By Ahmad Hathout
The attorney general of Canada (AG) is asking the Federal Court to reject an application filed by Cogeco and Eastlink asking the judicial body to review whether cabinet did not provide the legally required justification for rejecting their request to send back a CRTC decision that allows the three largest telecoms to access the wholesale internet framework.
The AG said in a submission last week that the parties have already filed a review of the decision directly to cabinet and have won an appeal related to the CRTC’s decision that rejected their request to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Several internet service providers have filed petitions asking cabinet to send back a decision by the CRTC this summer that refused to back down on letting Rogers, Bell and Telus (Big 3) access the wholesale internet regime.
Rogers, SaskTel, Cogeco, Eastlink, the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC), and TekSavvy filed petitions in September – made public on Friday – requesting that cabinet send back for reconsideration the decision by the CRTC in June refusing to heed their advice to review and vary the commission’s final framework in August 2024.
That framework allows…
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Cogeco Communications announced Wednesday a significant expansion of its mobile service, which uses the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) access framework to operate.
Cogeco Mobile is now available to the majority of Cogeco Internet customers across Ontario and Quebec in municipalities such as Windsor, Niagara, Hamilton, Burlington, Kingston, Drummondville and Shawinigan, a Cogeco press release said. The rapid expansion adds more than 350 municipalities to the list of locations covered by Cogeco’s mobile service, on top of the 13 markets where Cogeco Mobile had its initial launch in July, according…
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Telco focusing on content and mobility bundle
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell said Tuesday it will use the CRTC’s wholesale internet framework to launch fibre-based internet services in British Columbia and Alberta, reciprocating what its telco rival Telus is doing in eastern Canada.
The telco confirmed to Cartt that the launch of the services in western Canada “is a result of the CRTC’s recent decision,” which it does not agree with because of what it says is the policy’s negative impact on network investment. The regulator mandates that competitors have access to the bundled fibre infrastructure of Bell and Telus nationwide.
“Our position on…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Several major telecoms have filed a review and vary application asking the CRTC to adjust its new outage reporting requirements and extend the deadline to implement them because they are currently “impractical or disproportionate” and impose “undue administrative burden” on their businesses.
The CRTC in September gave all telecoms two months to implement the new rules, which require them to report to certain official bodies major outages – newly defined as lasting at least 30 minutes and affecting 600,000 or more user minutes in most cases. Compared to the interim regime from 2023, the new…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal will hear arguments made by Cogeco and Eastlink that allege the CRTC made several errors when it rejected their request to relook at its decision to allow the three largest telecoms wholesale access to their cable networks.
The July leave application, granted last month, charges that the regulator made three errors of law when it refused to review and vary the August 2024 policy that they say will cripple their businesses.
The applicants argue in a notice of appeal filing, dated September 29, that the CRTC misinterpreted section 2(e) of the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to force the CRTC to make a decision on a joint complaint it made with Bell late last year alleging a Quebecor internet radio station is broadcasting on a commercial FM station illegally.
In August 2024, Quebecor made a deal with Leclerc Communication, the owner of commercial radio station CJPX-FM (99.5 FM) in Montreal, allowing Quebecor’s internet radio station QUB Radio to operate on those airwaves during primetime Monday through Friday.
“In the hyper-competitive world of Montreal radio, the upheavals of recent months in talk radio offer…
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Sale of infrastructure also not out of the cards
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell’s chief financial officer said Thursday that leasing internet from Telus in western Canada is not out of the cards, but that owning the infrastructure is preferred for cash flow.
“It’s an opportunity for sure,” Curtis Millen said during a conference hosted by CIBC when asked about using Telus’s network in areas Bell doesn’t operate in. “We’ve had plenty of time to think about this.”
Bell, unlike Telus, is opposed to the CRTC policy of allowing the three largest telecoms to use the wholesale internet regime because the…
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Cogeco urges easing of quotas
By Ahmad Hathout
The head of Stingray Radio said Thursday that overexposing Canadians to domestic music on radio is pushing them toward streaming services.
“Whether it’s a Canadian song they don’t like or an international song they don’t like, we risk driving them to international, foreign-owned, unregulated streamers,” Steve Jones told the commission studying the definition of Canadian content on audio services.
Jones noted that, through the company’s research and through the years, Canadian music has only captured roughly 10 per cent of consumption in Canada.
“So there is historical data that suggests that listeners have a certain threshold…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Thursday confirmed a preliminary view that regional mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) should have access to shared wireless networks even when an agreement is reached with just one of the carriers.
The commission determined Thursday that the network sharing agreements between Bell and Telus make them one national network “that results in both carriers being national wireless carriers that possess market power,” upholding a view on which it asked for comments in October.
To deny regional players access to parts of that contiguous network would, therefore, confer on the large telcos an undue…
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