Telus announced Monday it will invest $17 billion in British Columbia and more than $16 billion in Alberta to significantly expand and improve its network infrastructure and operations across those two provinces over the next five years.
These investments are part of the Vancouver-based telecom’s larger commitment to deploy $73 billion across Canada by 2028 to develop infrastructure, improve sustainability and advance its network technology, it said.
Part of its investment in the two provinces through 2028 will go toward enhancing its 5G network with open radio access network (ORAN)…
Continue Reading
Public Safety Canada and Pelmorex Corp. announced Monday a test of the Alert Ready national public alerting system (NPAS) will take place in most provinces and territories on Wednesday, May 8 as part of Emergency Preparedness Week, which runs from May 5 to 11.
A test alert will be distributed May 8 to Canadians in the participating provinces and territories on their television, radio and compatible wireless devices. While issuing a test alert is at the sole discretion of each provincial and territorial emergency management organization (EMO), the CRTC requires broadcasters and wireless service providers to…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Thursday that the higher rate of customers switching to other carriers is “concerning,” but that the telco is mitigating that with bundled offers.
Last week, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri blamed competition from aggressively priced mobile wireless offers in the market and ease of switching for its postpaid churn rate rising to 1.1 per cent in the quarter compared to the same period last year. While Staffieri said he expects the trend to continue, he added the company isn’t worried about it.
Bell’s postpaid churn rate for the first quarter that ended…
Continue Reading
The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance, which represents 100 independent communications companies, announced Wednesday that consultant John Roman is the organization’s new director of legal and regulatory affairs.
“With more than 14 years of dedicated experience in policy, regulation, and consulting within the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors, Roman’s extensive track record of crafting regulatory submissions, supporting Governor in Council (GIC) requests, and creating and delivering presentations for appearances at CRTC and Senate Committee hearings underscores his invaluable expertise in understanding and achieving results in the regulatory field,” a CCSA press release said.
“His involvement with licensing, mergers, pricing models, and service frameworks demonstrates his deep…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Not-for-profit media company Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) has lodged a complaint with the CRTC alleging Videotron is not treating institutional subscribers in a way that conforms with industry standard when it comes to carrying AMI’s programs.
Since 2016, AMI and Videotron have been deadlocked on the terms of a distribution agreement in which Videotron must carry AMI-TV and AMI-tele as part of the 9.1(1)(h) rule.
Central to AMI’s undue disadvantage complaint, as outlined in a Part 1 application made public this week, is that Videotron allegedly will not budge on how to treat institutional customers, such as hotels and…
Continue Reading
Wireless prices in Canada decreased an average of 18.2 per cent for data plans in 2023 when compared to 2022 prices, according to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s 2023 Price Comparison Study of Telecom Services, published Tuesday.
The annual report — which provides a comparative price analysis of wireless and home internet services in Canada, both regionally and relative to G7 peer countries and Australia — also found home internet prices in Canada declined across all service plans in 2023. There were significant decreases on plans up to 100 Mbps, including decreases…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell’s joint request of the CRTC to permanently block the three largest telecommunications companies from accessing its bundled fibre facilities is an attempt to nullify the competitive impact of the interim access regime, Rogers and Telus argued earlier this month.
The country’s largest telco partnered with wholesale competitors to ask the regulator in a procedural request to clarify that the Big 3 are ineligible to access the bundled middle- and last-mile facilities of Bell and Telus before the May 7 deadline to implement the interim regime in Quebec and Ontario. The CRTC did not explicitly…
Continue Reading
This is part two of a three-part feature. Please read part one here.
By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
In my last piece, I suggested that the critical definition of Canadian Content was that set out in the Income Tax Act and Regulations and administered by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) and asked why the ongoing debate focused instead on the definition used by the CRTC.
In this piece, I’d like to look a little closer at the CAVCO role. In my…
Continue Reading
By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
It is well known that the Canadian government has directed the CRTC to review its definition of Canadian content, and that the Commission is currently wrapping up a vast series of Canada-wide and industry-wide consultations on the topic. Everyone is treating this as an important and vital process.
But the CRTC is not the principle Canadian content certification authority. That role belongs to the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO). CAVCO is an office within the Department of Canadian Heritage which certifies the…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Telus is proposing an additional recurring charge for the implementation of a new feature for its next-generation 911 system that will allow smartphones to provide more accurate location information to emergency dispatchers.
The Emergency Location Service (ELS) is a Google location service that allows Android-based devices – relying heavily on Wi-Fi sensors, but also using GPS and cell towers – to provide enhanced location data directly from the device to the public safety answering point (PSAP) where 911 calls are received. The result, it is said, is accuracy, speed and reliability of location information for emergency calls.
The ELS…
Continue Reading
