outlined under the provisions of both the Telecommunications Act and Radiocommunication Acts . CRTC further works with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (formerly Industry Canada) on various technical aspects including: allocating frequencies and call signs, managing

220-608: A deal which also saw unused wireless spectrum sold to the company, and saw Rogers sell its stake in specialty channel TVtropolis . On April 30, 2009, Shaw announced a deal to acquire three television stations — CHWI-TV in Windsor, Ontario , CKNX-TV in Wingham, Ontario and CKX-TV in Brandon , Manitoba — from CTVglobemedia . CTV had indicated that it would shut down the stations, all of which were incurring extensive financial losses, later in

264-560: A fibre-optic network throughout Calgary . The acquisition was completed for $ 225 million. In 2014, Shaw partnered with Rogers Communications to launch Shomi , a subscription video on demand service. In February 2015, Shaw announced that they would close operations for service call centres in Edmonton, Calgary and Kelowna, and consolidate operations in Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal. 1,600 of Shaw's 14,000 employees were affected by

308-581: A hold on usage-based billing for its services and to this date continues to not charge customers any overages for surpassing Internet data caps. More than 400,000 television service subscribers. Many of the assets listed above are only partially owned by Shaw. Refer to full asset list for detailed information. Telecommunications in Canada Present-day telecommunications in Canada include telephone, radio, television, and internet usage. In

352-441: A larger portion of MTS's wireless subscribers to Telus ). Xplornet would receive 24,700 MTS subscribers, as well as 6 retail locations, and wireless spectrum. Bell entered into agreements with Xplornet to provide tower access, roaming, and devices for a period of time while it establishes its new mobile network. The new Xplore Mobile brand was announced August 1, 2018. The company claimed that its wireless services would be "built on

396-421: A new promotional campaign featuring the animated characters Bit and Bud—robots who lived in a representation of Shaw's "pipe". The campaign drew comparisons to Bell Canada 's former beaver characters of Frank and Gordon , which were overseen by Shaw's then-new chief marketing officer Jim Little while he was at Bell. In April 2013, Shaw Business Solutions took over Enmax 's Envision subsidiary, which had built

440-502: A new suite of routers which was likewise based on Comcast's xFi platform and hardware. On December 16, 2015, Shaw announced its proposed acquisition of independent wireless provider Wind Mobile from its investors in a deal worth approximately $ 1.6 billion. The transaction closed on March 1, 2016. Under Shaw, the company was renamed Freedom Mobile in November 2016, coinciding with the launch of its 4G LTE network. The acquisition of Wind

484-519: A now-repealed CRTC policy discouraging cross-ownership of cablesystems and specialty services. In December 2010, Shaw filed complaints with the CRTC to have competing internet video services such as Netflix classified as broadcasters under Canadian law. In the same month, Shaw introduced usage-based billing on internet plans and lowered plan caps an average of 25% while introducing overage fees of $ 1 to $ 2 per gigabyte. On February 8, 2011, Shaw agreed to put

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528-578: A period of time. Xplore Mobile's pricing was never competitive with that of Bell, Rogers, or Telus. Executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre John Lawford argued that the divestment was not aggressive enough to make Xplore Mobile a viable competitor to the established incumbents, and that the company's failure demonstrated the federal government's lax attitude towards competition in Canada's wireless industry. Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc.

572-662: A plan to expand its service area to all of Canada by 2017. In January 2017, Xplore acquired the Saskatoon-based competitor YourLink. In November 2017, Xplore acquired Manitoba-based fixed wireless provider Netset Communications . With the deal Xplore retained the Netset brand and Netset continues to operate out of Brandon, Manitoba as a separate division of Xplore. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Xplore customers reported increased issues with connectivity speeds. According to Lis McWalter,

