By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is launching in certain service areas an internet package with theoretical download speeds of up to 2 Gbps for its customers and wholesalers, according to a submission to the CRTC and confirmed to us by the company.
A Cogeco spokesperson told Cartt that an official announcement for the introduction has yet to be made, so there are no details as to where the package may be available. Per speed matching rules, Cogeco will also introduce the speeds for wholsalers, who will get upload speeds of up to 140 Mbps available on an aggregated basis on its hybrid…
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Music Canada says base contribution will disincentivize and jeopardize investments
By Ahmad Hathout
The largest rights management organization in Canada is asking the Federal Court of Appeal for intervenor status to argue that royalties are not equivalent to Canadian content contributions for the sake of determining how much foreign streamers are adding to the broadcasting system.
Amazon, Spotify and Apple, who have been granted a court hearing against a CRTC decision to force them to contribute five per cent of their annual Canadian revenues to content funds, each stream music. In their appeal against the regulator’s decision – which Continue Reading
Decision will create challenges for efficient 5G rollout: Telus
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is correct in its interpretation of “transmission line” under the Telecommunications Act to mean just wireline infrastructure for the purposes of regulating attachments to public property, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday.
The 7-2 ruling upholds a lower court’s decision and means the regulator does not have jurisdiction over wireless attachments on that property, forcing the telecoms to go directly to the municipalities that govern those structures to get access that they say they need to expand the next-generation 5G network.
The high court used at least two…
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The CRTC last week approved an application from UFV Campus and Community Radio Society to operate a new FM transmitter in Chilliwack, B.C., to rebroadcast programming from its English-language campus radio station CIVL-FM, located at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C.
Operating at 92.3 MHz, the new transmitter will allow UFV to broadcast relevant programming to the university’s students, faculty and staff residing in Chilliwack, the location of its second campus, and the surrounding community.
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By Ahmad Hathout
OUTtv is arguing that Rogers cannot have a choice in how it distributes its service if that choice means putting the channel in a television package with less penetration.
The LGBTQ+ service, which must be offered by broadcasters, said in a response filing provided to Cartt that Rogers’s interpretation of section 9 of the Wholesale Code – which appears to offer the cable giant the option of putting the discretionary service in either the “best available pre-assembled or theme package” – cannot be read without the full scope of the CRTC’s objectives when it comes to independent services,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers executives said Wednesday that the cable giant has been getting “substantial interest” from institutional investors about a stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE).
“We’re in discussions with folks who are interested in the assets we own and are soon to acquire,” Rogers CFO Glenn Brandt said during the company’s first quarter earnings conference call with analysts. “It’s premature for me to start speculating on when that might result in a transaction. I would say we are engaged in those conversations in earnest. We are more aware than the market is reflecting right now of the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The News Forum allegedly entered into an affiliation agreement with Rogers knowing that the CRTC may grant it mandatory distribution, so it is inappropriate for the national news service to now ask the regulator to revisit the terms of that 2021 agreement after it was granted must-offer status, Rogers argues.
The ad-based service “understood the commercial implications of the Affiliation Agreement and was aware of the regulatory environment under which that Agreement would operate, and agreed to a period,” Rogers said in its April 14 response to The News Forum’s application to the CRTC…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday set a date for next month to hear an appeal challenging the CRTC’s decision to choose Quebecor’s rate to access Rogers’s wireless network.
The hearing will begin at 9:30 am on May 28 in Ottawa and will centre on Rogers’s contention that the regulator, in July 2023, chose a rate to access its wireless network during final offer arbitration that was “materially lower” than the rate it proposed, running offside of the “just and reasonable” provision of the Telecommunications Act.
The result, Rogers argues, is that the lower rate will not allow…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Rogers says if OUTtv wants to be placed in a cable package with broader distribution, it must come to the negotiating table instead of asking the CRTC to intervene in what it says are squarely commercial matters.
Otherwise, the LGBTQ+ streamer is currently slotted in the best available theme pack that Rogers offers, which the cable giant argues is precisely what is contemplated for services that are designated as “must offer.”
Rogers is responding to an application by OUTtv that alleges the cable giant is violating Wholesale Code rules after it pushed the service out of its eastern Canadian…
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The CRTC in an April 8 letter has directed Iristel to make payments past due to Bell that the far north telecom provider had been withholding in response to an interconnection dispute between the two companies.
The commission has told Iristel to pay the amounts owed to Bell based on the payment plan proposed by Iristel in a Part 1 application it filed with the CRTC in March. The commission’s requirements regarding these payments have been provided in confidence to Iristel and Bell, and have not been made public.
In addition, the…
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