TORONTO – Canadian wireless upstart Data on Tap Inc. (dotmobile) announced yesterday there has been wide support for the petition it submitted in May to the Governor in Council to review and vary the CRTC’s April Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) decision.
“As of today, the petition has been supported by 30 independent telecom providers (the Competitive Network Operators of Canada), TekSavvy, the Public Interest Advocacy Group, and more than 34,000 Canadians,” a press release says.
The Liberal government promised more affordable connectivity in 2019, and introduced a new policy, which “kicked off a formal two year review of…
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Dear Greg,
SPEAKING PERSONALLY, I disagree with your commentary “Letter to the Prime Minister: Keep C-10 Dead”. You are right that the legislation needs to be clear, and well-explained.
However, no broadcasting legislation can be so good it doesn’t need a mechanism to amend it short of brand new legislation. After all, if the U.S. Constitution did not have an amending formula, our neighbours would either still have slavery, or a new (and improved?) Constitution.
We don’t know how commercial content will be delivered in the future. We need to allow the regulator the flexibility, within clear limits, to keep up with changes…
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COMMENTARY: The new bill can’t be the same as the old bill
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,
FOR MOST OF ITS SHORT life, Bill C-10, your now-dead proposed amendment to our Broadcasting Act, trundled along, hardly noticed by those outside the content industry.
It was considered a modest attempted bill which avoided some complicated questions altogether (such as the CBC’s future mandate) but, as you know, aimed at one main thing – having the likes of Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Google and others, contribute to Canadian content.
However, the whole thing turned sour, as you and our readers may recall, on just what will be…
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GATINEAU – Major concerns have been raised about the broadcasting side of the proposed Rogers/Shaw deal, which is currently being reviewed by the CRTC.
Individuals and organizations had until last Monday to send in their submissions in response to the Commission’s call for comments on Rogers’ application to the CRTC on behalf of Shaw to acquire Shaw’s licensed broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), Shaw Direct, Shaw Broadcast Services and Shaw Pay-Per-View.
Bell, Telus, Independent Broadcasters Group (IBG), Cogeco, Corus, Ethnic Channels Group (ECG) and TLN, Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) and Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) are…
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Independent ISP pushing voters to get pledges to lower rates from election candidates
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal will look into whether the CRTC was correct in its May decision to revert back to older, more expensive bulk internet purchase rates set in 2016.
The court said it will review the case in a decision dated last Wednesday after independent internet service provider (ISP) TekSavvy, which buys network capacity from the larger telecoms, filed an appeal of the decision in June. The larger carriers include Bell, Rogers, and Telus.
The CRTC originally set lower final rates in a 2019…
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By Amanda Oye
OTTAWA – A CRTC inquiry into accessible wireless originally announced in June 2020 is now well underway, with the deadline to submit comments having passed in late August of this year.
Three organizations representing Deaf, Deaf-Blind or Hard of Hearing (DDBHH) Canadians – Deaf Wireless Canada Consultative Committee-Comité pour les Services Sans fil des Sourds du Canada (DWCC-CSSSC), Canadian Association of the Deaf-Association des Sourds du Canada (CAD-ASC) and Canadian National Society of the Deaf-Blind (CNSDB), (collectively DWCC et al.) – came together and submitted several documents in response to the CRTC’s call for comments.
The documents delve…
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Five little words and a world of difference
By Doug Barrett
It’s hard to say how much the detailed party platforms matter in an election. In this one, each of the main platforms contains dedicated sections on the arts/culture/broadcasting sectors and it’s instructive to have a look at them.
To start, there appears to be complete unanimity on the question of ensuring the “foreign web giants contribute to the creation and promotion of Canadian stories and music” (Liberal); requiring “digital streaming giants to reinvest a significant portion of Canadian gross revenues” (Conservative); making sure that “Netflix, Facebook, Google and other digital media…
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By Ken Kelley
Evoking the name of founder Ted Rogers, Rogers CEO Joe Natale said he sees a certain irony in Bell Canada filing its opposition to his company’s impending tie-up with Shaw on broadcast grounds.
“In Rogers’ 60-year history, we’ve always been the challenger, and in many ways, kind of standing up against the larger players in the market, the challenger to Bell on many fronts,” Natale said, speaking at BMO’s virtual Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday.
“And there’s a high degree of irony in Bell looking at us as being a bigger player. Ted Rogers is probably smiling…
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By Ken Kelley
Cogeco president and CEO Philippe Jetté insists his company will not be restrained by borders.
While the company boasts significant business operations south of the border via Atlantic Broadband, the U.S.-based Cogeco subsidiary scored a blockbuster deal this past June when it acquired WideOpenWest’s broadband systems in Ohio for $1 billion. Passing approximately 688,000 homes and businesses in the Cleveland and Columbus areas, WOW Ohio serves approximately 196,000 Internet, 61,000 video and 35,000 telephony customers.
“We’re very excited about this acquisition,” Jetté told BMO’s Tim Casey, who served as the moderator for the bank’s 22nd annual Media…
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By Ken Kelley
Has media streaming reached peak oversaturation? It is a question Corus president and CEO Doug Murphy pondered during his appearance at BMO’s 22nd annual Media & Telecom Conference on Tuesday.
While discussing the similarities between linear and digital advertising with moderator Tim Casey, Murphy acknowledged that regardless of how the public consumes television content – whether via a traditional cable television subscription or by an offering such as Corus’ wildly popular StackTV, which he said continues adding upwards of 100,000 subs per quarter – channel surfing appears to be an underrated, and arguably underappreciated, phenomenon.
“StackTV has demonstrated…
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