616-843: A subsidiary of Shawcor , JR's father's firm, but the business was split from Shawcor in the 1970s. The company changed its name to Shaw Cablesystems Ltd. (after founder and chairman JR Shaw) and went public on the TSX in 1983. The company grew during the 1980s and 1990s through acquisitions of firms including Classicomm in the Toronto area, Access Communications in Nova Scotia, Fundy Cable in New Brunswick, Trillium Cable in Ontario, Telecable in Saskatchewan , Greater Winnipeg Cablevision (serving areas east of

660-582: A wireless phone provider. The auction ended July 2008, giving Shaw Communications enough spectrum to build a wireless network in its home provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario . This spectrum ultimately went unused and was sold to Rogers Communications in January 2013. In July 2009, Shaw announced its acquisition of Mountain Cablevision ; in September, Rogers sued Shaw to block

704-456: A year later, that dominated in Canada during the technology's early years. Following the 1852 Telegraph Act , Canada's first permanent transatlantic telegraph link was a submarine cable built in 1866 between Ireland and Newfoundland . Telegrams were sent through networks built by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National . In 1868 Montreal Telegraph began facing competition from the newly established Dominion Telegraph Company. 1880 saw

748-536: Is investing $ 500 million by 2025 to deploy state-of-the-art scalable fibre Internet and fibre-powered 5G fixed wireless technology in its facilities-based network. Xplore currently has fibre projects underway in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. In November 2022, Xplore announced that residents and businesses in rural and remote regions will have access to download speeds up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and more data on

792-534: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation use CB through a special agreement with the government of Chile . Some codes beginning with VE and VF are also in use to identify radio repeater transmitters . As of 2016, there were over 1,100 radio stations and audio services broadcasting in Canada. Of these, 711 are private commercial radio stations. These commercial stations account for over three quarters of radio stations in Canada. The remainder of

836-617: The Florida systems would be sold to Time Warner Cable (with the West Palm Beach and Doral systems later sold to Comcast , and the other systems spun off to Bright House Networks ), while the Texas systems were sold to Cequel III, as part of its then-Cebridge Connections subsidiary (now Suddenlink Communications ). In 2008, Shaw entered the AWS spectrum auction with the intention of possibly becoming

880-554: The Freedom and Shaw Mobile brands, in areas of Alberta, British Columbia, and Southern Ontario ; Freedom was sold to Vidéotron simultaneously with the Rogers merger. The company's chief competitor for home telecommunications in western Canada was Telus Communications . Shaw was founded in 1966 by JR Shaw as Capital Cable Television Company, Ltd. in Edmonton , Alberta. It was originally

924-518: The Great North Western Telegraph Company established to connect Ontario and Manitoba but within a year it was taken over by Western Union , leading briefly to that company's control of almost all telegraphy in Canada. In 1882, Canadian Pacific transmitted its first commercial telegram over telegraph lines they had erected alongside its tracks, breaking Western Union's monopoly. Great North Western Telegraph, facing bankruptcy,

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968-605: The Moffat family sold Videon Cablesystems to Shaw. Prior to 2003, Shaw owned cable systems in the United States previously owned by Moffat Communications , serving six communities in Florida (Eastern Pasco County , Clermont , Palm Coast , Ormond Beach , West Palm Beach and Doral ), and the Houston , Texas suburbs of Kingwood , Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston . In February 2003,

1012-511: The Red River), and Videon Cablesystems of Winnipeg (serving areas west of the Red River), which, back in 1998, had itself previously acquired Vidéotron 's assets in Alberta. However, two swaps, in 1994 and 2001, with Rogers Cable have resulted in its assets being restricted to Western Canada and a few areas of Northern Ontario . In 1999, Shaw spun out its media properties into a second publicly traded company, Corus Entertainment . In 2001

1056-542: The Rogers-Shaw merger had been rejected as proposed. On January 24, 2023, Canada's Federal Court of Appeal allowed the merger to proceed. The merger was approved by the federal government on March 31, 2023, and completed on April 3. Immediately following the transaction, Shaw Communications was amalgamated into Rogers Communications, and no longer exists as a separate entity, though some subsidiaries such as Shaw Cablesystems may still exist as distinct legal entities. Shaw

