Vidéotron’s Unlimited Music hangs in the balance
GATINEAU – Is selecting and offering free music services to wireless customers a form of net neutrality-bruising gatekeeping, or an innovative way to win and keep happy customers?
The CRTC will let us know Thursday when its decision from the November hearing into what the Regulator termed “differential pricing practices” (DPP) is announced at 4 p.m. ET.
According to Quebecor Media Inc., Unlimited Music is simply a marketing instrument which helps grow its wireless subscriber base (especially among younger users). Essentially, QMI’s Vidéotron has chosen a number of music services to…
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WATERLOO, ON – Zero-rating fraudsters use 300% more data than the average subscriber if left undetected, according to data from Sandvine.
Sandvine’s new Global Internet Phenomena Spotlight: Zero-Rating Fraud report is based on data collected from an unnamed tier-1 mobile access network and examines how some subscribers on the network are using HTTP header injection to commit fraud and exploit the operator’s decision to zero-rate their website and subscriber portal.
Zero-rating is a data offering that benefits subscribers by enabling unlimited usage of one or many applications, services, or websites, for a fixed (or zero) price. This approach is often…
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New three-year plan
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has released its new three-year plan that includes a review of the CBC, a decision on phasing out the local service subsidy regime, and a potential overhaul of the framework for interconnection between carriers.
Other planned activities include licence renewals for the country’s biggest BDUs, its new broadband funding mechanism, and a concerted effort to improve Canadians with disabilities’ awareness and knowledge of available accessibility products and services.
Those initiatives are among the goals that the Commission has outlined for completion during 2017-2020 under the pillars of ‘create’, ‘connect’, and ‘protect’, that support its…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has issued a call for radio applications to serve the south-central Ontario market of Georgina after determining that the area can sustain an additional commercial station.
The Commission said Thursday that the town, located 81 kilometres north of Toronto on the south-east shore of Lake Simcoe, is geographically the largest of nine municipalities in the Regional Municipality of York and belongs to the Numeris central area of Toronto, which shares the same boundary with the corresponding Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA). In 2016, the population of Georgina represented 0.8% of the population in the Toronto…
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TORONTO – Despite increases in revenues and subscribers, SiriusXM Canada saw second quarter profits plunge by 62.4%.
For the period ended February 28, 2017, revenue of $86,946 increased 3.0% from $84,387 year-over-year, reflecting growth in its self-paying subscriber base. Self-pay ARPU dipped 0.2% to $12.47 mainly due to increased promotional activity, the company said late Wednesday.
Net income and comprehensive income of $10,612 was well below the $28,245 recorded in the same period last year, which the company said was mainly due to $15,887 withholding tax recovery in Q2 FY2016 and higher operating expenses, partly offset by higher revenues.
Adjusted EBITDA for…
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THE SUBSCRIPTION TELEVISION industry likes to say that outright cord-cutting (defined as when a consumer abandons a TV subscription altogether) is still a pretty small phenomenon.
So far, overall, that remains technically true. The latest numbers show about two percent of Canadian households with a TV subscription have chosen to cut the cord and stop subscribing to traditional TV. Generally, it’s been a story of “flat is the new up”, while inside of the likes of Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco, Bell and others, hardworking employees are doing their best to swallow hard every day and manage substantial…
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OTTAWA – A consumer group says that the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) “will have its hands full” come September when it adds TV service provider watchdog to its role.
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) noted that Canadians made 2,734 complaints about their television services to the CCTS over the last six months, more than it received in relation to wireless, Internet, local voice, or long-distance voice services. And that’s months before it can officially accept TV consumer complaints.
“With Canada’s communications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reporting that it received 8,584 complaints about…
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OTTAWA – While complaints over telecom and Internet services continue to fall, Canadians are still unclear about the terms of their service contracts, says the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).
In its mid-year report released Thursday, CCTS said it accepted 3,955 complaints between August 1, 2016 and January 31, 2017, down by more than 600 from the 4,562 complaints received in the same period a year earlier.
The report says that non-disclosure or misleading information about contract terms was once again the most commonly raised issue (10.7% of all issues), followed by complaints about incorrect charges at 9.4% and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – All wireless service providers must join Canada’s National Public Alerting System by next April, the CRTC said Thursday.
Emergency alert messages are issued by federal, provincial and territorial governments and emergency management officials to warn the public of imminent threats, such as fires, tornadoes, floods, water contamination and Amber Alerts.
Once the system is in place, wireless public alerting will allow emergency management officials to send alerts to mobile devices connected to LTE networks, which the CRTC said are now available to over 97% of Canadians. Once an alert has been distributed, Canadians will hear the same alert…
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File CRTC application to review and vary Basic Service Objective decision
GATINEAU – Three consumer groups filed an application with the CRTC asking it to review and vary its much ballyhooed basic service objective decision – one which make access to broadband a fundamental part of telecom service to Canadians.
ACORN Canada, the National Pensioners Federation, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre say the Commission must alter Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2016-496, Modern telecommunications services – The path forward for Canada’s digital economy because the new policy does not establish an affordability funding mechanism for low-income telecommunications users.
The filing says the…
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