By Ahmad Hathout
The Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA) is urging the CRTC this month to reject a request from Telus to destandardize a form of legacy voice interconnection service in its operating territories because it would allegedly leave new competitors at the mercy of commercial negotiations with the dominant telco with no regulatory backstop.
Telus filed a request in early August asking the CRTC to destandardize and therefore no longer make available to new competitors legacy interconnection technology called time-division multiplexing (TDM) because it claims it hasn’t had a new customer on that technology in over three years and because…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. has fired Thursday the first challenge to the CRTC’s decision to force it to open its last-mile fibre facilities to its major competitors, alleging the regulator relied in its decision on a cabinet direction that was already beyond the jurisdiction of the Governor in Council.
“The CRTC, by adhering to the cabinet direction, conducted a lengthy consultative exercise, with input from a broad spectrum of industry participants and interested parties, including SaskTel, in service of making a determination that was, in effect, already made,” the Crown corporation says in its memorandum to the Federal…
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By Len St-Aubin, a policy consultant who has worked for clients including Netflix, and was a member of the policy teams that developed the 1991 Broadcasting Act and the 1993 Telecommunications Act
On August 28, Cartt published Howard Law’s commentary rebutting my contention that Bill C-11 and CRTC regulation risk destabilizing market-driven CanCon.
Law took issue with my assertion that foreign streamers have driven the significant increase in foreign investment (FI) in CanCon over the last 10 years:
“…The fact is that foreign television companies around the globe were snapping up CanCon through pre-sales and advances…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Organizations representing news media and their workers are warning the CRTC not to redirect any of the $100 million they were earmarked by Google toward public interest participation in CRTC proceedings related to news linking matters.
The Broadcasting Participation Fund (BPF), which bankrolls public interest participation in CRTC proceedings, filed a Part 1 application this summer requesting that the commission expand its mandate to include matters pertaining to large technology platforms that must pay to link to Canadian news content under the Online News Act. Google has already agreed to put an annual inflation-indexed $100…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC has released its annual snapshot of the broadcast sector for 2022-23, which overall remained profitable, with the exception of conventional television.
For the 2023 broadcast year, ended Aug. 31, 2023, the commission’s report says Radio, Discretionary TV, and Broadcast Distribution Undertakings (BDUs) remained in the black, while Digital Media Broadcasting Undertakings (DMBU), like Spotify and Disney+, experienced ongoing revenue growth. Conventional television continued to operate at a loss. In total, broadcasting revenues decreased by 0.37 per cent from the 2022 to 2023 broadcast year.
Commercial Radio reported a revenue decrease of .55 per cent, Conventional TV (-7.16 per cent), Discretionary TV…
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Peladeau lambasts “contradictory” decision
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Thursday that Quebecor must come to an agreement on separate terms with Bell unrelated to the commission-approved tariff in order to access the telco’s national wireless network.
After the commission picked Bell’s access rate in final offer arbitration with the regional carrier last fall, Quebecor filed a complaint to the CRTC alleging Bell is attempting to delay its access to the large network by making it agree to terms that were outside of those already approved by the commission – and that there was an expected access date of…
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The CRTC is committing more than $17 million through its Broadband Fund to Bell Canada, TBayTel, Telus Communications and Sogetel Mobilité to build new cell towers and improve mobile wireless service along eight major roads, the telecom regulator announced Wednesday.
The four telecommunications service providers submitted their funding applications in response to the CRTC’s third call for applications to the Broadband Fund.
Bell has been approved for up to $1.05 million in funding to build a cell tower to serve approximately 15 kilometres of Route 330 near the community of Gander Bay South in Newfoundland and…
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The CRTC has asked Rogers and Cogeco to continue to provide competitors access to their networks as the regulator moves to address the impact of copper decommissioning on the wholesale internet market.
On the same day the regulator released its wholesale rate decision, the CRTC sent a letter to various large and regional telecoms Tuesday notifying them that it is asking Rogers and Cogeco to continue to provide competitors access to its older facilities as they move toward pure fibre.
Rogers and TekSavvy asked the CRTC in June to suspend a Part 1 application filed by the independent…
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Competitors are left wondering about rates and implications of five-year access immunity
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Tuesday ordered the largest telephone companies to provide wholesale access to their existing last-mile fibre networks across the country by February 13, 2025, but is shielding from the regime any new builds for five years.
The order is an expansion of the temporary regime ordered in November 2023 that forced Bell and Telus to provide competitors bundled access to their middle- and last-mile fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec, which has been in force since May 7. The CRTC will keep the existing rates…
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By Connie Thiessen
Corus Entertainment has filed a complaint with the CRTC, alleging Rogers’ undue disadvantage in the wake of its merger last year with Shaw Communications, is leading it to engage “in predatory behaviour, enabled by dominant size and scale, to foreclose on potential competition.”
The Part 1 application, published in redacted form on the CRTC website on Monday, focuses specifically on Rogers move to offer the ad-supported version of Disney+ to existing Ignite TV customers, which Corus says is part of an effort to lure subscribers away from its Disney-themed specialty channels. Furthermore, the complaint alleges that Rogers has “actively favoured Disney+ over Corus’ Disney-themed channels when subscribers attempt to search for content;…
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