3,000 have signed up to Connecting Families so far, too
OTTAWA – Following last month’s report from the Auditor General which said the connectivity needs of rural Canadians are too often going unmet, John Knubley, Canada’s Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, today said the ministry accepts the recommendations made in the report and are moving forward with plans to improve rural and remote internet connectivity.
“On strategy, we agree with the report, particularly in light of the CRTC‘s decision in December 2016 declaring broadband as a basic service,” Knubley said. “I believe the declaration has created…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre has put out an urgent call for funds.
“We have consistently fought for fair treatment, fair pricing, and your fundamental rights as people, not just customers,” said the group in an email sent out earlier this week by executive director John Lawford.
“Major corporations are more powerful than ever in Canada. But PIAC itself has never been more threatened. We face an acute funding crunch and will be unable to keep going without your urgent help,” he added. “PIAC’s business model has always balanced on a knife-edge. PIAC staff and legal counsel do…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with Frontier Networks in its dispute with Eastlink over reselling its high-speed access (HSA) services.
In April, Frontier requested expedited interim relief and final relief regarding the refusal of Bragg Communications Inc. (carrying on business as Eastlink), to allow it to continue to resell HSA service to its two reseller customers. Interim relief was granted by the CRTC in May.
On Tuesday, the Commission made Frontier’s interim relief final after finding that its interpretation of Eastlink’s Third-Party Internet Access General Tariff is correct. It also directed Eastlink to file revised Tariff pages within 30 …
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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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