GATINEAU – Despite the demand it and others made to the CRTC for revised tariffs filed since the incumbent carriers lost their court case, no new revised tariff pages have yet been filed with the Commission by the network owners and until they are, independent ISP TekSavvy will stop paying its wholesale fees to Rogers and Bell.
On September 11th, TekSavvy, Distributel and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada each filed applications with the CRTC demanding the incumbent telco and cable carriers file new tariff pages as ordered by the Commission in its August 2019 decision setting new wholesale…
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By Ahmad Hathout
VANCOUVER – A British Columbia court has dismissed an injunction application filed by Telus over Shaw’s promotion of its new Fibre+ internet product launched earlier this year.
In a September 11 ruling made public this week, the B.C. Supreme Court said it is unconvinced by Telus’ argument that the average customer would care about the differences between Shaw’s hybrid fibre-coaxial cable network and Telus’ fibre to the home technology when deciding on a broadband provider.
Telus asked the court in June to force Shaw to stop using “Fibre+” for its highest internet speeds until a final determination is made…
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Incumbents have already asked the CRTC for a stay of the rates
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a lengthy, thorough decision, the Federal Court of Appeal on Thursday said the CRTC’s August 2019 decision setting final wholesale rates for aggregated wholesale high-speed access services, and hundreds of millions in retroactive payments, was just fine.
The decision goes through the history of wholesale rate setting, which actually dates back to 1979. The Court outlines the details of decision CRTC 2019-288 referencing productivity factors, upstream traffic growth rates, attribution of segmentation costs, speed-banding, unrecovered costs, working fill factors (WFF), coaxial cable…
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Adds there will be further pursuit of Cogeco
By Ken Kelley
NEW YORK – Following last week’s big news which saw Altice USA and Rogers team up to try and buy Cogeco (a deal which was utterly and repeatedly rejected by Louis Audet, its controlling shareholder), it was little surprise the topic was first on the agenda when Rogers executives Joe Natale and Tony Staffieri spoke Wednesday at Bank of America Securities’ virtual 2020 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference.
“We have immense respect for Mr. Audet and his family, and for the legacy of the company,” said Rogers CEO Natale. “At…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has sided with the third party internet service providers in their defence of the August 2019 CRTC decision which lowered wholesale rates they pay to the incumbent telcos and cablecos – and established retroactive payments dating back several years.
It was a unanimous 3-0 decision and grants the respondents (the independents) their legal costs, too.
Companies like TekSavvy and Distributel and Start.ca serve tens of thousands of Canadians by leasing space on the networks of Bell, Rogers, Telus, Cogeco and the like and when the CRTC set the new rates with that decision,…
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HAMILTON – When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and local music venues closed, musicians and artists were left without stages to perform on because no crowds were allowed to gather.
The Westdale Theatre has partnered with Cable 14 (connected online thanks to Clearcable) to present Live From The Westdale to give artists a platform.
The community channel co-owned by local cable companies Cogeco and Rogers, Cable 14 has been showcasing the talent of Hamilton for 50 years, bringing the voices of countless musicians and artists from the region to the airwaves.
Live From The Westdale is a series of television specials recorded…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU — In October of last year, the vast majority of Canadian Internet service providers met or exceeded the maximum download and upload speeds they advertised, according to the second edition of the CRTC’s Measuring Broadband Canada report, released today.
The study was conducted by broadband testing firm SamKnows on behalf of the CRTC, and was based on measurement data collected from October 1 to 31, 2019. Using the data collected from 2,035 “whiteboxes” deployed to Canadian homes, the study examines download and upload speeds, latency, packet loss and web page loading time. Participating ISPs include Bell Aliant,…
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MONTREAL – Louis Audet probably fielded more than a few calls and emails this long weekend. It seems people just don’t believe his company can’t be bought.
After repeatedly saying last week his family has no intention of selling its controlling interests in Cogeco and Cogeco Communications, despite the $10.3 billion purchase offer made by Altice USA – and was reiterated again later – which would have then seen Rogers Communications buy the Canadian operations, Audet (above) felt he had to say it yet again on Labour Day Monday.
This could perhaps be partly in response to Rogers pushing…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC today announced it has approved a broadcasting licence for Toon-A-Vision, the kids channel owned and operated by Dartmouth, N.S.-based Atlantic Digital Networks.
Toon-A-Vision currently operates as an exempt programming service, but with today’s CRTC decision it is now licensed as a national, English-language discretionary service. The animation channel launched in 2018 and is widely distributed on Eastlink and Bell. Earlier this year, Toon-A-Vision announced it was launching on Cogeco. Exempt specialty services have to apply for a licence once they reach 200,000 subscribers.
Toon-A-Vision has been granted a five-year licence which will expire August 31, 2025….
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Bell and cablecos argue Cabinet proves them right
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Independent and incumbent internet service providers have filed letters to the Federal Court of Appeal explaining the impact of the Federal Cabinet’s decision last weekend on the CRTC’s decision to slash wholesale internet rates and whether it should factor into the court’s ultimate decision.
On August 15, one year following the decision by the CRTC to slash wholesale internet rates, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) said the Regulator’s decision “do not, in all instances, appropriately balance the policy objectives of the wholesale services framework” and that in…
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