Telecom news roundup: new deals and service outages [May 13-19]

A recap of some of this week’s most essential telecom stories and deals are detailed below.

Business

Vicky Eatrides, the chair of the CRTC, says changes are needed to ensure equal telecom access for all Canadians.

SaskTel brings 5G access to Estevan, Weyburn and Yorkton.

Xplore has connected 16,000 premises in Québec to its fibre network.

A new report from HelloSafe shows Canada is the 19th most expensive county for mobile data.

Telus is offering 2,000 employees voluntary severance and early retirement packages, a move the USW Local 1944 union says is a “deep disappointment.”

Bell and Telus have asked the federal government to help ensure their customers have network access on the TTC.

Rogers customers experienced an MMS disruption and service outage in Central Ontario.

Bell customers also faced service disruptions in Brantford and Kingston due to vandalism and copper theft.

SaskTel is bringing 5G access to Mosaic Stadium and Confederation Park.

Deals

Bell matches Rogers and offers up to $30 off mobile plans with home services.

Fido adds a new $55/30GB option after dropping several plan options.

Koodo rolled out a number of plan changes this week, including $50/30GB and $62/50GB offers.

Virgin Plus rolls out $45/30GB, $39/20GB and $55/50GB offers.

Rogers, Bell and Telus are offering $55/50GB plan options for home and mobile service bundles.

Telus bumped up the data on its Canada-U.S. plan to 150GB and dropped the cost to $105/month.

Some Rogers customers might be eligible for 10GB of bonus data for 24 months.