OTTAWA – Conversations around 5G in Canada may still be at nascent stages, but network providers and wireless operators told a Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association event in Ottawa on Wednesday that it’s coming faster than you think.
Several speakers throughout the day at the 5G Canada Council show (organized by the CWTA) noted that network rollouts are already happening and that by the first half of 2019 smartphones and tablets will be able to access 5G networks in certain bands.
Jaco du Plooy, chief technology officer at Ericsson Canada, explained that there will be 5G devices operating in a number…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Groups representing rural and remote broadband providers lauded the federal government for efforts to improve broadband connectivity in rural Canada in a Parliamentary committee on Tuesday. But they added that the government needs to adopt new rules that are more appropriate for smaller providers.
One of the big issues, particularly related to the Connect to Innovate (CTI) program, is the complex nature of the application and the extensive reporting requirements. Jay Thomson, CEO of the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology that a simplified application and reporting…
Continue Reading
WITH THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to begin getting into the weeds of modernizing the Telecommunications Act and Broadcasting Act at some point in 2018 (one hopes), a major consideration will be whether it’s time to do away with two governing pieces of legislation and prune them into a single Communications Act.
Greg Taylor, an assistant professor in the Department of Communications, Media and Film at the University of Calgary, said the government made a mistake back in the 1990s to fold the Department of Communications just as the Internet was coming on the scene.
“I think what we need is one department…
Continue Reading
ALORS QUE LE gouvernement s’apprête à amorcer le processus de modernisation de la Loi sur les télécommunications et de la Loi sur la radiodiffusion, en 2018 (espérons-le), une considération majeure sera de savoir si on doit abandonner les deux Lois pour les fusionner dans une seule.
Greg Taylor, professeur adjoint au département des communications, des médias et du cinéma à l’université de Calgary affirme que le gouvernement a fait une erreur dans les années 1990 en scindant le ministère des Communications alors que l’Internet commençait à émerger.
« Je pense que l’on a besoin d’un ministère supervisant les télécommunications et la radiodiffusion….
Continue Reading
Promises confidentiality
GATINEAU – As part of the report on current Canadian content consumption patterns which the federal government has asked the CRTC to compile, a range of companies have been asked to provide very competitively sensitive information by the Regulator.
The Commission last week sent letters to foreign competitors Netflix, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Spotify – as well as Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Corus, Pelmorex, Stingray and others, for certain sets of top line revenue, viewership and subscriber data when it comes to their digital platforms. The CRTC already has the data for the traditional platforms.
Specifically,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – The Canadian Communications Foundation is seeking new members for its board of directors.
The foundation, which tracks the history of broadcasting in Canada, is seeking a variety of people from the broadcast industry, research, and education to assist the foundation in exploring an extended mission and possible new direction for its work. “To this end, we would welcome applications from individuals who can offer not only the benefit of their experience, but ideas about how best to situate the Foundation’s work in the future,” says its release.
For the past quarter century, the foundation’s website has established and maintained…
Continue Reading
FIRST DISNEY BUYS FOX’S MEDIA LIBRARY, so then maybe Corus buys Bell Media – or the other way around? If so, is this a good idea or a bad one for our system?
A Scotiabank report from December 2017 entitled “Converging Networks” and reported by Cartt.ca has suggested that Corus and Bell Media should merge in order to “make them more competitive.” It’s hard to know if this report is a trial balloon or just mere speculation, but we’ve seen support in other quarters for this point of view.
The research also says Facebook and Google now…
Continue Reading
CELA FAIT PLUS DE 25 ans que la législation qui régit le secteur des communications a été promulguée. Malgré des changements mineurs, la Loi sur les télécommunications et la Loi sur la radiodiffusion sont essentiellement restées inchangées, leurs objectifs demeurant les mêmes. Elles ont résisté à l’épreuve du temps selon certains. D’autres, en revanche, exposent l’impact phénoménal de l’Internet pour demander des changements significatifs à ces Lois.
"L’Internet est devenu le mode de communication principal dans nos vies et pourtant nous demeurons avec des lois qui font encore une distinction entre la radiodiffusion et les télécommunications et aussi entre les communications…
Continue Reading
IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 25 years since legislation guiding the communications sector came into force. There have some minor changes, but both the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act have remained largely the same – their objectives essentially left untouched. They have stood the test of time, some say. Others, however, point to the enormous impact of the Internet in arguing for big changes to these laws.
“The Internet has really become the central communication mode in our life now, and yet we have legislation that makes a distinction between telecom and broadcasting and also between wireless and wireline. It…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Winning the struggle to get Canadians to pay attention to the financial problems of content producers hammered by the digital revolution will depend on how the debate is framed, experts told a digital media conference Saturday in Toronto.
“Words matter and how we frame our thoughts matter, and how one frames an issue has a huge impact on the outcome,” Michael MacMillan, CEO of Blue Ant Media, a Toronto-based international content producer, distributor and channel operator, told the fourth annual Digital Media at the Crossroads conference.
“We’ve been attacking the CRTC for 40 years,” he said, and try to…
Continue Reading
