Three parties, three different solutions
By Amanda Oye
THE LIBERALS, CONSERVATIVES AND NDP all agree there is an issue with access to high-speed Internet in Canada, particularly in the country’s rural, remote and Indigenous communities, and that cellphone and Internet bills in the country are too high. All three parties have different ideas on how to fix these problems.
Access to high-speed Internet
All three parties agree high-speed Internet is essential and want to make sure everyone in the country has access to it. Rural, remote and Indigenous communities are a high priority in this regard. The parties, however, differ in…
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And will the next government modernize the Broadcasting Act?
By Amanda Oye
THE ELECTION MAY have killed Bill C-10, the legislation designed to modernize the Broadcasting Act, but its memory lives on in the pages of the official party platforms released by the Conservatives, the NDP and the Liberals.
All three parties address issues related to the Broadcasting Act and to funding Canadian broadcasting in their platforms. They outline plans to protect Canadian media, tax digital giants, move forward with (or without) CBC/Radio-Canada, and of course, modernize the Broadcasting Act.
Protecting Canadian media
The Conservative party acknowledged there is a crisis in…
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CHATHAM, Ont. — In its latest salvo aimed at the CRTC and its May decision not to lower wholesale Internet rates, independent ISP TekSavvy today issued a press release and an election backgrounder in an effort to rally Canadian voters to visit paylesstoconnect.ca — where they can “demand concrete federal action that will lower monthly internet bills,” the release says.
“In this election, affordability remains top-of-mind for most voters. Recent polling by Abacus Data shows that 64% of Canadians believe the cost of things you use day-to-day have gotten worse over the past 2 years,” the press release reads.
“In another poll conducted by…
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WHITEHORSE — Far north telecom provider Northwestel announced today it has submitted two tariff applications to the CRTC asking for permission to increase the Internet speeds of its most popular residential fibre and cable Internet plans and to also lower the rates of these plans by $10 a month.
A subsidiary of Bell Canada, Northwestel’s Internet packages and rates are regulated by the CRTC and can only be changed with the Commission’s approval.
“The proposed changes would see download and upload speed increases and rate decreases in every residential unlimited Internet plan,” reads a Northwestel press release.
“For example, a residential Internet…
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OTTAWA – National Capital FreeNet (NCF), an Ottawa-based non-profit ISP, today petitioned the government to overrule the CRTC’s May 2021 decision on wholesale Internet rates, which reversed the Commission’s 2019 decision on the matter.
NCF has requested “the Governor in Council vary Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-181 and reinstate Telecom Decision CRTC 2019-288,” the petition reads.
The ISP states in its petition it is filing it because it believes the CRTC’s May decision “does not promote competition, affordability, or consumer interests, as ordered in the 2019 Policy Direction, but instead actively inhibits these goals, while disproportionately affecting those living on low…
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Party proposes new Crown corporation to compete with telecoms
WINDSOR – NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced today the party’s plan to lower Canadian cell phone and internet bills at a press conference in Windsor.
“This is something that Justin Trudeau promised he would do something about, he promised he would make things better,” Singh said at the press conference. “He promised two years ago that he would lower the price of cellphone fees per family by about $1,000, well two years later, that hasn’t happened. He hasn’t done anything to lower the cost of cellphone fees… cellphone and Internet.”
Singh said the…
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By Denis Carmel
YOU KNOW THERE is vigorous competition when companies are always at each other’s throats – and we can surely say there is no collusion between Bell Canada (BCE) and Québecor!
This time, BCE is complaining to the CRTC that Videotron, a Québecor affiliate, launched a new service on August 17 that is not available to competitive distributors contrary to the CRTC’s Terms and conditions of the exemption order for video-on-demand undertakings, related to hybrid video-on-demand undertakings (HVODs). The CRTC specifies an HVOD is an undertaking that “… offers its service over a broadcasting distribution undertaking provided that all…
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“Left with no choice” due to CRTC’s wholesale rate reversal, the ISP says
CHATHAM, Ont. — Independent ISP TekSavvy announced in a blog post yesterday it has no other option than to raise the price of its residential Internet packages as a result of the CRTC’s May 2021 reversal of its 2019 decision to lower wholesale Internet rates.
“Starting with the Oct. 1 billing cycle, most existing TekSavvy residential Internet customers will see an increase of $3 a month on their service packages,” reads the post written by Peter Nowak, TekSavvy’s vice-president of insight and engagement.
“To be clear, we do…
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Some bright spots remain
CANADIAN SPECIALTY CHANNEL revenues took a hard hit in 2020, thanks to Covid-19, with independents taking bigger shots than vertically integrated (VI) companies.
The recently published CRTC 2020 Individual Discretionary and On-Demand Statistical and Financial Summaries for the year ended August 31, 2020 shows Canada’s VI companies, taken together, reported a 6.9% year-over-year decrease in total revenues to $2.9 billion in 2020. The CRTC considers VI companies to include Bell Media, Rogers Media, Quebecor Media, and Corus Entertainment.
These companies spent 36.2% of their total revenues on Canadian programming, but total expenditures on Canadian programming was down 8.1%…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) last week gave Telus permission to appeal the CRTC’s April 2021 wireless review decision, Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2021-130.
Telus went to court, not to argue against the CRTC’s decision requiring it to introduce a wholesale service that will enable eligible regional wireless carriers (Editor’s note: like Vidéotron) to use national wireless carrier networks to provide competing services while they build out their own networks.
No, when the CRTC issued its decision in April 2021, it took the opportunity to rule on other issues raised during the proceeding as well, including…
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