MONTREAL – Bell Canada said Thursday it is on track to reach 137,000 more homes than originally planned by the end of this month with its wireless home internet solution.
The company said it accelerated the rollout of WHI to 180 communities in rural Quebec and Ontario areas as part of its response to the Covid-19 crisis.
“Bell’s wireless home internet program is dedicated to bringing full broadband Internet speeds to rural communities and other traditionally underserved locations. And with WHI usage growing 40% over the last month, the Covid-19 crisis has clearly underscored the value of the service to customers…
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By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – The CRTC’s emergency services working group (ESWG) is testing Apple technology that allows first responders to get a more accurate location of where a 9-1-1 call is originating from, Cartt.ca has learned.
The proof of concept trials are part of the Regulator’s progress toward next-generation 9-1-1, which will include more ways for people to communicate with emergency dispatchers while facilitating a faster, more accurate retrieval of location to improve response times to distress calls.
The California-based company and the ESWG – consisting of telecoms, public safety answering points and 9-1-1 specialists – met in late September 2019…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CRTC public hearing into the renewal of CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcast licences that was supposed to happen in May has been postponed until further notice, but the deadline for interventions remained back at February 20th.
However, that did not stop Quebecor from sending a letter to the CRTC on April 14 requesting the Commission put the letter on the renewal’s record, so the issues it raises can be discussed at the hearing, whenever that might happen.
Quebecor also brought the issues to the attention of the federal government. It’s a complaint made before,…
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WHAT THE EORN MEDIA RELEASE this week omits is that, to the best of my knowledge, mobile operators require spectrum to provide service – and virtually all mobile spectrum in Eastern Ontario was bought at auction years ago by Rogers and Bell.
So, these two large companies are apparently the only two entities that have the spectrum and infrastructure to fulfill EORN’s objectives. Other mobile operators will, sometime in the future, be able to use their networks by paying roaming fees to Bell and Rogers.
Not a bad business plan for the two giant corporations.
My guess is that with this…
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WHITEHORSE – Northwestel told its customers this week it will extend its temporary Internet usage relief during the Covid-19 crisis for every Northwestel residential Internet customer until May 31st, subject to CRTC approval.
The company received CRTC approval to waive any overage charges for customers exceeding their Internet usage caps through to the end of April in terrestrially-served communities (which are most communities in Yukon, NWT, northern Alberta and northern B.C., says the company).
The company has also been augmenting capacity to accommodate the increase in usage on its terrestrial network. All Northwestel’s terrestrial Internet packages and rates are regulated,…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced Monday it has extended the deadlines for responses to its request for information and for interventions to the proceeding regarding paper billing practices of telecom and TV service providers.
The new deadline dates are as follows:
Responses to the Commission’s request for information must be filed by June 1, 2020.
Interventions must be filed by July 3, 2020.
Replies to interventions must be submitted by July 24, 2020.
crtc.gc.ca
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By Ahmad Hathout
THE CANADIAN NETWORK OPERATORS Consortium (CNOC) is facing fresh denials from some incumbents to a request by the organization to lift certain network restrictions during the Covid-19 crisis.
The three-part ask from CNOC, which represents smaller third party internet access operators that rent part of the network of the larger providers, includes a lifting of capacity restraints free-of-charge, expedited network augmentations through more physical interconnections, and wholesale payment term flexibility of 60 additional days to help support customers who are unable to pay on time.
The letter was sent over the course of the past couple of weeks to…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved Bell Canada’s March 24th application seeking to block fraudulent what are called Wangiri fraud calls on its networks, at least until June 1.
Wangiri calls work the following way: one gets a phone call, most often on a cell phone and it rings only once. Wangiri is Japanese for “one ring”. Then the victim is tempted to call back, thinking they missed a call. When it does, the “bad actor” will try to keep the victim on the phone for as long as possible and when the victim gets its telephone…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Back in the fall, Vidéotron stopped offering its retail high-speed Giga Internet services arguing that the final wholesale third party internet access rates imposed by the Commission in August 2019 made it impossible for the company to affordably offer the service to anyone at all.
It then asked the CRTC for permission to withdraw its wholesale equivalent service rates, therefore making impossible to resellers to offer that service using Videotron. Even though there was no take-up yet to this service on a wholesale basis, TekSavvy objected Videotron’s application.
One of its arguments is that since…
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GATINEAU — In light of its new role under the Accessible Canada Act (ACA), which came into effect in July 2019, the CRTC announced today it is launching a proceeding to seek input into new regulations the Commission will create regarding the accessibility reporting requirements for broadcasting undertakings, Canadian telecom common carriers and telecom service providers.
The call for comments was made in the Commission’s Telecom and Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2020-124, published today. The ACA establishes three main requirements for regulated entities, which are related to accessibility plans, progress reports and feedback processes. Each of these requirements…
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