Rogers loses 'most reliable' title in B.C. court, says rival Telus
By Wojtek Dabrowski, Reuters November 24, 2009
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Ro ... story.html TORONTO — Telus Corp. said Tuesday it had obtained a court injunction preventing rival Rogers Communications from claiming its wireless network is the most reliable in Canada.
The injunction is part of a lawsuit Telus recently filed against Rogers, which also challenges Rogers' claims that its network is the country's fastest.
"Our sole interest in filing the suit was to have Rogers remove what we always believed was a false, misleading and harmful claim from their advertising and this orders them to do that," said Telus spokesman Shawn Hall.
The "fastest" claim is no longer an issue in the suit, as Rogers has decided not to use it in its current advertising campaign, according to a Supreme Court of British Columbia document that outlines its reasons for judgment in the case.
Judge J. Christopher Grauer said in the document that the injunction's timing and exact terms have yet to be worked out. The case is scheduled to be back in court on Friday.
"What is clear from the evidence before me is that the present network technology is at least equivalent between Rogers and Telus," Grauer states.
"I conclude ... that the balance of convenience favors the granting of an order restraining Rogers from continuing to represent, without appropriate qualification, that it provides "Canada's most reliable network.' "
A Rogers spokeswoman said the Toronto-based company, which owns Canada's biggest wireless carrier, has filed an appeal and that it continues to stand behind its network reliability claims.
"Further steps will be taken shortly," she added without elaborating.
Telus says that Rogers' advertising claims have been false and misleading since Nov. 5, when Telus launched its own upgraded wireless network.
Telus teamed up with BCE Inc., which operates Bell Canada, on the network upgrade. Until this month, Rogers was the only carrier in Canada using GSM wireless technology, which effectively granted it a monopoly on Apple Inc.'s iPhone.
Since the upgrade, both BCE and Telus have been selling the iPhone.
