By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers Media and Corus Entertainment have renewed their lobby registrations with a topic once thought passed its best-before date: junk food advertising restrictions.
In 2016, Senate Bill S-228 was introduced as an amendment to the Food and Drugs Act with the goal of severely restricting the ability of advertisers to market unhealthy food and drinks to children in an effort to fight obesity. Rogers, Bell and Corus began lobbying on the issue, with the latter warning that severely limiting TV advertising of these types of products from between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 9…
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OTTAWA – The Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology has adopted a motion to launch a new study on the accessibility and affordability of telecommunications services in Canada.
The committee will examine several aspects of telecommunications, including 5G expansion, the spectrum allocation process, rural Internet access, competition, and data privacy, which sounds an awful lot like the topics just covered in the yet-to-be-completed CRTC wireless policy review proceeding.
The committee is asking Canadians to submit briefs which must not exceed 1,000 words and must be sent not later than April 9th, 2020 INDU@parl.gc.ca
The committee also adopted a motion to…
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LONDON — Regional broadband project SWIFT (Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology) issued Monday a request for proposal (RFP) to improve broadband infrastructure in Oxford County (between Brantford and London).
The project budget is set at approximately $8.2 million with SWIFT offering to fund up to two-thirds of the total project cost. Service providers have until June 19, 2020 to submit proposals and are required to contribute a minimum of one-third of the cost of the awarded project, the news release says.
This is the third phase of SWIFT’s initiative, which aims to improve rural broadband infrastructure in southwestern Ontario and builds…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications last week announced its keynote speakers for IIC Canada 2020, to be held April 20-21, at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
The big names are:
Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage
Monika Ille, president and CEO, APTN
Grace Koh, U.S. representative and head of delegation to the International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference 2019
Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO, Quebecor
Ian Scott, CRTC chair
Catherine Tait, CBC president and CEO
Details of IIC Canada plenary sessions are also now available on the IIC Canada website. The session subjects…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications announced Thursday it was substantially finished with its total business transformation plan announced in February 2018.
The TBT was focused on “reinventing our operating model to better meet the changing needs and expectations of consumers and businesses,” reads the press release. The program saw a large number of employees leave the company, cushioned by a generous voluntary departure package.
“As part of this journey, we have become a more focused, agile and accountable organization, which has allowed us to drive meaningful productivity improvements in the way we operate and invest so that we can deliver a…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – In Toronto on Thursday, Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains gave Canada’s Big Three wireless carriers an ultimatum to lower their prices within two years while increasing competition by giving smaller and regional telecom companies a chance to bid on 50MHz of a 3500 MHz spectrum auction to be held later this year.
Bains spoke to Parliament Hill correspondent Christopher Guly prior to making his major announcement.
Christopher Guly: So you’re forcing the big guys to lower their prices and giving smaller, regional guys a break to help do that.
Navdeep Bains: You’re right. The spectrum set-aside is…
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3500 MHz auction rules to be part of the release
TORONTO – Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Navdeep Bains will deliver a “speech on the Government of Canada’s commitment to make life more affordable for Canadians,” at the Scarborough Civic Centre Library at 4 p.m. Thursday, it was announced today.
Sources tell Cartt.ca the announcement will define more of the parameters around the Liberal government’s commitment to a 25% reduction in Canadian mobile wireless prices going forward and also mark the release of the rules for the 3500 MHz spectrum auction which will happen later this year.
Spectrum costs have long…
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I AM WRITING FIRST to thank you for your coverage of our press release and story.
However, I am also writing to express my disappointment at the editorial insertion after the seventh paragraph of your story.
The portion in parentheses purports to clarify where Bell and the Cable Carrier’s got their numbers. In doing so it seems intended to undercut the position we have taken and give the incumbents an excuse for the misrepresentation. In fact, Cartt.ca’s insertion is misleading in itself.
VMedia addressed that exact source that the incumbents were relying on in our submission, in paragraphs 55 and 56,…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC initiated Tuesday a show cause proceeding asking why it’s necessary for wholesale high-speed access (HSA) service providers to make a distinction between wholesale HSA services for residential consumers and those for business customers when providing access to competitors.
As the Commission says in its notice of consultation, some wholesale HSA service providers include provisions and language in their tariff pages that differentiate between residential and business wholesale HSA services. As background, back in 2010, the Commission determined wholesale HSA service providers must provide their services to competitors at speeds that match all of the…
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OTTAWA — On Tuesday, the same day it denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) to require Koodo Mobile and other wireless service providers to provide paper bills upon request, the CRTC announced a new proceeding looking into the issue of paper billing.
In its decision against PIAC and NPF, the Commission says it found “there was no existing legislature or regulatory obligation that mandated the provision of paper bills and, since the rationale and evidence on the record of this proceeding related largely to Koodo alone, it would not…
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