It’s part of a war on personal financial identity
By Joanne McNeish
Once again a telecommunications company is telling its customers that they will no longer receive a paper bill. This time it’s Rogers.
What seems to some to be a non-issue evokes a strong reaction in others. When Telus eliminated paper bills, customers who prefer paper bills were shamed online. Others expressed solidarity with digitally disadvantaged groups or listed reasons why some consumers need paper bills.
But why do banks and billing organizations feel it necessary to stop sending paper bills and statements? One reason is the cost to print and mail paper….
Continue Reading
OTTAWA — The CRTC today gave Stingray Digital Group a specialty service licence for Stingray Hits.
The music video channel operates currently as an exempt, national discretionary service, but having exceeded the exempt-service threshold of 200,000 subscribers for three consecutive months, Stingray applied in March 2019 for a broadcasting licence.
In its decision, the CRTC says it is licensing Stingray Hits as an English-language discretionary service, even though Stingray expressed its intention to eventually broadcast all programming other than music video programming in French. In its June 2019 response to the CRTC’s request for information, Stingray indicated Stingray Hits’ programming…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA — The national capital will play host to delegates from around the world attending next fall’s Communications Policy and Regulation Week, organized by the International Institute of Communications (IIC).
The week’s events from October 5 to 8 will consist of the IIC’s flagship annual conference and its International Regulators’ Forum, to be hosted in Ottawa by the CRTC along with ISED’s Spectrum and Telecommunications Sector.
This international gathering brings together senior decision-makers from the telecommunications, media and technology sectors, allowing for collegial discussions on today’s most pressing communications issues, says the news release. The week’s events attract senior policy-makers,…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Shaw Communications plans to push Ontario to make mandatory the municipalities’ co-operation with telecommunications service providers to allow access to their infrastructure quickly for network builds, as urgency to lay the groundwork for 5G picks up.
The Alberta-based company registered lobby files with the province last week that reflect the telecom’s intention to bring the case to ministers that there is an urgent need for telecoms to obtain easy access to city infrastructure “to ensure connectivity can be built in a timely manner,” the registration says. It’s unclear how Shaw would like that co-operation to be…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
