WYOMING, ON – As it forges towards building #broadbandforeveryone, SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT) is asking residents of Southwestern Ontario, Caledon and Niagara region to verify whether they have high-speed Internet access at home, work and places of business.
SWIFT said that it has created an interactive map to help accurately identify underserved areas within the project region, and to solicit community feedback, including recommendations for coverage area changes. Developed based on information received from TSPs in the region, the map highlights areas that have been identified as “served”, meaning that they meet the CRTC’s universal service objective of 50 Mbps download and…
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OTTAWA – A group of ten academics have told the CRTC that they will be unable to participate in the Internet code of conduct proceedings because the Commission’s timelines are too tight.
In a letter to CRTC secretary general Claude Doucet dated December 5, the group stresses that the 40 calendar day/28 business day timeline for parties to prepare initial comments is insufficient to “produce informed, high quality, evidence-based interventions”, and that “adherence to the timelines as proposed will exclude the perspectives of many Canadians, and is not in the public interest.”
“As noted in the correspondence from other public interest…
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OTTAWA – The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Review (BTLR) panel released three videos last week to help explain the Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Radiocommunications Acts. These videos we prepared by panel members and consist of cut and paste language in the Acts in traditional PowerPoint presentations.
Panel Member Peter Grant prepared the presentation on the Broadcasting Act and he voiced the English version while Pierre Trudel, another panel member, read the translated French version.
Panel Member Hank Intven prepared the Telecommunications video and read the English commentary, while an unknown staffer read the French…
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NOTHING PUTS THE “FUN” into the dysfunction of our broadcasting system more than a 9(1)(h) hearing. The spectacle in Ottawa two weeks ago was the latest such event, with eight would-be suitors lining up for what has been called, “the last must-carry” by this publication and others.
The last hearing for new 9(1)(h) licenses was in 2013, when sixteen(!) applicants applied and almost all were all swatted away like flies by then-CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais (the few exceptions being TV5’s second channel, Unis, AMI-tv Français and the Legislative proceedings of Nunavut and NWT for distribution in the North). This paved…
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‘TIS THE SEASON for telecommunications pricing studies: In the next two weeks, a trio of important reports will be made public: The CRTC Telecommunications Monitoring Report, the OECD Digital Economy Outlook Data and the so-called Nordicity Report.
All three are important as government officials speak often of the importance of evidence-based policy making and this research provides evidence which feeds into public policy.
Over time, a range of studies have been published by the likes of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), or the Yankee Group or other organizations. The narrative was generally that Canadians, compared with other countries,…
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OTTAWA – On the third day of a hearing ostensibly into the CRTC’s Super Bowl simsub decision and the Vavilov spy case, those two individual cases took an even lesser importance than in the prior days. The Justices are mostly interested in developing a framework that would help the Courts, not just the Supreme Court, should rule on issues of administrative law.
On Tuesday, we had heard of the Bell’s appeal of the CRTC Super Bowl decision. Bell had an hour (which is more than the 51.5 minutes of advertising it wishes to once again sell to Canadian clients during…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has decided against issuing a call for new radio stations to serve Quebec City after finding that the market cannot sustain an additional commercial radio station at this time.
The Quebec radio market (or the Numeris central market area of Québec) includes the cities of Québec and Lévis, as well as Saint-François-de-l’Île-d’Orléans to the east, and Neuville to the west. This market is currently served by nine French-language commercial FM radio stations operated by five ownership groups.
The Commission said Thursday that, despite an increase in population in the area over the last six years, “this…
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OTTAWA – They say you can’t infer an outcome from the line of questioning and the tone of the questions. That goes for the Supreme Court as well as for CRTC Hearings.
But this has never stopped anyone from making predictions.
As reported yesterday, besides the Bell v. CRTC on the Super Bowl case and the Vavilov citizenship issue, what really seemed of interest to the Supreme Court justices today, which was made clear in their questions, is the appropriate standard of review that should apply when reviewing lower administrative tribunal decisions.
Tuesday, we heard the two sides…
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Supreme Court to hear Bell’s Super Bowl appeal starting Tuesday
OTTAWA – This week, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case that our readers are familiar with, but there’s a whole lot else going on of which you may not be aware.
Bell Media has, of course, appealed the CRTC decision which prevented the company from demanding simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl, which the Federal Court of Appeal upheld in late 2017. Then-Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais said back in 2015 that the full game experience was a must for Canadians, and that included the American advertising,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has awarded Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. a license to operate an English-language, commercial FM radio station in Cochrane, AB that will target adults between 25 to 54 years of age with a hybrid Country music format.
The station will operate at 91.5 MHz (channel 218B1) with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 4,700 watts (maximum ERP of 10,000 watts with an effective height of antenna above average terrain of 118.1 metres). The licence will expire on August 31, 2025.
The CRTC said Monday that it determined that approval of the application would be in the public interest, noting that the primary…
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