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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Including two that won’t cost a cent
By Greg O’Brien
CAL MILLAR DOESN’T want to kick the federal government while it is scrambling hard to keep Canadians healthy and our economy upright. However, broadcasters need more help and Millar and his fellow broadcasters have some ideas.
The president of Channel Zero (owners of CHCH, Rewind and Silver Screen Classics) is genuinely thankful for what the federal government has already done for broadcasters, and the country, in trying to manage an unprecedented health crisis that has decimated the economy while we all tried, and try, to do the right things to make sure…
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By Doug Barrett
HERITAGE MINISTER STEVEN Guilbeault’s appearance at the virtual Banff World Media Festival Tuesday morning was a bit of a revelation to me, and in a surprisingly good way.
We usually show up to these things expecting the three Ps: politics, platitudes and postponement – and certainly the various industry and media appearances of one of Mr. Guilbeault’s Liberal predecessors met all three of those tests, sometimes in the case of her appearance on Toute le Monde en Parle in 2017, famously so.
However, Guilbeault’s time Tuesday was, I almost hate to say it, refreshingly different.
Why?
First, he was well…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The next tranche of funding from the federal government’s $500-million emergency response fund for cultural, heritage and amateur sports organizations during the pandemic announced two months ago will be rolled out in the coming days, while legislation modernizing the Broadcasting Act will have to wait until Parliament resumes its normal sitting this fall, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said on Tuesday during a Covid-19-prompted virtual edition of the Banff World Media Festival.
The deadline for applications for the first phase of funding concluded on June 12, and was targeted to organizations which have already received…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – During day two of a hearing over whether or not to allow certain radio stations to keep their licences because of repeated non-compliance with their licence conditions, the CRTC heard from the owners of CPAM (1410 AM), a commercial ethnic AM station that has seen four licence terms with apparent non-compliance issues, as we reported this week.
As well, CPAM had to respond to questions about CJMS, a country music (1040 AM) station. There aren’t very many AM music stations left.
As with the other cases heard this week, the company is mainly operated by volunteers…
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Was on wireless policy review panel
GATINEAU – The five-year term of Christopher MacDonald, the CRTC commissioner for Atlantic Canada and Nunavut expired Tuesday June 16, leaving the Regulator down at least two commissioners.
Former Alberta and Northwest Territories commissioner Linda Vennard’s term expired in May.
The federal government called for applications earlier this year for their replacements but have not named anyone, which is not surprising given how the Covid-19 crisis has delayed everything else. We say “at least” two commissioners because the Regulator can have up to 13 and currently has seven active commissioners. Chairman Ian Scott’s is the…
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