OTTAWA — The City of Hamilton has been denied its application requesting the CRTC review and vary a 2017 telecom decision regarding the city’s municipal access agreement (MAA) with Bell Canada, an ongoing dispute that dates back to 2014.
In its Telecom Decision 2017-388, issued in October 2017, the CRTC revised the wording set out in its original decision of February 2016, in which the Commission had established the provisions of the MAA between the City of Hamilton and Bell. An MAA generally sets out the terms and conditions of a carrier’s access to highways and other public…
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MONTREAL — Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau's brief foray into Quebec politics might hurt his company in a way that he never predicted, and now he's trying to sort his way out of it.
On Tuesday, Péladeau announced he was going to appeal his own guilty plea, admitting to violating Quebec's campaign finance law by paying off his 2015 Parti Québécois leadership campaign's debt, because he learned that the province's anti-corruption law might cause that illegal act to make the companies he owns — Quebecor and its subsidiaries — ineligible for government contracts.
Péladeau made the guilty plea on July…
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MONTREAL — Stingray Digital Group saw a 16% increase in revenues in the first quarter of its 2019 fiscal year, primarily due to strong growth in revenues in the United States and other countries where it has expanded its business during the last 12 months.
Overall, Stingray’s revenues increased 16.1% to $34.5 million in the first quarter of 2019, compared to $29.7 million in the first quarter of last year. However, Stingray’s Canadian revenues actually decreased 6.2% to $13.7 million (representing 39.6% of its total revenues) in the first quarter of 2019, due to less equipment and installation sales related…
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OTTAWA — Canada’s largest, vertically integrated BDUs have a little over a year to start providing set-top box data to a national STB-based audience measurement system — a new condition of licence imposed by the CRTC when it announced August 2 the collective renewal of soon-to-expire licences for various terrestrial BDUs.
As it renews their respective licences for a new term starting September 1, 2018, the CRTC is imposing a condition of licence on Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron that will require them to provide the set-top box (STB) data they collect regarding programming services they distribute to a national…
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VANCOUVER – Okay, so Telus CEO Darren Entwistle didn’t say exactly what it says in our headline above, but that’s the gist we gleaned from the legendarily loquacious chief executive after the company’s second quarter conference call with financial analysts on Friday. Let us explain.
In the second half of the call, Entwistle was asked if he was concerned about regulatory intervention on wireless pricing by Scotiabank analyst Jeff Fan. The topic has been hotly discussed in the wireless industry of late, especially since a letter which the CRTC sent to all players two weeks ago Continue Reading
OTTAWA — The CRTC has denied Bell Media’s application to allow its CKKW-FM radio station in Kitchener, Ont., to increase its analogue power to overcome interference from a US border radio station in Buffalo, NY.
In January 2018, Bell Media had requested that CKKW-FM Kitchener be allowed to increase its signal strength from an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 1,700 watts to 11,800 watts (maximum ERP from 4,300 to 37,500 watts) as well as increase its antenna height by almost a metre. The technical reason for Bell’s request was that CKKW-FM was experiencing signal interference from both the HD…
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DARTMOUTH, NS — Newcap Radio owner Newfoundland Capital Corporation reported Thursday its revenues in the second quarter of 2018 were down slightly compared to Q2 2017, saying its expansion into the Kamloops, BC, market had provided revenue growth to help offset soft results in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador.
These were the first financial quarter results released from the company since its proposed acquisition by Stingray Digital Group was announced in May. On June 27, Newfoundland Capital’s shareholders approved the acquisition arrangement with Stingray, and the company received final court approval after the second quarter ended. Stingray’s acquisition of…
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GATINEAU – On December 1st 2017, the CRTC’s new and improved Wireless Code came into effect, removing all restrictions on the unlocking of cellular phones, notably no more 90 days waiting period to do so and no more charging a fee to perform that service.
On December 6th 2017, the Public Interest Advocacy Center (PIAC) requested from the CRTC a clarification on the Unlocking Policy of the new code. There had been confusion as to whether the cell phone companies had the obligation to unlock the phones of people who were not their customers.
If my contract with the…
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Two new applicants for nearby communities
OTTAWA — The CRTC is asking for more comments as it considers whether or not the radio market in and around Quebec City can sustain more stations.
The Commission issued on Wednesday three separate Broadcasting Notices of Consultation, calling for comments regarding the market capacity and appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications in Quebec City, as well as Sainte-Marie and the Regional County Municipality of Portneuf, Que, both of which are small towns within transmitter range of Quebec City.
The CRTC’s original call for comments regarding the Quebec City radio…
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TORONTO – The Canadian wireless market is about to face disruption akin to what T-Mobile wrought in the U.S., which will come as good news for Canadian consumers looking for much more data at a far lower price. The news likely won’t be so good for the likes of Rogers, Bell and Telus, who will have to respond.
Today, Shaw Communications’ Freedom Mobile will unveil a new ad campaign (TV, radio, outdoor, digital, social…) fronted by Canadian comedy star Will Arnett which takes dead aim at the complaints so many Canadians make daily – that their wireless bills are too…
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