By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — The CRTC decided today it has had enough of the long history non-compliance from two Quebec radio stations and refused to renew their licenses, ordering them to cease broadcasting by Aug. 31.
The decisions released Friday affect CJMS 1040 AM, a country music station licensed to the Montreal suburb of Saint-Constant, and CFOR-FM 99.3, a rock station in Maniwaki, a small town north of Gatineau. In both cases, the Commission cited the stations’ repeated failure to comply with their conditions of licence and said it had little confidence that they would comply with them…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In May, Eastlink challenged CRTC Telecom Order 2020-660 issued in February where the Commission denied a request from Eastlink to impose customer credit limits that would help Eastlink mitigate delinquent third party internet access customers.
The Halifax-based company filed the application requesting the CRTC review and vary the decision, in light of the pandemic and the financial situation the crisis has created.
After requests for information and procedural requests, the final deadline to file intervention was pushed back to July 24.
In interventions, Shaw and Videotron agreed with Eastlink saying the Commission was wrong in denying…
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OTTAWA and STERLING, Va. — The Canadian Secure Token – Governance Authority (CST-GA) announced today it selected Sterling, Va.-based Neustar Information Services as its Secure Telephone Identity Policy Administrator (STI-PA) and Certification Authority (STI-CA) as a first step toward implementation of STIR/SHAKEN call authentication to combat nuisance and fraud calls in Canada.
STIR/SHAKEN stands for Secure Telephony Information Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs, and it is a framework of interconnected technology standards that supports authentication of incoming calls and offers a level of assurance that a call is from a legitimate person, business or government agency.
Neustar is…
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OTTAWA — Canada’s wireless incumbents are continuing their lobbying efforts against potential CRTC regulation that may grant mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) access to their networks.
Their case was put forward in a piece authored by Robert Ghiz, president and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), which appeared in The Hill Times today, a day after the federal government made headlines with its new wireless pricing tracker.
The article backs up the industry’s arguments against mandated MVNOs by citing a recent two-part study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which we reported on here and here. (The study was…
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OTTAWA — As part of the federal government’s stated commitment to help reduce the cost of some wireless plans by 25% over the next two years, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada Navdeep Bains today released data showing how prices have not yet declined for the data plans the department has chosen to study.
Over the next two years, the federal government expects the three major wireless providers and their flanker brands, which together represent 90% of the national market, to offer data plans in the 2 GB to 6 GB range that are 25% cheaper than they…
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Rogers in favour of transport subsidies for rural fund
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers and Bell are among those in favour of a “flexible” approach for the use of the Federal government’s yet-to-be-announced $1 billion Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) to support rural backbone, transport and last-mile projects, according to Rogers and a briefing note prepared for the rural economic development minister.
In a stakeholder page on its website, ISED asks those providing feedback on the program’s design to answer questions including: “In situations where government is only funding backbone investments, how could last-mile investments be facilitated?” And, “Are there particular…
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GATINEAU — Telus today received approval from the CRTC for a broadcasting licence to operate a national on-demand TV channel, which according to Telus’s application proposes to air a variety of general interest content.
Update: The wording of this new licence confused us and others a little bit, but we’ve been informed by Telus this is simply a licence to operate its own pay-per-view service.
Some of the English-language programming indicated in the application includes live and tape-delayed professional and amateur sports, and live and tape-delayed special events including programs of comedy sketches, improvisations, unscripted works, stand-up comedy, music and dance,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – For the first time in five years, private conventional TV revenues increased nationwide in 2019, according to CRTC data released earlier this month.
The accumulated broadcasting data from the Regulator for the year ended August 31, 2019, show an increase to $1.55 billion from $1.54 billion in 2018 for all Canadian OTA TV revenue streams, including local and national time sales, network payments, infomercials, syndication, small market and independent local programming funds and government grants. National ad sales grew a healthy 2.5% to $1.05 billion. The 2019 revenue increase effectively stopped a continued revenue slide since…
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OTTAWA — If the CRTC decides to mandate mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) access to incumbent wireless carriers’ networks, the deployment of 5G in Canada is likely to be deferred and curtailed, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers in the second part of a study released today by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
Following up on its previous report looking at the impact of mandated MVNOs on Canada’s telecom industry and economy, the second part of PwC’s study explores how wholesale MVNO access could impact Canada’s transition to 5G. The two-part study was commissioned by members of the CWTA. The study…
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TMG CEO says deck is stacked against him
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Telus has filed a complaint against Telelatino Media Group, accusing the ethnic broadcaster of undue preference, undue disadvantage and tied selling, in violation of the CRTC Wholesale Code. Telus is also asking for leniency from the Commission because it has been in non-compliance with BDU regulations because of this dispute.
In its regs, the CRTC says a distributor which carries a third-language, foreign-owned service must also carry, in the same tier, a Canadian service serving the same ethnic group as long as one is available. It’s known as…
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