1100-556: The Shaw deal and were sold separately to Postmedia Network . The acquisition was completed on October 27, 2010, after CRTC approval for the sale was announced on October 22, forming the Shaw Media division. In November 2012, Shaw underwent a corporate re-branding developed by the Vancouver-based agency Rethink, introducing an updated logo and slogan ("You won't miss a thing"), along with

1144-527: The company for 2.85 billion. The CRTC approved the merger on March 24, 2022. On May 9, 2022, the Competition Bureau announced an application to the Competition Tribunal to block the transaction due to its effects on the wireless market. On August 1, 2022, Rogers announced that the merger was expected to be completed at the end of the year; however, on October 25, 2022, it was announced that

1188-460: The company’s next-generation satellite service, starting in the summer of 2023. On February 16, 2017, Bell announced that as part of its acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS), it would divest a portion of its wireless subscribers to Xplornet. The divestment was a condition of the deal intended to preserve the presence of four major wireless carriers in Manitoba post-merger (Bell also divested

1232-416: The consolidation and cuts. The company offered affected employees the option to relocate to its centralized offices, apply for a new job at their location, or leave the company with a severance package for former employees unable to relocate. In 2013, Shaw attempted to begin developing an IPTV -based platform for its television services. However, after experiencing issues developing the platform, Shaw took

1276-430: The end of August 2022. In September 2022, rebranded from Xplornet Communications Inc. to Xplore Inc. Xplore provides fixed wireless internet access to remote areas through a combination of fibre, satellite internet as well as LTE and WiMAX fixed wireless networks. It owns part of the lifetime capacity of ViaSat-2 and is expanding its 4G and 5G network. These networks support approximately 400,000 subscribers,

1320-530: The financially troubled Canwest , whereby Shaw would buy an 80% voting interest, and 20% equity interest, in the restructured entity of Canwest, pending approvals from the CRTC and others. Three months later, following negotiations with rival bidders, the company said it would purchase the entirety of Canwest's broadcasting assets, including the interests in the CW Media subsidiary partially held by Goldman Sachs Capital Partners . Canwest's newspapers were not part of

1364-496: The largest number of rural Canadian subscribers of any company as of 2021. As with other telecommunications companies, some Xplore programs are funded in part by federal and provincial government grants. In September 2021, Xplore announced that it was launching Canada’s first rural 5G standalone network starting in New Brunswick. Xplore is rolling out a fibre-to-the-premise network offering speeds up to one gigabit per second in seven provinces with more projects to come. The company

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1408-518: The past, telecommunications included telegraphy available through Canadian Pacific and Canadian National . The history of telegraphy in Canada dates back to the Province of Canada . While the first telegraph company was the Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Electro-Magnetic Telegraph Company, founded in 1846, it was the Montreal Telegraph Company , controlled by Hugh Allan and founded

1452-460: The radio stations are a mix of public broadcasters , such as CBC Radio , as well as campus , community , and Aboriginal stations. As of 2018, 762 TV services were broadcasting in Canada. This includes both conventional television stations and discretionary services . Cable and satellite television services are available throughout Canada. The largest cable providers are Bell Canada , Rogers Cable , Vidéotron , Telus and Cogeco , while

1496-511: The sale, citing violations of a non-compete clause . However, the suit was quickly dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court. The purchase was approved by the CRTC on October 22, 2009. The acquisition was Shaw's first cable property east of Sault Ste. Marie since the 2001 swaps with Rogers and Cogeco . Shaw's re-entry into Southern Ontario would be short-lived, as its Hamilton system would be resold to Rogers in January 2013 as part of

1540-456: The transitional brand Rogers together with Shaw for promotional purposes. At the time of its acquisition by Rogers, Shaw provided home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and British Columbia and satellite television nationally. It also operated smaller cable television systems in Saskatchewan , Manitoba , and Northern Ontario . The company also provided mobile services through its subsidiary Freedom Mobile , under both

