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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Far north provider sees good traction
By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – Executives at Canadian wired and wireless service provider SSi Micro said Friday the Yellowknife-based company has seen “high” consumption of its lower-cost wireless plans and that those packages are a necessary component of the market.
“If you look at the disposition of users amongst all of our plans, you would find that a very large number of them are on a lower-end plan but you would also find that our consumers switch plans very easily,” SSi Micro’s founder and CEO Jeff Philipp (pictured in a cpac.ca screen cap) told CRTC commissioners…
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Bitrates will have to be lowered
By Steve Faguy
GATINEAU – Faced with escalating costs amid the coming 600 MHz repack of television stations, Corus Entertainment is proposing an “innovative solution” by using digital TV multiplexing to combine nearby Global TV over-the-air transmitters in eastern Ontario and the Okanagan region of B.C.
The CRTC published applications on Monday to remove seven retransmitters and instead put their programming as subchannels of another Global stations whose signal at least partially overlaps:
CIII-DT-6 Ottawa (Global Toronto) would carry CKWS-TV-2 Prescott (Global Kingston)
CHEX-DT Peterborough would carry CIII-DT-27 Peterborough (Global Toronto) and CKWS-DT-1 Brighton (Global Kingston)
…
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OTTAWA — In a study commissioned by U.S. industry association CTIA and conducted by New York-based NERA Economic Consulting, Canada’s wireless industry ranks highest in value proposition among G7 nations and Australia.
Canada’s wireless industry association, CWTA, highlighted the findings of the CTIA-commissioned study in a news release Monday afternoon. One of the study’s authors, Christian Dippon, is one of the experts employed by Telus for the CRTC’s wireless policy review process.
The study, titled A Comparison of the Mobile Wireless Value Proposition, was designed to show how the U.S. wireless industry compares to international peers when it comes…
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TORONTO — Independent Internet and TV service provider VMedia Inc. has submitted an objection to cabinet (officially the Governor-in-Council) in response to Bell Canada’s and the major incumbent cablecos’ petitions in November, in which they asked cabinet to overturn the CRTC’s August decision concerning final rates for aggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services.
VMedia filed its submission on February 14, the last day to do so, and has posted a copy on its website. On Thursday, the independent ISP issued a news release to publicize its submission to cabinet and to explain its arguments for why the Commission’s decision…
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OTTAWA — In two harshly worded decisions on Friday, the CRTC denied the licence renewal applications of CFPV-FM in Pemberton, B.C., and CKPM-FM in Port Moody, B.C.
“Given the severity and recurrence of the current instances of non-compliance; the station’s history and the licensee’s actions, which clearly demonstrate its poor understanding of its conditions of licence and regulatory obligations, or a lack of willingness to respect them; the licensee’s demonstrated inability to implement the necessary measures to ensure compliance; and its disregard for the Commission’s authority and for its responsibilities as a broadcaster, the Commission is not convinced that the…
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MONTREAL — Quebecor’s TVA Group media division reported Thursday its consolidated operating revenues in the fourth quarter of 2019 totalled $164.2 million, a year-over-year increase of 9.1% compared to Q4 2018.
Net income attributable to shareholders was $16 million, compared with net income attributable to shareholders of $9.5 million in the same quarter of 2018. TVA Group’s consolidated adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) totalled $33.6 million in Q4 2019, representing a 29.6% increase from the same quarter of last year.
The company’s broadcasting segment, which includes its TVA Network and specialty channels, reported adjusted EBITDA of $21.3…
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