OTTAWA — The two vacant commissioner spots at the CRTC have been filled, with the announcement Thursday by Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault that Ellen C. Desmond (pictured, left) has been appointed as commissioner for Atlantic Canada and Nunavut, and Nirmala Naidoo (right) as commissioner for Alberta and Northwest Territories.
Desmond is filling the vacancy left when former Atlantic Canada and Nunavut commissioner Christopher MacDonald’s five-year term ended June 16. Naidoo is taking over from former Alberta and Northwest Territories commissioner Linda Vennard, whose term expired in May. Each new commissioner will serve a five-year term.
Desmond, of New Brunswick,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor Media will not challenge the CRTC’s decision to approve Bell’s purchase of the V Network in the Federal Court of Appeal, according to a letter to the court.
The letter, sent June 23, said despite finding an error in the Commission’s approval of the purchase, it wishes to discontinue the proceeding.
Quebecor first filed a notice in the court in early May reserving its right to challenge the CRTC’s decision approving the purchase in April. It did not decide whether it wanted to appeal the ruling because at the time, the regulator had not…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – During one of the CRTC’s most anticipated hearings earlier this year, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle appeared before the Commission reviewing impending changes to the wireless industry and warned mandating new entrants without facilities to ride on the networks of the incumbents would mean many jobs lost, philanthropic spending slashed and reductions in investments.
It was a defining moment during the hearing. Drawing the attention of national media and critics on social media, it encompassed for some the realities of the competitive delicacy of the industry; for others, it was viewed as a baseless threat…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – On June 16th,, Videotron requested the CRTC intervene in a disagreement on access to support structures claiming Bell was using anti-competitive tactics to prevent Videotron from serving its customers.
In Videotron’s territory (Québec and part of Eastern Ontario), the vast majority of support structures are owned by Bell, according to Videotron’s application, and access to those structures are essential for the deployment of high-speed Internet access and to enjoy competition in the marketplace. In that regard, the CRTC has rules in place to deter multiplication of support structures and has tariffs in place to ensure smooth…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC has set the final deadline for submissions to its wireless policy review proceeding as July 15, 2020.
The original deadline was March 23, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commission announced it was suspending all deadlines between March 17 and April 10 associated with open proceedings. In a later announcement, the Commission said the submission deadline for the wireless policy review would remain suspended until further notice.
In a notice of consultation today, the Commission announced the revised deadline for final submissions (it added another round of comments asking if the Covid-19 crisis had…
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WHITEHORSE and GATINEAU — Far north telecom provider Northwestel has received interim approval from the CRTC to increase the usage caps on several of its terrestrial Internet service packages, which the carrier is seeking to have permanently increased in a new tariff application submitted June 1.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 situation, Northwestel has applied several times to the Commission for temporary relief on residential Internet usage, including the waiving of data overage charges, which the Commission approved first in March, then in April and also in May.
The Bell-owned company, due to its dominant position in…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC is extending the deadline for interventions to an application filed by Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) for a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) licence for Starlink.
As reported yesterday, SpaceX applied for the BITS licence on May 20, and interested parties had until June 19 to comment. The company wants to serve rural and remote areas with satellite delivered broadband using low earth orbit birds.
OneWeb Global (another company which also wants to serve the far north with LEO technology, but is also in bankruptcy protection) submitted a request to the Commission on…
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GATINEAU – On May 20, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) filed an application with the CRTC for a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) Licence.
Interested parties had until June 19 to intervene and more than 1,800 of them (mostly individual Canadians and businesses supporting the idea) did.
A BITS licence is obtained by submitting an affidavit to the CRTC and is, for all intents and purposes, a mere registration regime. Nearly all are approved.
The mystery, in this case, resides in the fact that after filing its affidavit, SpaceX triggered so many interventions, which is truly unusual and not exactly useful. As of…
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GATINEAU — Cartt.ca readers may remember during February’s wireless policy review hearing Telus CEO and president Darren Entwistle said his company’s board had signed a resolution to cut network investments by $1 billion, which would result in 5,000 job losses, if the CRTC mandated mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).
During his appearance at the hearing, Entwistle offered to file the board’s resolution in confidence to the CRTC, which Telus subsequently did on March 10. According to the Commission, Telus filed the board resolution document entirely in confidence and did not file an abridged version for the public record.
That was…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC public hearing into CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcast licences renewal will take place January 11, 2021 in Gatineau, the CRTC announced Monday. The hearing, originally scheduled for May 25, was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Because the hearing will occur after CBC/Radio-Canada’s current group of licences is set to expire on August 31, the CRTC Monday renewed the public broadcaster’s licences for another year until August 31, 2021. This includes all of CBC/Radio-Canada’s English- and French-language television and radio programming undertakings. The Commission is also extending the distribution orders for CBC News Network, ICI RDI and…
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