Cogeco airs its HMNO model
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – On Wednesday, CRTC commissioners tried to get Bell Canada CEO Mirko Bibic and other company executives to pick what they might think is a least-bad mandated mobile virtual network operator option from the choices of MVNO models others have brought to the proceeding.
Each time, Bell said no MVNO is the only option.
While some operators have said, if forced to choose, the only palatable proposed MVNO model is the one from the Competition Bureau, which would see MVNO access mandated for existing regional operators like Freedom and Videotron, and only for five…
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To effectively regard the whole communications field through the broadcasting lens results in a distorted view
By Konrad von Finckenstein and James Mitchell
IN AN EFFORT TO PROVIDE a critical overview of the recent report by the Broadcast and Telecommunications Review Panel (the so-called Yale Report or BTLR Report), with particular focus on its ‘machinery’ recommendations (i.e., those having to do with institutional and ministerial mandates and powers), this analysis will highlight why the new-concept CRTC should be set aside.
What the panel recommended
The BTLR was asked, as part of its mandate, to comment on the institutional framework employed for the regulation…
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Québecor replies to Bell’s reply after the hearing
By Denis Carmel
MONTREAL – When Cartt.ca wrote about the CRTC hearing examining Bell Canada’s proposed purchase of V Télé, we had anticipated the advertising markets issue as well as program acquisition was an important issue since the CRTC’s Diversity of Voices policy considers the French and English Market separately – and that Québecor argues that if Bell were to get into the French conventional television side of the business, its weight in English Canada would give it an advantage when it negotiated with major players.
So when the reply came, the…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced Wednesday it is revoking the basic international telecommunications services (BITS) licences of 28 companies that have failed to comply with their conditions of licence.
In its decision, the Commission states the 28 companies failed to meet annual reporting requirements, such as the telecommunications industry data collection process requirements set out in Telecom Circular 2003-1 and Telecom Circular 2005-4.
The licensees in question were given until December 12, 2019 to file the required information or make representations as to why they should not be required to comply with the conditions of licence.
Having failed to…
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MANY OF THE ARGUMENTS in favour of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are not informed by facts, as evidenced by Samer Bishay’s editorial from February 16 (Wireless review is critical for Canada; MVNOs must be mandated).
Using actual data from Canada and other OECD countries, the evidence clearly demonstrates that implementing wholesale MVNO access regulation will harm Canadian consumers. MVNOs have little to no competitive impact as their business model focuses on identifying niches in the market, rather than competing in existing markets. They are generally not sustainable, as market saturation and competition yields few, if any, viable niches…
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By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – If you’re looking for drama, day one of the CRTC’s wireless policy review hearing was not for you.
That’s not to say it was boring, however. During the morning session, we got an engaged CRTC chair Ian Scott taking a deep, detailed dive into the Competition Bureau’s evidence as well as its idea for mandating a tempered vision for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in Canada.
The Bureau is not for broadly mandating an MVNO structure where any company that comes along wanting to sign up wireless subs using a CRTC-decree as the crowbar can get into…
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OTTAWA — The majority of Canadians polled recently by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) said they support new regulations that would promote greater wireless competition by forcing Canada’s largest carriers to share their infrastructure with new providers.
With its full research report scheduled to be released in March, the CIRA announced a few tidbits from the report on Tuesday, as the CRTC begins its two-week-long wireless policy review hearing. One of the key questions being considered by the Commission is whether or not wholesale network access should be mandated to allow mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to enter the…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) has filed a counter submission to the Governor-in-Council (a.k.a. federal cabinet) over petitions sent by the big incumbent carriers who are protesting the CRTC’s decision to lower wholesale prices for internet.
Last August, the CRTC lowered the final prices the incumbents – Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron, Cogeco, and Eastlink – can charge resellers, and made those rates retroactive to 2016, when interim rates were set. The incumbents protested to the Federal Court, the cabinet and the CRTC. The court granted the leave to appeal and has yet to…
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GATINEAU – One of the most important CRTC hearings in some time (perhaps the most hyped since Let’s Talk TV) begins Tuesday in Gatineau. Hundreds of thousands of words have been written about the upcoming hearing, including thousands by Cartt.ca breaking down the issues (please see our extensive coverage at the bottom of this piece), but it’s important to remember the Commission is interested in a number of specific questions.
Some things to remember. The CRTC already had the wireless carriers come up with low-cost data only plans. We wonder how those are selling? Wireless wholesale roaming is different than…
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GATINEAU – In a decision released February 14, the CRTC ruled resellers, such as Frontier Networks, an independent Toronto-based provider of broadband, voice, physical, and network security for businesses, can themselves offer services to other resellers. That CRTC decision now applies to all cable providers and clarifies the third party internet access rules.
In April 2018, the Commission received an application from Frontier where the company complained about Eastlink’s refusal to allow Frontier to continue to resell HSA service to its two reseller customers.
In December 2018, the CRTC ruled in favour of Frontier determining Eastlink had to let resellers…
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