TORONTO – Edward Rogers announced yesterday he intends to replace five members of the board of directors of Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI).
A press release issued late last night says Mr. Rogers “is disappointed with recent events and commentary regarding the governance of RCI and has lost confidence in the Board of RCI as currently constituted.”
Earlier yesterday evening, RCI announced its board had voted out Mr. Rogers as chair and that John MacDonald was taking over. (You can catch up on the ongoing power struggle at RCI here, here and here.)
However, Mr. Rogers remains on RCI’s…
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Driven by desire to live a life of purpose, he is fighting to ensure Dougall Media survives
By Amanda Oye
THUNDER BAY – Hector Dougall is committed to making sure Thunder Bay continues to have a local voice at a time when local media across the country are struggling.
In an important milestone enabling him to do this, late last month he received approval from the CRTC to take over sole ownership of the licences for Dougall Media’s four radio and two television stations, which were previously owned by his late mother.
“If I hadn’t taken over Thunder Bay would have lost…
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Judge zeroes in on the term “wholesale” for Quebecor subsidiary Fibernoire
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Arguments before the Federal Court on Tuesday about whether Videotron correctly qualified for 3.5 GHz spectrum for wireless services in western Canada pivoted on what kind of impact this decision could have on the market – and whether unfair advantages would be given based on a specific interpretation of the auction rules.
In July, Quebecor’s Videotron was awarded 294 licences for nearly $830 million in the set-aside portion of the 3.5 GHz auction that began in June. This includes licences in Manitoba, Alberta and British…
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By Denis Carmel
Starting Nov. 15, the CRTC will have a new head of telecommunications – Fiona Gilfillan.
Until recently, Gilfillan was the assistant deputy minister at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development/Innovation Canada (ISED) where she was responsible for the management of spectrum, ICT and telecom security, the Communications Research Centre and telecom equipment standards and certification in the spectrum and telecommunications sector.
In 2006, she was associate executive director of telecommunications at the CRTC, after which she left, according to her LinkedIn page, to take care of her kids between 2007 and 2009. She then spent 11 years at ISED…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Alliance Nationale De L’Industrie Musicale (ANIM), a representative for francophone and Acadian music, filed an appeal late last month against a Federal Court decision that denied it the right to damages from the CRTC for a nine-year old decision that allocated more broadcast funding to an English-language music fund than a French-language equivalent.
In 2012, the CRTC released a decision that forced Sirius XM Holdings Inc., as a condition of license, to allocate 20% of 4% of its gross revenues to the English-language fund, called Factor, and just 10% to Factor’s French-language counterpart, known as Musicaction.
In 2019,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is now allowing Cable Public Affairs Channel Inc. (CPAC) to participate in the proceeding dealing with the broadcast side of the proposed Rogers/Shaw transaction as an interested party, thereby granting it several new rights.
In a letter dated Oct. 7, the CRTC authorized CPAC to appear at the upcoming hearing into the matter in its own right and granted CPAC the right for its representatives to participate in any in camera discussions that may be held regarding its governance.
The CRTC also granted CPAC “the right to file a reply to intervenors in accordance with section 27…
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Panelists talk C-10, competition and of course, the Rogers/Shaw deal
By Lynn Greiner
TORONTO – Every ISP Summit, a highlight session is the regulatory panel. The CRTC always seems to generate enough controversy to make the panel entertaining as well as interesting.
This year was no different.
Moderated by Monica Auer, executive director of the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, the panel featured two CRTC alumni who are less than impressed with the way the organization has operated recently.
Konrad von Finckenstein, a consultant and arbitrator, was CRTC chair from 2007 to 2012, and Timothy Denton, now chairman of the Internet…
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Stein talks of “betrayal” by the CRTC and incumbent “bullies”
By Amanda OYE
TORONTO – The game may not be fair, but that will not stop independent Internet service providers from competing, Matt Stein (above), chair of the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) and a director of the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA) told audience members during his keynote speech Independents unite: How we are fighting for a fairer today and a stronger tomorrow, at the ISP Summit today.
“The challenges our industry has faced over the past 18 months are incredible,” he said.
“As independent internet service providers, we always seem…
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PIAC supports it and Cogeco remains silent
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On May 4, 2021, Data on Tap (dotmobile) filed an appeal to Cabinet of the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services, which dealt with access by Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) to facilities of the three large wireless operators.
In a nutshell, the CRTC gave access only to players that already had facilities.
To that extent Québecor directly benefited from the policy and subsequently acquired more facilities at the last 3500 MHz auction, as did 11 other regional competitors.
And in their Sept. 22 comments on dotmobile’s petition, written in…
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TORONTO – It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
This sums up the past year for members of the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA), who shared today some of the challenges and opportunities they have faced and continue to face in a talk on day one of the annual Canadian ISP Summit, hosted by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) and CCSA.
The talk, called Future forward in video and broadband delivery: Operator perspectives from across Canada, featured Ken Naylor, general manager of Mornington Communications Cooperative Limited, George Burger, co-founder of VMedia, Marie-Eve Rocheleau, executive…
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