The Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) announced Tuesday a new digital advertising and social media campaign encouraging Canadians to join its fight to have the Big Three telecoms — Telus, Bell and Rogers — banned from accessing the wholesale aggregated internet regime.
CNOC’s “Break Free from the Big 3” campaign asserts, among other things, “Canadian regulators have allowed the Big 3 internet providers in Canada to freeze out the competition, giving them an unfair advantage over smaller and regional companies. Don’t fall for the illusion of choice.”
“Allowing the Big 3 to resell internet…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A group of internet service providers has filed a petition to cabinet on a precautionary basis asking it to vary the CRTC’s wholesale framework decision from August in case the regulator decides, after its latest consultation, not to ban the three largest ISPs from accessing the regime.
The launch of the CRTC’s latest consultation came at the behest of cabinet, which ordered the CRTC to revisit an interim decision from November 2023 that did not exclude Rogers, Bell and Telus (Big 3) from accessing the last-mile fibre networks of the latter two…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Telus is asking the Federal Court to quash a decision by the Governor in Council to force the CRTC to consider banning the three largest telecoms from accessing the bundled last-mile fibre networks of Bell and Telus in part because cabinet allegedly held “dozens of closed-door meetings between various parties adverse” to the Vancouver-based telecom without providing an opportunity to respond.
Those meetings, it argues, are outside the legal bounds of the review process permitted under the Telecommunications Act, which requires all parties who submit comments to the CRTC on a matter be given an opportunity to respond…
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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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