PIAC reiterates FairPlay opposition
OTTAWA – A representative of Canada’s Business Coalition for Balanced Copyright – an alliance of Canadian telecommunications providers including Bell, Rogers, Vidéotron and others – says while its members support a regime that rewards and protects creators, facilitates access to creative content, makes investment in technology and supports educational research, the removal of exceptions added to Canada’s Copyright Act in 2012 would put hundreds of millions of dollars at risk.
“ exceptions added to the Copyright Act in 2012 were necessary to eliminate uncertainty that would restrict or inhibit the development of new products and services,” Jay…
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TORONTO – The CRTC’s 2015 decision to move from an aggregated to disaggregated wholesale high-speed access service (HSA) model has ended up placing enormous cost increases on independent ISPs and will further limit competitiveness with a coming cap on Internet speeds, said Matt Stein, president of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium.
“Without changes to the disaggregated regime, our industry will be prevented from keeping prices sane, innovating, and delivering the improved customer relationship we’re known for,” Stein said in a keynote on Tuesday at the 2018 Canadian ISP Summit in Toronto. (He's pictured in a snap borrowed from Distributel's Twitter…
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TORONTO – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) is asking the CRTC to take another look at its three year old wholesale wireline services decision, saying that “key corrections” are necessary to truly provide greater competition for high-speed Internet services.
CNOC, which represents 35 independent telecommunications services providers that own or operate wireline and/or wireless networks, filed an application with the Commission on Wednesday that seeks a review and variance of TRP 2015-326 and TD 2016-379 to “address aspects of the Commission’s regulatory framework for wholesale high-speed access services that will inadvertently and substantially lessen and prevent competition in…
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OTTAWA – Last week Will Amos, the Liberal MP for Pontiac, Que. submitted a Private Member’s Bill asking the House of Commons to recognize the importance of reliable and accessible digital infrastructure to the economic development of rural regions and to the health and safety of Canadians.
He also asked the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology be instructed to undertake a comprehensive study on rural wireless infrastructure, focusing particularly on:
the underlying causes of, and prospective solutions to the gaps in wireless infrastructure deployment in rural Canada
the regulatory role of the CRTC
the fiscal and regulatory approaches to incentivize more…
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CRTC CHAIRMAN IAN SCOTT is most assuredly correct in his request for more power over the placement of electronic equipment, in the light of the approach of 5G technologies.
It is reassuring to see the Canadian regulator is showing signs of active engagement with how Canada will need to adapt to the requirements of 5G. It is also instructive to read how far in advance the European Union appears to be relative to us in comprehending what needs to be done.
5G is one of those annoying terms of technobabble which obfuscate their own significance….
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LAST WEEK, FIRST Peoples Radio (FPR) , a subsidiary of APTN, launched ELMNT FM, an urban radio brand entirely devoted to Indigenous Peoples – but also targeting a wider audiences (24 to 50 years old) who will be exposed to Aboriginal music, along with its mix of popular fare, too.
Dubbed “The Spirit of” Ottawa/Toronto, the Ottawa station will broadcast on 95.7 FM and the Toronto station will use 106.5 FM.
ELMNT FM offers its audience English and Indigenous-language spoken-word and musical programming. The local and national news and current affairs segments will feature content generated by APTN National News and…
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OTTAWA – Today, the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) panel announced it has extended the period in which it will receive written comments until January 11th, 2019, Cartt.ca has learned.
On Thursday, November 1st, at the 16th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Communications, held in Ottawa, the panel participated in a town hall with members in the Industry. At that forum, they heard from consumer groups that lack the resources of big companies needed some more time to fully participate in the review process. The deadline for written comments had been set on…
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OTTAWA – The final segment of the 16th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Communications, held in Ottawa on October 31st and November 1st, was unusually staged with the chair of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel (BTLR), Janet Yale, at a lectern on the right-hand side of the stage and moderator Lawson Hunter, senior counsel, Stikeman Elliott and a legend in the regulatory realm on the left lectern.
The remaining six members of the expert panel, Hank Intven, Monique Simard, Monica Song and Pierre Trudel, Marina Pavlović and Peter Grant were seated on high chairs between these…
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OTTAWA – After recently challenging the aggressive sales practices of telecom companies at a CRTC hearing in Gatineau the prior week, John Lawford was across the river in Ottawa taking another swipe at telcos at the annual conference of the International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter.
Lawford, executive director and general counsel of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, was given 15 minutes on Thursday to make his case in a presentation called “Lust, Lies and Stupidity: Thirty Years of Canadian Telecom Policy.” This time his message was specifically aimed for members of the federal government’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review…
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OTTAWA – As a coincidence, the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications heard as witnesses on Wednesday evening Janet Yale, head of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review expert panel and Monique Simard, one of its members.
Of course, both were attending the International Institute of Communications (IIC) Conference the same day and heard of the challenges the industry is facing but as Yale said in her opening remarks to the Senators: “Our mandate is very much based on generating recommendations in aid of legislative change. For that reason, we intend to push stakeholders to be as specific as possible…
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