First CRTC virtual hearing, in the time of Covid-19
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – On May 28th, the CRTC announced it would hold a virtual hearing to hear from five radio stations which appear to be in serious non-compliance with their terms of licence.
The stations in question are: CICR-FM Parrsboro, CKMN-FM Rimouski/Mont-Joli, CJWI Montréal, CJMS Saint-Constant and CFOR-FM Maniwaki.
The hearing was supposed to be held on May 12 but was put off to June 16, on May 28th. It will last three days, all online. A live audio feed of the hearing will be available on the CRTC website.
Given the…
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GATINEAU — In a decision published today, the CRTC has denied an application by Blue Ant Media to reduce the amount it’s required to spend annually on programs of national interest (PNI) for the eight specialty channels it operates in Canada.
Blue Ant Media’s channels include A.Side, BBC Earth, Cottage Life, HIFI, Love Nature, Makeful, T+E and Smithsonian Channel. In April 2019, Blue Ant filed an application to amend the condition of licence for its channels’ group licence in order to reduce its PNI expenditure requirements from 13.5% to 5% of the previous broadcast year’s gross revenues, as of September…
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By Lynn Greiner
THERE ARE MANY WAYS to get broadband connectivity into rural and remote areas, and at Canada’s Rural and Remote Broadband virtual conference (CRRBC) on Tuesday, a panel of experts spent a lively hour discussing the models they use and the challenges they face.
Led by moderator Colleen McCormick, who leads the Connected Communities BC program in the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Competitiveness, panelists included Lisa Severson, director of communications at the Eastern Ontario Regional Network (EORN), Paul Ouimette, director of operations at NEOnet, Brian Cullen, chief administrative officer at the municipality of…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC has approved Bell Canada’s application to conduct a 90-day test of an artificial intelligence-based system the telco has developed for blocking fraudulent and scam phone calls, the Commission announced in a decision Tuesday.
Bell first made the request in July 2019 and wanted to conduct the call-blocking trial using AI technology last fall. The Commission came back with an information disclosure directive in January, which Bell subsequently responded to and provided the required information.
In its decision today approving Bell’s 90-day call-blocking trial, the Commission set out a number of conditions, including:
Bell shall…
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By Ken Kelley
COULD SOME OF CANADA’S rail lines and dormant ones which have become rail trails be important to helping unlock rural broadband connectivity in underserved parts of the country?
This was one of several ideas put forward during a panel discussion on the role of governments at Canada’s Rural and Remote Broadband Conference series, which moved to an online format due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Moderated by Cartt.ca publisher and editor Greg O’Brien, the panel of experts included representatives from provincial and local government, and two operators. The guests provided a broad scope of varying perspectives from regions that each…
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“We don’t fit their business model”
By Lynn Greiner
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES FACE UNIQUE challenges when it comes to establishing broadband connectivity. At Canada’s Rural and Remote Broadband virtual conference (CRRBC) on Monday, a panel of experts who are addressing those challenges talked about what they’re doing, the roadblocks they’re facing, and why they’re persevering.
Moderated by Kim Barrington, Rogers Communications’ director of operations, enterprise division and chairperson for the Rogers’ Indigenous Peoples’ Network, the panel included Sally Braun, general manager, Western James Bay Telecom Network, Lyle Fabian, president/owner, KatloTech Communications, Rob McMahon, associate professor of communication and technology, Continue Reading
Says change disproportionately impacts their customers
By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – Third party internet service provider TekSavvy, along with the Competitive Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), said in complaints to the CRTC that a change to Rogers’ network management practices that would constrain some users’ internet usage during the Covid-19 pandemic would disproportionately affect subscribers of wholesale service providers.
Rogers submitted an application to the CRTC in May revising its access tariff to include a section outlining the company’s ability to apply internet traffic management practices (ITMP). “During these periods, any end-user whose disproportionate consumption of shared resources required for internet service is…
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TORONTO — After 30 years at Rogers Communications, Colette Watson (above) is stepping down as senior vice-president of television and broadcast operations for Rogers Sports and Media. Her last day at Rogers will be June 15, the company announced today.
“Colette has been an invaluable member of the Rogers team and a driving force behind industry change. Over her 30-year career, whether it was in cable, regulatory, or media, she consistently delivered under pressure, championed what’s right, and put the company first,” said Jordan Banks, president of Rogers Sports and Media, in the news release. “Faced with industry challenges,…
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TORONTO – Independent ISP and TV service provider VMedia Thursday announced the launch of RiverTV, Canada’s first live TV and on-demand streaming channel platform.
Such services are known as virtual multichannel video programming distributors in the United States (such as Sling TV, PlayStation Vue, AT&T TV Now and others) but in Canada, the company is sticking with our own vernacular, so RiverTV is a vBDU, or virtual broadcast distribution undertaking.
Like conventional BDUs, and VMedia TV is one of those, RiverTV packages top specialty channels Canadian programming groups including Corus, Blue Ant Media, Channel Zero and Wildbrain, as well as…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – On May 15, the CRTC sent a request for information to parties involved in its wireless policy review asking: Does the ongoing situation with respect to the Covid-19 pandemic change the views you have previously put forward on any of the issues being examined in this proceeding? Explain why or why not with supporting rationale and evidence, as necessary.”
We expected few minds to have changed and the responses filed on May 29, were almost unanimous. We’re paraphrasing here, but the answers are: “The current crisis reinforces what we’ve been saying.” The anti mobile virtual network…
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