OTTAWA – The CRTC has established an appropriate quality of service (QoS) metric for jitter as it continues to define the broadband portion of the universal service objective.
The Commission said Tuesday that in order to define fixed broadband Internet access service as a high-quality service, it must meet, among other things, a jitter threshold of 5 milliseconds, measured using specific predefined methodology.
The threshold would be measured during peak times (i.e. from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time on weekdays), and from the modem at the customer premises to a server located off-net at the Internet exchange point in…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Two guys who helped Wind Mobile get off the ground and then build its follower Freedom Mobile are the latest in a line of Canadian companies hoping to shake up the wireless market here.
Algis Akstinas (left, formerly the director of marketing and commercial strategy at Freedom) and Alex Bauman (right, formerly manager, customer base management) launched dot mobile Thursday with the goal of bringing a product and the company to market in 2020.
Dot stands for “Data On Tap” and the company aims to be just that for Canadians – a spigot of cheap,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The term “equitable” is not synonymous with “equal” as it pertains to the allocation of air time to registered political parties and candidates, the CRTC has told a listener of Quebec City’s CHOI-FM station.
In a letter dated February 7, the Commission responded to a complaint from an individual who alleged that the RNC Media-owned station’s programming during the 2017 Quebec City municipal elections “demonstrated a clear bias” towards a specific political party. The complainant, who included a breakdown of the station’s programming and an assessment of the relative time dedicated to various registered parties, claimed that the…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Stingray credited its recent acquisition of Newfoundland Capital Corporation Inc. (NCC) for a 101.6% jump in third quarter revenues, however, the deal also weighed down profits.
For the third quarter ended December 31, Stingray posted revenues of $70.8 million, double the $35.1 million recorded a year ago. In addition to the NCC acquisition, revenues were also powered by the company’s acquisition of DJ Matic and organic growth in SVoD and B2C apps.
SVoD reached a new high of over 356,000 subscribers in the quarter, up from 316,000 in the prior quarter. SVoD monthly revenues increased 25% to $3.2 million compared…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC is gearing up to address the second stage of an application filed by the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) seeking a review and vary of its wholesale wireline services decision.
The record closed for the first stage of the application on January 17. Stage 1 was to address the option of suspending the 100 Mbps speed cap on an interim basis.
Stage 2 will address the matter of removal of the speed cap, among other issues. According to a January 29 letter from the CRTC, interventions on the requested reliefs addressed in the application are…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Stakeholders wishing to weigh in on the new production report set to replace the programs of national interest (PNI) report completed by the large English- and French-language ownership groups now have an extra month to prepare their comments.
The CRTC said Monday that comments will now due by March 6, 2019, and not February 6 as it said last month.
The move comes in response to a joint procedural request from the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada, the Quebec English-Language Production Council, the English-Language Arts Network and On Screen Manitoba, as well as a joint procedural request from…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC needs more information from Iristel and Telus as it inches towards a final ruling in the dispute between the two telcos over failed calls to the North.
In a January 29 letter addressed to the respective regulatory heads, the Commission laid out four steps as part of the process for the review of the dueling final relief requests:
– Step 1. Iristel and Telus are to file responses to the relevant requests for information listed in the letter’s appendix 1 with the Commission by February 19, 2019.
– Step 2. Any interested parties may file submissions with…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – CRTC submissions are sometimes entertaining when issues are significant, potentially polarizing and wildly debated.
However, and as we indicated previously, this new proceeding into the establishment of an Internet Code of Conduct is mostly incremental in its scope, since a lot of issues have been dealt with in prior proceedings (and in other codes).
Maybe that’s why Bell, the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services, provincial governments, unions and consumer groups have not bothered at this stage.
No reply phase is complete without an incumbent taking a swipe at the Competition Bureau, though. In this case…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The cities of Vernon, BC, Grande Prairie, AB and Toronto’s Scarborough region may soon have new radio stations after the CRTC issued separate calls for comments on the market capacity and on the appropriateness of calling for radio applications in the three markets.
The Commission said Wednesday that it issued the calls after receiving applications for new radio stations in those markets as follows:
– an application by Vernon Community Radio Society for a community radio station to serve greater Vernon;
– an application by Vista Radio for a new commercial radio station to serve Grande Prairie; and
– an…
Continue Reading
MOST OF THE arguments we found in the Bell Canada Enterprises submission to the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review panel we’ve heard before, which is not surprising since the largest telecom and media company has of course been front and centre when it comes to the issues at play under the Acts.
That said, it wants fee for carriage back, too.
Telecom
The 1993 Telecommunications Act was drafted to move from almost a century of near-monopoly provision of traditional wireline home phone telephony to competitive markets, reminds the Bell document.
So the company has asked the panel to implement measures to illustrate that…
Continue Reading