OTTAWA – Back in 2015, the CRTC concluded a review of telecommunications wholesale wireline services. In that decision the Commission set a speed threshold for aggregated wholesale services of 100 Mbps.
In November 2018, the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) filed an application to review and vary the 2015 decision. Amongst others, CNOC sought, the removal of the Speed Cap on aggregated wholesale services on an expedited basis.
On March 20, 2019, the CRTC granted that interim relief while it continued to examine the file in front of it.
As said Chris Seidl, Executive Director, Telecommunications, in…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – After hearing from a range of Canadians via Facebook in February and March (some who had cogent complaints and arguments, some who, um, did not…), the CRTC this week gathered up final written submissions on its new proposed Internet code of conduct for providers of retail fixed internet services.
Canadian carriers generally support such a code, or at least the idea of one, which would “enhance the transparency of Internet contracts, help consumers, regardless of who their Internet provider is, to better understand their rights and responsibilities under these contracts and enable them to…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – In a ruling issued Tuesday, April 23,2019, the Ontario Superior Court decided to stay a case brought by Iristel/Ice Wireless against Telus which relates to a dispute between the two companies over failed calls to the North.
This is the latest development between the two telcos who have each blamed the other for hundreds of phone calls to northern Canada failing to get through.
While the CRTC issued its interim ruling in November, making sure calls went through properly, it still must determine whether the traffic at issue is wrongly stimulated by Iristel as Telus claims…
Continue Reading
“Individuals can’t hide behind their company’s structure or online entities”
OTTAWA – The CRTC has nailed the corporate director of a business caught violating Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL), the first time that an individual is held liable under CASL for violations committed by a corporation.
The Commission on Tuesday fined Brian Conley $100,000 after an investigation determined that his discount deals website nCrowd sent unsolicited commercial emails to Canadians without their consent. In addition, the unsubscribe mechanism in the emails did not function properly.
Operating under multiple business names such as nCrowd, Teambuy, DealFind, and Dealathons, the emails offered promotional vouchers…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has decided what the Competition Bureau wants is too much to ask of Canada’s wireless service providers.
On March 8, 2019, the Competition Bureau wrote to the CRTC as part of the Regulator’s review of mobile wireless service proceeding, requesting the Commission demand a series of data from the wireless service providers (WSPs) which would allow the Bureau to conduct an analysis of the competitive landscape.
As Cartt.ca reported, the WSPs responded strongly, arguing the new burden imposed on them by the request for years of data was too onerous and accused the…
Continue Reading
Telecom policy must encourage investment, says Natale
TORONTO – Rogers Communications CEO Joe Natale invoked the founder Friday morning while delivering a speech simultaneously to shareholders at its annual general meeting – and to policy makers in Ottawa.
The presentation at company headquarters in Toronto featured a long ago video of the first cellular phone call in Canada – made on what was called the Cantel network (Ted Rogers was famously rebuffed by his board of directors in 1983 when he wanted $500,000 to invest in mobile wireless technology, so he went it alone with his own money in launching Cantel)…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Don’t do it again, or else.
The CRTC released its ruling on the Quebecor vs Bell dispute over TVA Sports Thursday afternoon. As readers will recall, Quebecor’s TVA Group pulled the TVA Sports signal from Bell TV on April 9th in a dispute over wholesale fees – and Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau’s desire to see specialty service regulations changed.
Following yesterday’s hearing, the CRTC said Thursday afternoon it found Quebecor guilty of violating section 15(1) of the Discretionary Services Regulations (the Regulations) and issued a mandatory order requiring the company to provide the TVA Sports feeds to…
Continue Reading
QUISPAMSIS, NB – The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance has announced the shortlisted nominees in three of its five contest categories for Tuned-in Canada 2019, a nationwide, annual competition that highlights the great work performed by CCSA members – independent, local providers of internet, television and telephone services across Canada.
Judges Matt Polka (president and CEO of ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association), Suzanne Lamarre (lawyer at Therrien Couture and former CRTC commissioner), Greg O’Brien (president of Findtv, and editor/publisher of Cartt.ca), and newcomer judge Joely Collins (award-winning producer, director and founder of Vancouver-based Million Faces Productions) have completed the scoring…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – On Wednesday morning the CRTC held a rare show-cause hearing to determine whether TVA Group is in violation or has violated CRTC regulation by withdrawing TVA Sports’ signal from distribution by Bell Canada (Bell), and if the CRTC should issue a mandatory order requiring the licensee to comply with the said regulations (not to mention more consequences).
In principle, it is a legalistic argument and a little dry. Of course, Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau (pictured today in a CPAC.ca screen cap, right) used his time in front of the Commission today to continue…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Former CRTC chair and Astral Media president André Bureau succumbed to cancer on Friday, April 12. He was 83.
A lawyer and communications business executive, Bureau was the illustration of a generation of smart, ambitious and well-connected young French-Canadian men that emerged after the “Révolution Tranquille”.
Born in 1935, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, he studied Law at Université Laval in Québec City and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1959. He also received a doctorate in comparative law at the Sorbonne, in France, in 1960.
In private practice from 1960, he practiced in his home town, where Le Nouvelliste (the…
Continue Reading
