Bell and cablecos argue Cabinet proves them right
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Independent and incumbent internet service providers have filed letters to the Federal Court of Appeal explaining the impact of the Federal Cabinet’s decision last weekend on the CRTC’s decision to slash wholesale internet rates and whether it should factor into the court’s ultimate decision.
On August 15, one year following the decision by the CRTC to slash wholesale internet rates, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) said the Regulator’s decision “do not, in all instances, appropriately balance the policy objectives of the wholesale services framework” and that in…
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TORONTO — Independent Internet and IPTV service provider VMedia has added its voice to the growing number of independents who have expressed their disappointment with the federal government’s stance regarding the wholesale rates third-party Internet access (TPIA) providers pay incumbent network operators.
When the Governor-in-Council issued its ruling on August 15 regarding the CRTC’s August 2019 decision to lower wholesale rates, in which the GiC didn’t strike down the decision, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains issued a statement to say the federal cabinet was concerned the lower rates “may undermine investment in high-quality networks, particularly…
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GATINEAU — Amid a number of broadcast licence approvals on Tuesday, the CRTC has renewed Northern Lights Entertainment’s broadcasting licences for two Iqaluit radio stations on a short-term basis, and issued accompanying mandatory orders requiring the stations comply with their obligations to file annual returns.
Northern Lights operates the predominantly English-language commercial radio stations CKGC-FM Iqaluit and CKIQ-FM Iqaluit. The two stations have been non-compliant in the past regarding the filing of annual returns, which is a regulatory requirement set out in section 9(2) of the Radio Regulations, 1986.
When considering the licence renewal application for Northern Lights’ stations, the CRTC…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein
IN AUGUST OF 2019, after three years of studying submissions and holding hearings the CRTC delivered a ruling on final rates for wholesale internet access, which are the rates large carriers charge their small competitors to access their networks. Up to that date, the large carriers billed resellers based on CRTC-set interim rates.
The rates released a year ago are lower than the interim rates and retroactive to 2016. Monthly capacity rates are 15% to 43% lower than the interim rates and the access rates are 3% to 77% lower than the interim rates. In addition, by…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the lengthy CRTC process reviewing its wireless policies, one player played an unusually central role.
Since it had no economic interest and because of its professed expertise, the Competition Bureau (which falls under the purview of the department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development) convinced the Commission to be allowed special access to confidential company data, despite strenuous objections, all of which we have reported on previously.
So, when the Bureau admitted it made a mistake in its final comments and issued corrections, Bell Canada jumped on it and requested that…
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CAB says up to 50 radio stations may close
By Denis Carmel
TO NO ONE’S SURPRISE, Covid-19 has taken a grim toll on Canadian broadcasters. In that context, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, acting on behalf of its members, sent an emergency application to the CRTC on July 13th seeking temporary relief from several regulatory obligations.
The Commission has not yet responded, despite the letter’s expressed desire to see action taken prior to the first week of August. The letter was sent to Cartt.ca on Friday (August 21) morning. The CAB’s membership includes all big broadcasters and a large number of smaller…
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TORONTO – Calling it “a vote against fairness,” independent ISP Distributel decried the cabinet decision five days ago which encouraged the CRTC to change the wholesale third party internet access rates it set a year ago.
That Order-in-Council, which we covered this week with a handful of stories, has now caused Distributel to join others and increase what it charges customers, too. However, the company has stopped short of calling it a rate increase and instead will add a $5-$10 surcharge to its customers’ bills to cover costs while awaiting the CRTC’s new final decision on wholesale…
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By Greg O’Brien
OTTAWA – Even though Parliament was prorogued this week, the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, which has been studying the influx of fraud calls in Canada, including robocalls, ghost calls, and spam calls, all of which have increased during the Covid-19 crisis, had just enough time to send Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains a letter.
In that letter, the committee told the minister a full report on what it found this spring will be coming, but in the meantime, he and the CRTC need to take more immediate action. The RCMP…
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GATINEAU — Reading around the gaps in a heavily redacted copy of a complaint filed with the CRTC on August 12, this much is clear — the Canadian Communication Systems Alliance (CCSA) and several of its member BDUs are accusing Bell Media of “unreasonably denying or delaying access” to some of its programming services.
In doing so, the CCSA claims in its Part 1 application posted to the CRTC web site Wednesday, Bell Media has breached its “competitive safeguards” conditions of licence and/or the wholesale code for discretionary services.
What isn’t clear, due to the redactions in the application posted…
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As much as $10 a month more
CHATHAM and LONDON – Two independent ISPs announced this week retail rates are on their way up, thanks to the direction the federal government gave the CRTC on Saturday.
The Governor-on-Council issued an order on Saturday which did not strike down last August’s Commission decision that set new wholesale rates incumbents were to charge broadband resellers like TekSavvy and Start.ca, as well as demanding retroactive payments to the independents, but did say federal cabinet didn’t like those rates “in all instances.” The order effectively told the CRTC to come up with…
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