HALIFAX — Develop Nova Scotia, a Crown corporation responsible for developing and implementing a strategy to provide high-speed Internet access across the province, today announced the expansion of several existing contracts for Internet for Nova Scotia Initiative projects, which will provide access to an additional 6,700 homes and businesses.
Projects associated with these scope expansions will reduce the number of remaining unserved or underserved homes and businesses by more than half, says Develop Nova Scotia’s press release. The contract extensions are for project agreements with ISPs Mainland Telecom and Bell Canada which will provide connections to approximately 30…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — In an unprecedented move, a coalition of former CBC management executives, journalists, producers and other employees have sent a letter to the public broadcaster’s board of directors asking them to end CBC’s Tandem, a “dedicated service for branded content” which the letter writers say produces advertising indistinguishable from journalism.
According to a press release issued today by the former employees, the CBC board has agreed to discuss the new Tandem venture at a meeting on Wednesday with CBC president Catherine Tait and vice-president Barb Williams.
Among the former CBC employees who have signed the letter to the board…
Continue Reading
By Tim Denton
CHRIS MACDONALD, UNTIL RECENTLY a commissioner of the CRTC, and Peter Menzies, former vice-chairman of telecom at the same agency, recently published a paper called Building Internet Access is Job 1. We think it is a useful contribution to public discussion of matters of national importance. There is much that the Internet Society likes. Before we get on to the subject of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) – where we differ – we want to set forth our agreements of several large issues.
Its central thesis is regulation involves bargains where various conflicting objectives must be balanced.
Decision-makers…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU — Telus has applied to the CRTC to have its broadcasting distribution undertaking in Rimouski, Que., currently operating under exemption, to be added to its regional licence for operating terrestrial BDU services in Quebec.
Telus’s Rimouski undertaking has completed two consecutive years of serving more than 21,000 subscribers and is therefore required to be re-licensed, says the company’s Part 1 application dated November 11 and posted to the Commission’s website today.
“Telus wishes to amend the current licence for its Regional Licence for various locations in Quebec to once again include the serving area of Rimouski, Quebec. Telus requests…
Continue Reading
Not so fast, say opposition members
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In second reading debate Wednesday and Thursday, on Bill C-10, the amendments to the Broadcasting Act, many issues were debated but we noted that the minister of Canadian Heritage wanted to proceed rapidly.
“Divisions only benefit large multi-billion dollar companies, not our constituents. That is why I am urging all members of the House to work together constructively and ensure that this important bill passes through second reading hastily, so that the committee can start doing its important work to amend, improve and move forward,” said Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault.
He got…
Continue Reading
By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – While pleased to see some recent positive signs from the federal government which may help preserve traditional local media like TV and radio stations, Bell Media’s Nikki Moffat told delegates of the Canadian Telecom Summit on Thursday more needs to happen, more quickly.
The president, radio and local TV and SVP finance decried how huge foreign media streaming giants, which “don’t pay tax” are driving down revenues and consumption of Canadian media. “The result of these global entrants is driving down consumption of domestic video (which) went from 83% in 2011 and now eight years…
Continue Reading
And why there’s much more to rural connectivity than funding
By Lynn Greiner
AN ADDITIONAL $1.75 BILLION for rural broadband, which the federal government announced this month, is certainly a good step, albeit delayed, in the right direction. But, it’s not enough.
“It’s not a silver bullet,” said Telus vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel Stephen Schmidt during the Canadian Telecom Summit’s annual Regulatory Blockbuster session on Wednesday. “It won’t work on its own… In our view, complementary spectrum policy reform is an essential companion piece that will ensure that the networks that get built with or without public…
Continue Reading
By Denis Carmel
ROBERT GHIZ, THE Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) president and CEO gave a strong speech at the virtual Telecom Summit on Wednesday focusing on the importance of the wireless industry and its contribution to Canadian economy and the role Canadian carriers continue to play in the pandemic.
“We are among world leaders in 4G network performance,” he said. “Opensignal’s benchmarking report earlier this year found that Canadians not only enjoy the fastest download speeds in North America, but the fastest in the world.”
Also, “a study commissioned by the U.S. industry association CTIA, looked at how the U.S….
Continue Reading
FORT ERIE, Ont. — In an application posted Tuesday to the CRTC’s website, radio station owner Byrnes Communications is asking that a condition of licence, related to the broadcasting of local news content, be removed from the licence of its CFLZ FM station in Fort Erie, Ont.
Burlington, Ont.-based Byrnes Communications acquired CFLZ FM (along with CJED FM in Niagara Falls) from Vista Radio in February 2018, and “inherited a legacy Condition of Licence (COL) placed on CFLZ FM over a decade prior,” reads Byrnes’ supplementary brief to its application.
The COL in question (condition #3) states: “During each broadcast week,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — While applauding the federal government’s decision to increase funding available through its Universal Broadband Fund to $1.75 billion, independent service provider Distributel today said now it’s time for the CRTC to enforce its 2019 wholesale rate decision to create certainty for independents and stimulate investment and innovation (something fellow independent TekSavvy is also advocating).
Enforcement of the 2019 decision will not only establish rate certainty, it will provide independents with a retroactive overpayment refund which Distributel says it “will use predominantly to accelerate efforts to expand rural broadband and invest in other innovative initiatives that…
Continue Reading
