Telus announced Tuesday it has launched a petition looking to drum up support for the Vancouver-based telecom’s plans to use the CRTC’s aggregated last-mile fibre regime to bring its PureFibre internet to Ontario and Quebec, following a federal cabinet decision earlier this month asking the commission to reconsider allowing the Big 3 telecom providers to use the bundled fibre networks of Bell and Telus in those two provinces.
Telus said in its Tuesday press release that it is “calling on Canadians to protect their right to choose their Internet service…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Thursday launched a consultation into whether it should ban Rogers, Bell and Telus from using the bundled fibre networks of the large telcos in Ontario and Quebec.
The commission is asking whether it’s in the public interest to change its November 2023 decision that temporarily allowed competitors to force negotiations to access both the traffic transport and last-mile fibre facilities of Bell and Telus in those provinces.
The deadline for comment is December 12.
The consultation comes at the recommendation of federal cabinet, which expressed concern that this policy could be detrimental to smaller…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TekSavvy is the latest telecom to submit a review-and-vary application since cabinet’s recommendation to revisit a part of the CRTC’s decision on the wholesale internet framework, with the independent last week asking for clarity on access to new fibre builds inside the telcos’ footprint as well as when wholesalers will be able to access the cable companies’ last-mile fibre builds on an aggregated basis.
The CRTC made two exemptions in its August decision: that Bell and Telus will be shielded from the aggregated last-mile fibre regime for five years to allow them to recoup their…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers is asking the CRTC to consider banning itself, Bell and Telus from accessing tariffed aggregated wholesale internet for both last-mile fibre and hybrid fibre-coax (HFC) technologies.
The cable giant is also asking the commission to include a five-year moratorium on competitor access to new speeds produced by investments in cable networks and/or implement a speed cap of 1.5 Gbps on an aggregated wholesale basis (bundled middle- and last-mile).
Applying none of these suggestions would leave cable carriers shouldering the burden of the wholesale regime again, which is offside of the direction from cabinet which calls for equitable application…
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Applicants claim regulatory asymmetry between wireless and wireline policies
By Ahmad Hathout
A consortium of competitors is asking the CRTC to consider banning Rogers, Bell and Telus from accessing the wholesale internet regime regardless of technology and geography.
The regulator announced last week it is launching a public consultation, at the behest of the federal cabinet, to review whether the Big 3 should be banned from accessing at least the last-mile fibre regime – which includes the middle- and last-mile facilities of Bell and Telus in Quebec and Ontario. The concern is that smaller players would not be able…
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By Ahmad Hathout
On federal cabinet urging, the CRTC is “working quickly” to launch a public consultation on whether Rogers, Bell and Telus should be banned from using the aggregated last-mile fibre regime in Ontario and Quebec, the regulator said in a statement to Cartt, a move that is being welcomed by competitors.
The minister of Industry, Francois Philippe-Champagne, made the recommendation to the CRTC on Wednesday. It was a partial win for Bell, which requested in its February petition for the cabinet to rescind or vary the regulator’s decision last year that mandated competitor access to its bundled middle- and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is asking Canada’s major telecommunications service providers to explain how their employees are informing customers about the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), after the regulatory said it found an unsatisfactory number of survey participants even knew it existed.
The regulator commissioned a survey by Nanos Research, which found only 2 per cent of participants who had an unresolved complaint were made aware of the organization by their service provider. The research was delivered in March.
“This finding is supported by consumer feedback data in the CCTS’s annual reports from 2015 to 2023, which shows…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers said Thursday it has entered into an agreement to sell to a “leading global financial investor” a minority equity stake in a newly formed subsidiary that will include parts of its wireless traffic transport network from one region of the country.
The minority stakeholder will get paid periodic distributions based on the net income made by that subsidiary. Wholesale fees to use the network will maintain it, while consumer use of the network, which Rogers CFO Glenn Brandt said is in the range of 40 to 50 per cent growth per year, will ensure distribution stability.
The investment,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Carriers will have to come to an agreement over the wholesale rate charged for domestic roaming, with the CRTC only acting as the decider of last resort, the regulator announced Monday.
The announcement means the CRTC is moving away from what is called “Phase II” costing methodology, which involves the national carriers submitting cost studies, typically for a five-year forward-looking period, so all regional competitors are paying the same rate.
This time, the commission is choosing to go the commercial negotiation route guided by rate benchmarks it will publish on an annual basis, which it said will include weighted…
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By Connie Thiessen
Anthem Sports & Entertainment has reached an agreement to acquire Hollywood Suite, the owner and operator of four linear TV channels and accompanying digital on-demand service, pending CRTC approval.
Launched in 2011, Hollywood Suite is the largest pure-play movie service in Canada, with its film-focused 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s channels available in over 10 million homes via Rogers, Bell, Telus, Amazon Prime Video, Cogeco, Eastlink, and Freedom Mobile, among other cable providers.
Anthem – which has offices and studios in Toronto, Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville, New York, and Cleveland – says Hollywood Suite’s ability to satisfy both traditional linear viewers and on-demand focused digital…
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