GATINEAU – Revenue from Canadian broadcasting services declined 6.6% to $15.8 billion in 2019-2020 compared to 2018-2019, the CRTC says.
This is highlighted in the broadcasting portion of the CRTC’s Communications Market Report (CMR; formally the Communications Monitoring Report), released last month, which covers the broadcast year spanning from Sept. 1, 2019, to Aug. 31, 2020, and as such includes around six months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The $15.8 billion in revenue does not include revenues from Internet-based services, known as over-the-top services (OTT), operating under the CRTC’s digital media exemption order.
Over half of the revenues were generated by broadcasting distribution…
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GATINEAU – Total revenue for Canada’s telecommunications sector was $53.4 billion in 2020, a decrease of 1.4% compared to 2019, the CRTC says.
This is according to the telecom portion of the CRTC’s Communications Market Report (CMR; formally the Communications Monitoring Report), released last month.
The report features data from 2020, during which the Covid-19 pandemic began, non-essential travel was curtailed and many Canadians ended up working from home. During this time, there were higher volumes of wireline voice calling, significantly increased Internet data usage and decreased mobile roaming, the report explains.
The 1.4% total revenue decrease for telecommunications in 2020 is…
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By Denis Carmel
HAWKESBURY – Quietly, on Dec. 29, Judith LaRocque (above) passed away, in her home in Hawkesbury, Ont.
Judith received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Carleton University in 1979, and a Master of Arts degree in Public Administration from the same university in 1992.
But most of us knew her at Canadian Heritage where she was deputy minister (2002-2010) and, previously as associate deputy minister.
A respected civil servant, she started her career at Rideau Hall, as secretary to the Governor General, (1990-2000), where she followed Ray Hnatyshyn, after he had been appointed GG. She had…
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OTTAWA – Fraudulent calls continue to be an issue for Canadians despite the recent implementation of measures to try to combat them.
In April of this year, the CRTC directed telecommunications service providers (TSPs) to implement STIR/SHAKEN (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs), which is intended to combat caller ID spoofing, by Nov. 30 as a condition of providing telecommunication services.
As of Nov. 30, TSPs are expected to “certify whether a caller’s identity can be trusted by verifying the caller ID information for Internet Protocol-based voice calls,” a CRTC press release explains. The…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC announced yesterday four projects in Alberta and Nova Scotia will receive up to $8.8 million in funding from its Broadband Fund.
“The projects will target approximately 680 households in five communities, including four Indigenous communities,” a CRTC press release says.
ATG Arrow Technology Group Limited Partnership was allocated up to $7.9 million to build or upgrade local fixed access infrastructure in three Indigenous communities in Alberta, according to the CRTC’s decision on the matter.
Of that funding, the Commission approved up to $3.8 million for the community of Louis Bull 138B (approximately 165 households), up…
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GATINEAU – Numerous intervenors in their final submissions to the CRTC continue to argue the merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications is not in the public interest and should be denied, despite the fact Rogers offered some concessions in its reply on day five of the recent hearing into the matter as well as in other documents since submitted by the company to the Commission.
(You can read Cartt.ca’s coverage of the CRTC hearing here, here, here, here and here.)
The final submissions, which were due Monday, point to several problems the intervenors argue remain…
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By Denis Carmel
After the election on Sept. 20, 2021, the appointment of ministers on Oct. 26 and the appointment of critics on Nov. 11, the House of Commons reopened with the Speech from the Throne on Nov. 23. The parliamentary secretaries were later named on Dec. 3, the members of the Heritage and Industry committees were chosen on Dec. 9 with the chairs of these committees being elected on Dec. 13 and 14 respectively.
Despite the fact this is the continuation of the old government and some cynics could say the election did not change anything,…
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WHITEHORSE – Bell Canada subsidiary Northwestel this week asked the CRTC to modify the tariff filing process for retail Internet services so it can respond to the competitive threat of Starlink in the North.
“We are filing this Application today because we require the ability, on an urgent basis, to respond to the competitive threat that Starlink poses in the North,” reads Northwestel’s application to the CRTC, which was posted on the Commission’s website today.
The Commission approved an application made by SpaceX for a Basic International Telecommunications Services licence to provide telecom services via its low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation Starlink…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Clothing company Gap Inc. has agreed to pay $200,000 for allegedly violating Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL), the CRTC announced today.
In addition to agreeing to pay the fine, the U.S.-based global apparel retailer has also implemented corrective measures, a CRTC press release says.
Gap operates several clothing divisions, including Banana Republic and Old Navy.
“CRTC staff issued a warning letter to Gap in December 2018 to inform the company that it had received complaints from Canadians regarding Gap’s electronic messaging practices,” the press release reads.
“In June 2021, in light of continuing submissions from Canadians, the CRTC’s Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer (CCEO)…
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Rogers and Fido see largest increases
OTTAWA – The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) accepted 17,003 consumer complaints in the past year – a 9% increase compared to the previous year, according to its annual report released today.
The annual report covers the period from Aug. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021. In this timeframe, CCTS concluded 17,506 complaints, a 10% increase from last year (this includes complaints received before Aug. 1, 2020, which were concluded during the year covered by today’s report.)
The concluded complaints raised over 42,000 issues. The top issues were billing (16,304), contract dispute (13,147), service…
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