By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Back in August 2020, the CRTC found both Telus and Iristel in violation of the Telecom Act and after Iristel issued a Review and Vary (R&V) application, Telus filed one of its own, in November.
While Iristel had been determined guilty of traffic stimulation with area code 867 calls, Telus was accused of taking matters in its own hands and ending the practice by not connecting what it identified as dubious calls.
Iristel retorted on December 14, arguing that Telus was, in fact, violating the Telecommunications Act and restated the case of a lady, living…
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THERE IS NOBODY I’ve talked to recently who isn’t looking forward to a little break this holiday season.
We’ve all been made exhausted by 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic which has dominated everything.
That said, the cable, radio, television and telecom industries should feel nothing but enormous pride in the hard work all of you have done this year for the millions of Canadians who need their connectivity, their news, their favourite shows, movies, music and radio personalities, to get through so many fraught days.
The truly brilliant stories of companies and their employees going above and beyond to keep the broadband…
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CRTC launches process to have fees waived or reimbursed
GATINEAU — As previously announced in the federal government’s Fall Economic Statement on November 30, eligible television and radio stations will have their Part II broadcasting licence fees waived in 2020-21, which is expected to provide as much as $50 million in relief for these broadcasters.
The Department of Canadian Heritage on Tuesday issued a press release to confirm the waiving of the Part II fees, and reiterated the measure does not include cable, satellite and IPTV providers (i.e., BDUs), “as their revenues are not as dependent on advertising,” says…
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OTTAWA – Nine days before the deadline, the Federal Cabinet rendered its decision in the appeal by AFX Communications of the CRTC decision with respect to reports and compensation for toll‑free calls over payphones, originally issued on December 20, 2019.
In that decision, the Commission directed Bell Canada to provide monthly reports for toll‑free calls made from AFX payphones connected to Bell Canada’s lines, and determined—based on a previous Commission order—that the applicable compensation rate is $0.25 per toll‑free call for lines other than pay telephone access lines. AFX argued that some calls should bear the tariff of $0.80.
AFX filed…
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Regulators have a real option to improve canada’s mobile wireless marketplace
by Marie Ginette Lepage
WHEN IT COMES TO THE future of our nation’s mobile wireless telecommunications market, Canadian regulators are fast-approaching an important crossroads. Recent debate, seen on Cartt.ca and elsewhere, has been focused on the idea Canada’s regulators face a terrible trade-off, in which the only way to provide consumers with more competition and choice is to do so at the expense of further investment and expansion of networks.
That would certainly be a difficult choice to make, particularly in a country like Canada, where many rural and…
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OTTAWA — The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) today shared the news Charlotte Bell, a long-time broadcasting executive and former CAB chair, died on the weekend. She had been suffering from cancer for some time.
“Charlotte was a dear friend and valued colleague to many of us in the broadcasting sector, and all those who were fortunate to work with her are saddened to hear this news,” said Lenore Gibson, chair of the CAB board of directors, in a press statement. “Our thoughts go out to her family and friends at this time.”
Bell most recently was president and CEO of…
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By Ruby Pratka
GETTING RELIABLE HIGH-SPEED Internet to Manitoba’s far north is no easy task. Logistical obstacles, long distances and a relatively small potential client base tend to scare away large private players. And then there’s the land itself.
“The terrain up here is not cheap or easy to build through – it’s full of muskeg, which is basically quicksand, and a lot of the communities don’t have the infrastructure to make easier,” explains Ken Sanderson, outgoing executive director of Broadband Communications North (BCN), an Indigenous-run non-profit communications provider based in Winnipeg, whose goal is expanding wireless access to Northern…
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TORONTO — A group of more than 500 current and former employees of CBC/Radio-Canada who oppose the public broadcaster’s Tandem sponsored-content initiative today launched a social media campaign and website where they’ve published an open letter to Canadians to amplify their efforts to stop paid content on the CBC.
In the letter on the website (www.stoppaidcontentoncbc.ca), the group of mostly journalists asks for the Canadian public’s support in demanding CBC put an end to Tandem, the broadcaster’s new marketing division which was launched in September.
The open letter is signed by current CBC journalists, including Carol Off, Michael…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC will hold a non-appearing hearing in February regarding an application by Halifax-based Acadia Broadcasting Limited to acquire the FM radio stations CKHZ-FM (Hot Country 103.5) and CKHY-FM Halifax (Jewel 105) from HFX Broadcasting, which is owned by Evanov Radio Group.
Following regulatory approval of the acquisitions, Acadia is requesting two new broadcasting licences be issued in order for it to continue operation of the two radio stations. However, it has requested the deletion of certain conditions of licence.
In the case of Hot Country 103.5, Acadia wants the following conditions removed:
As an exception to the percentage of…
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By Dan Armstrong
IN RESPONSE TO THE December 7 article by TekSavvy’s Peter Nowak (Commentary: Why it’s so hard to grow an ISP in Canada), while I agree with Peter the current landscape is becoming less favourable for providers who resell incumbent access networks, the article almost reads as though the Canadian telecom industry is one giant pitched battle between incumbent facilities-based networks and plucky upstarts reselling their access networks.
It’s not, and I take offence to painting all facilities-based competition with the same brush as the incumbents.
I have spent my 30-plus year career in this business slowly clawing our…
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