1584-564: The two licensed satellite providers are Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct . Bell , Rogers , Telus , and Shaw are among the bigger ISPs in Canada. Depending on your location, Bell and Rogers would be the big internet service providers in Eastern provinces, while Shaw and Telus are the main players competing in western provinces. The three major mobile network operators are Rogers Wireless (13.7 million subscribers), Bell Mobility (10.29 million ) and Telus Mobility (9.5 million), which have

1628-426: The values of fairness, simplicity and transparency". In July 2022, Xplornet announced that Xplore Mobile would end operations at the end of August 2022, citing it that had been impacted by "high roaming rates that significantly exceed retail prices", and regulatory delays in a new CRTC framework that would require the incumbent wireless carriers to sell wholesale access to their networks to new regional competitors for

1672-506: The year if a buyer could not be found, and had placed them on the market at a price of just $ 1 each. However, it was reported on June 30, 2009, that Shaw had backed out of the deal and was declining to complete the purchase. CHWI-TV would remain on the air as is; CKNX-TV would become a repeater of London station CFPL-TV in September 2009, while CKX-TV would close down entirely in October 2009. In February 2010, Shaw announced an agreement with

1716-492: Was a Canadian telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Television Company, Ltd. by JR Shaw in Edmonton. The company was acquired by and amalgamated into Rogers Communications in 2023; most operations were rebranded to the Rogers brand beginning in July of that year, with services and sponsorships in former Shaw markets having used

1760-799: Was complicated by the fact that some Canadian destinations were served by only one of the two networks. Telephones - fixed lines : total subscriptions: 13.926 million (2020) Telephones - mobile cellular : 36,093,021 (2020) Telephone system : (2019) ITU prefixes : Letter combinations available for use in Canada as the first two letters of a television or radio station's call sign are CF, CG, CH, CI, CJ, CK, CY, CZ, VA, VB, VC, VD, VE, VF, VG, VO, VX, VY, XJ, XK, XL, XM, XN and XO . Only CF, CH, CI, CJ and CK are currently in common use, although four radio stations in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador retained call letters beginning with VO when Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation in 1949. Stations owned by

1804-520: Was criticized by public lobby groups like OpenMedia , as a move that would reduce national competition in the Canadian wireless communication market by removing one of the four major competitors from the market. For the sale to go ahead, the CRTC ordered Rogers to divest Freedom Mobile . It was reported on June 17, 2022 that Quebecor , a media and telecommunications company based in Quebec, intended to acquire

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1848-644: Was funded by a reorganization in April 2016, which saw the Shaw Media unit transferred to Corus Entertainment, in exchange for $ 1.85 billion in cash and 71,364,853 class B non-voting shares of Corus. The sale did not include Shaw's 50% stake in the Shomi streaming service and CJBN-TV Kenora; Shomi was shut down in November 2016 and CJBN-TV Kenora was shut down in January 2017. On March 15, 2021, Rogers announced that it would acquire Shaw for $ 26 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. This proposed acquisition

1892-599: Was taken over in 1915 by Canadian Northern. By the end of World War II , Canadians communicated by telephone more than any other country. In 1967 the CP and CN networks were merged to form CNCP Telecommunications . As of 1951, approximately 7000 messages were sent daily from the United States to Canada. An agreement with Western Union required that U.S. company to route messages in a specified ratio of 3:1, with three telegraphic messages transmitted to Canadian National for every message transmitted to Canadian Pacific. The agreement

1936-424: Was the parent of Shaw Broadcast Services (previously Shaw Satellite Services, Canadian Satellite Communications, or Cancom) and, through Shaw Broadcast Services, Shaw Direct , one of Canada's two national direct broadcast satellite providers. For many years it also owned a number of radio stations and specialty television services; these assets were later spun off into Corus Entertainment in an effort to satisfy

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