GATINEAU – Independent ISPs and some of their supporters came under significant criticism on day two of the CRTC’s wholesale usage-based billing hearing for wanting to profit off the backs of the incumbent providers and not invest in their own networks because the deal is too good.
CRTC vice-chair of broadcasting Tom Pentefountas first took OpenMedia and the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) to task in the morning session wondering whether there is actually an incentive for the independent ISPs to invest in building out networks. “Isn’t part of the issue that the deal is so…
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GATINEAU – Aggregated volume pricing (AVP) shouldn’t be seen as a penalty on independent ISPs, but as an incentive for them to manage their network congestion, Bell Canada told the CRTC during the first day of the re-hearing of the wholesale usage-based billing issue.
Bell argued its AVP approach is a better economic internet traffic management practice (ITMP) than the 95th percentile method proposed by the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) because it provides returns on network investments and incents independent ISPs to reduce congestion in their networks.
“ ensures that incumbents receive an appropriate return on their…
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OTTAWA – Two years after establishing guidelines on net neutrality, the CRTC has fallen short on its goal to protect users, writes Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law.
Geist’s report, which also appeared Friday in the Toronto Star, says that after filing an access to information request and reviewing “hundreds of pages of documents”, he found “that virtually all major Canadian ISPs have been the target of complaints, but there have been few, if any, consequences arising from the complaints process. In fact, the CRTC has…
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MONTREAL – Coegco Inc. has written off its Portuguese cable unit Cabovisao amid a third quarter net loss of more than $56 million.
The company said Thursday that the majority of its weaker than expected results were due to a non-cash impairment loss of $225.9-million for Cabovisao, as Portugal weathers a severe economic decline which has seen it require financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
Net losses for the quarter ended May 31, 2011 were $56.7 million, compared to net income of $10.7 million for the same period last year. Excluding the Cabovisao write off,…
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THE QUESTION, “Whose customer is it anyway?” has always been a contentious issue between television distributors and the pay and specialty channels they offer to Canadians.
In short, the BDUs have long been adamant that the customer is absolutely theirs. It’s their network, they do the packaging and marketing and the customer pays them, of course. Simple, right?
Broadcasters have always countered that without their content, BDUs have nothing but a nice store with empty shelves, that the subscriber doesn’t care about the connection and pays the cable company to see their favourite shows. Simple, right?
Notsomuch. The answer is that they…
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OKAY, WE’LL ADMIT IT. Sometimes it does get a little difficult in maintaining one’s attention on the fifth day into a CRTC hearing.
The questions, and quite often the answers, grow more similar as minutes turn into hours, turn into days. Those repeated questions and answers, though, do tend to allow followers of the hearing to divine just what the commissioners and the industry are aiming for. If you read between enough lines, maybe you can even predict, a little, what’s coming.
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WE’VE ALREADY EXPLAINED what the primary topics are during our extensive coverage of the CRTC’s…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has reached a definitive agreement to acquire all of the shares of Quiettouch Inc., the companies announced Monday.
Quiettouch provides outsourced managed IT and infrastructure services including hosting, virtualization, firewall services, data backup with end-to-end monitoring and reporting, plus enhanced and traditional co-location services. Catering to mid-market and larger enterprises in Canada, it operates three data centres in Toronto and Vancouver, as well as a fibre network within specific business areas of downtown Toronto.
Cogeco president and CEO Louis Audet called the move in line with the company’s strategy of developing the business market.
“This acquisition will enable us to…
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OAKVILLE, ON – According to the Weather Network, this summer will be crisp and clear with a strong likelihood of high definition.
The Pelmorex-owned channel is continuing its HD roll out by launching on Rogers’ channel 586 late last week. The move is part of the network’s HD launch that began last month for Ontario and Manitoba viewers (channel 450 for MTS and channel 767 for Cogeco customers, respectively).
“We’re pleased to bring the new look and feel of The Weather Network in HD to Cogeco, MTS and Rogers customers,” said Maureen Rogers, SVP of television services, in the announcement. “With our move…
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GATINEAU – A code of conduct for vertically integrated broadcast and distribution groups, content exclusivity on mobile and the need for a skinny basic package were the primary discussion points discussion during the fourth day of the CRTC’s examination of vertical integration.
EastLink noted during its opening remarks that access to content is a “critical driver” of not only its cable distribution service, but for all of its services, and therefore rules need to be established to ensure equitable access to content.
“Programming services dictate contract terms requiring distribution in high penetration packages, packaging requirements and, in some cases, with the…
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GATINEAU – Do consumers really want the ability to pick the Jenny Craig of TV packages, a.k.a. the oft-debated, ultra-lean, skinny basic package?
It has been one of the primary questions coming from CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein and his colleagues over the first three days of the Commission’s hearing into vertical integration.
The idea has been bounced around for a couple of years (especially during the fee-for-carriage battles), however it has really taken hold of the imagination of the panel of commissioners this week.
In a nutshell, a mandated skinny basic package would force cable, satellite and telco TV distributors…
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