OTTAWA – When writing about a discussion between five panellists and a moderator, it can be difficult to report on all of what was said but a Tuesday panel session on internet affordability may have been most notable for what was not said.
The Canadian Chapter of the Internet Society held its second annual Digital Access Day, which brought together a variety of thought leaders from NGOs, the tech sector, government, universities, and those most affected by the digital divide to discuss broadband access issues.
The panel on affordability talked about how they believe the price of communications in Canada is…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC estimates that its total telecommunications regulatory costs for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, defined as April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020, will be $36.454 million.
The Telecommunications Fees Regulations, 2010 (Fees Regulations) provide for the payment of annual telecommunications fees by certain telecommunications service providers, as set out in sections 2 and 3 of the Fees Regulations.
The annual adjustment amount referred to in subsection 3(5) of the Fees Regulations is $0.024 million for the 2018-2019 fiscal year.
The Commission said Wednesday that the net billing for its telecommunications fees for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, taking into account the adjustment above, is…
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TORONTO – While there are no Canadian carrier CEOs on the speakers’ schedule this year, those executives not in attendance will certainly be paying attention to next week’s Canadian Telecom Summit when it opens Monday morning.
(Ed note: For long-time CTS attendees, this year it is being held at the International Centre, which is just up Airport Road a ways from its former Congress Centre home.)
The event kicks off with an interview on stage with Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada (the questions, however, are coming from another Cisco-ite, Ian Campbell, the company’s CTO, service provider mobility and automation, so…
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TORONTO – While a wide range of hopeful competitors have backed a mandated MVNO, or some sort of variant on it, regime from the CRTC, CFOs from two of Canada’s Big Three Telecoms – Glen LeBlanc (Bell) and Telus’ Doug French – insisted last week such a move would be irresponsible of the Commission to implement.
Speaking at TD Securities Telecom and Media Forum in Toronto last week, the executives, in separate presentations, touted their respective company investments in having built the infrastructure that now serves Canadians from coast to coast. (MVNO =…
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OTTAWA – Wireless carriers will have to provide more granular data to the CRTC, after all.
As part of its submission to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services, the Competition Bureau wants to, among other things, do a detailed study on what happened locally (not just in provinces and nationally) when new wireless competitors to the Big Three (Rogers, Bell and Telus) were introduced. To do that, the Bureau needs far more detailed data than the CRTC has asked for in its original requests for information upon the proceeding’s call.
The wireless carriers and…
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GATINEAU – So much work and hope was dashed yesterday for those hoping to replace Rogers Media’s OMNI on the TV dial.
The CRTC has decided Rogers will continue to operate its must-carry national ethnic language TV channel after renewing its license for OMNI Regional for three more years until August 2023. Its current license expires next summer.
This means the Commission has denied all of the other hopefuls, each of whom had rather interesting proposals for a new channel to serve the ethnic market.
“The new service, which will succeed Rogers’ existing OMNI Regional service, will be available on all digital…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has decided Rogers will continue to operate its must-carry national ethnic language TV channel after renewing its license for OMNI Regional for three years until August 2023. Its current license expires next summer.
This means the Commission has denied all of the other hopefuls, each of whom had rather interesting proposals for a new channel to serve the ethnic market (see links below).
“The new service, which will succeed Rogers’ existing OMNI Regional service, will be available on all digital basic television packages throughout Canada,” reads the CRTC press release. “The new OMNI…
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Bell also asks for return of long-term contracts
GATINEAU – Competition in the Canadian wireless market is already heated and getting hotter, resulting in an overall and ongoing decline in wireless prices while new competitors continue build out new facilities and take customers from them, so why upset that momentum now, and just at the dawn of 5G, Rogers, Bell and Telus have asked in their submissions to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services.
It will surprise no one that the submissions largely hit many of the same themes, especially in their stance against mandating mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs),…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC’s decision on who will get, or even whether to grant, a mandatory carriage TV licence under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act for a national, multilingual and multi-ethnic television service, will come on Thursday at 11 a.m.
The Commission held a four-day hearing at the end of November to hear from Rogers, which owns the existing 9(1)(h) license under the OMNI brand until August 2020, as well as applications from Ethnic Channels Group (Voices), an ATN/Telelatino partnership (CanadaWorld), Bell Media (OurTV), Corrcan Media Group (no name), ICTV (Tele1/Tele2), Amber Broadcasting (Amber News Network), and Multicultural Described…
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OTTAWA – Recent, large, price increases imposed by Bell Canada on independent telcos in Ontario and Quebec for access to Bell’s unbundled local loops must be overturned by the Competition Bureau, say those independent telecommunications providers.
In a letter sent Friday May 17 to the Bureau’s Anthony Durocher, deputy commissioner, mergers and monopolistic practices branch, the Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (a group of 21 independent telcos in rural Ontario, Quebec, and B.C. which serve about 180,000 access lines) called for:
“An investigation by the Bureau into price increases recently announced by Bell Canada applicable to Unbundled Local Loops (ULLs), which are…
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