GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable carriers (Eastlink, Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron) Wednesday made the point to federal cabinet that all the CRTC decision on new third party internet access aggregated wholesale rates does is disincentivize needed investment in high-speed networks, which is contrary to public interest.
November 13th was the deadline to file petitions to Cabinet (technically to the Governor-in-Council with cabinet) on the August CRTC decision to set lower final rates for TPIA – and force the incumbents to pay three years of retroactive overpayments to independent ISP resellers – and as the cable carriers argue, “by reducing…
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GATINEAU – A day after getting a month delay to file its Review and Vary application to the CRTC on the final rates it set for aggregated wholesale high-speed access services, Bell Canada filed a an official Petition to Cabinet to overturn the CRTC Decision – as did the incumbent cable providers.
Bell had already filed an appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal, on September 16, too.
In its petition (officially to the Governor-in-Council) Bell is asking Cabinet to: “restore the wholesale rates that were in place immediately prior to the issuance of the Order, with no retroactive effect,” the…
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CRTC Broadband Fund calls for more applications
GATINEAU — The CRTC today issued its second call for applications to the Broadband Fund, widening the eligibility of projects to include those that promise to improve broadband access in geographic areas that do not currently have access to universal service objective-level broadband services, including areas that were eligible in the first call for applications.
The CRTC’s universal service objective for fixed Internet access service is that all Canadians have access to at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 10 Mbps upload, with an option of unlimited data. For mobile wireless services,…
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GATINEAU – When the CRTC issued decision 2019-288 in August 2019, its decision on third party internet access wholesale rates, everyone grasped the complexity of the file but perhaps not all had considered the complexity of concurring applications to different avenues of appeal.
Of course, the same players are involved in the various proceedings but this is why, when the cable carriers and Bell asked for an extension of 60 days to file a Review & Vary application to the Commission, nine days before the end of the 90-day periods to officially file, many were skeptical…
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Will a new ISED minister mean a 3500 MHz auction delay?
OTTAWA – Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Heritage Canada could new ministers when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveils his new cabinet on November 20.
The rumour mill has Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna replacing Navdeep Bains, whose deft handling of complicated telecom and technology files earned him respect from within those industries.
“I think she can do it. She managed to skate through environment without getting her head lopped off, so she must know what she’s doing,” said John Lawford, executive director and general counsel of the…
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“THE STATION APPEARS to be in non-compliance with its regulatory obligations relating to the filing of… If found in non-compliance, this would be the third consecutive licence term in which the station would be in non-compliance.”
“According to our records, it appears the station is in non-compliance with its regulatory obligations relating to… If found in non-compliance, this would be the second consecutive licence term in which the station would be in non-compliance.”
“The station appears to be in non-compliance with its obligations relating to the filing of complete and accurate radio monitoring materials. As well, it appears that it did…
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MONTREAL – During Quebecor’s third quarter conference call with financial analysts last week Videotron president and CEO Jean-François Pruneau shed some light on the company’s motivation behind its decision to stop offering its highest broadband speeds at retail and wholesale.
Last month, as we reported, Videotron wrote the CRTC to remove its offered wholesale tariffs on its 1 Gig service, indicating it would stop offering it to wholesalers and therefore also had to stop offering it to their retail customers, too.
At the time, Videotron refused to comment on its motivation although many speculated it was directly…
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TORONTO – "I wish I could say as Canadians we could have as much pride in the state of the telecommunications industry as we do in our sports teams," CNOC president and CEO of Distributel Communications Matt Stein told attendees at the Canadian ISP Summit Tuesday as he presented the results of a survey from Leger commissioned by his company.
The report, Broken Connection: Canadian Consumers' Views on Large Telecommunications Providers, was based on an online survey of 1,535 Canadians conducted in October of this year using Leger's online panel.
"The industry is at an interesting…
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Signs new deal with Metro
MONTREAL – Music platform and radio broadcaster Stingray Group say overall second quarter revenues rise by 120.7% to $76.6 million, due largely to last year’s acquisition of Newcap Broadcasting’s chain of radio stations.
That said, noted the company in its release, its recurring broadcasting and commercial music revenues increased 9.4% to $33.5 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2019, as compared to last year’s Q2.
Radio accounted for 49.4% of total revenues at $37.8 million in the quarter and overall organic growth came in at 3%. Subscription video on demand subscribers rose…
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Incumbents ask for two more months to file their R&V of the wholesale rates decision
GATINEAU – Following the August CRTC decision on final rates for aggregated wholesale high-speed internet access services (CRTC Telecom Order 2019-288), it was obvious by their collective reaction that the incumbent ISPs would challenge the decision, by any and all means necessary.
They went to the Federal Court of Appeal already and were granted a stay, as we reported, and the next step is to ask the CRTC to review, rescind or vary its own decision, as provided…
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