By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC’s commissioner for Manitoba and Saskatchewan has been extended for a five-year term starting in July, according to an order in council dated Friday.
Joanne Levy, whose term was set to expire July 2, has already served one full term starting in 2018.
Levy, of Warman, Saskatchewan, was a television reporter for the CBC in a past life and was director of programming for the Aboriginal People’s Television Network. She was also the owner of television program producer Scorpio Productions.
Barring any early exits, Levy’s extension means the CRTC’s leadership is secured until next August, when the…
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Court wrestled with whether Ian Scott’s beer meeting with Bell CEO showed bias
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Lawyers representing TekSavvy argued in front of the Federal Court of Appeal on Monday that the CRTC reneged on its obligation to make just and reasonable wholesale internet rates when it decided in 2021 to fall back on interim costs it set five years prior.
The independent telecom challenged the CRTC’s May 2021 decision that disregarded the lower rates it proposed in 2019, arguing that the regulator breached its mandate to meet the legitimate expectation of the industry…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has denied an application by Telus that challenged the CRTC’s decision not to regulate wireless access to municipal infrastructure and that forced the carriers to provide seamless roaming to other providers.
Telus argued that the two components of the CRTC’s April 2021 decision – which mandated regional carrier access to the wireless infrastructure of the large players – were made in error. The thrust of the telecom’s argument – which was backed by Rogers and Bell – was that the CRTC too narrowly defined the term “transmission…
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The regulator has been urged not to rely on carrier negotiations for roaming rates
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed an application by Globalive that sought a commission review of wholesale roaming rates in general and a roaming agreement between Rogers and Videotron in particular, citing an existing application before the regulator addressing similar issues.
Globalive filed the Part 1 application late last month, which requested the CRTC make interim the current wholesale roaming rates, require the national carriers to file updated studies supporting new rates, and to open an investigation into Rogers’s proposed roaming agreement…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A group of six public interest groups is asking the CRTC to expedite the payment of money owed to the Broadcasting Participation Fund from the commission’s approval of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw’s broadcasting assets.
The group, which includes the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, filed a Part 1 application Monday urging the commission to amend a stipulation requiring Rogers pay the fund – which bankrolls public interest group participation in broadcast hearings – $725,439 in equal amounts over three years.
The application asks that the commission force Rogers to…
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OTTAWA – Cabin Radio, the online news radio station that was denied by the CRTC an FM licence in Yellowknife, has filed an application for the Federal Court of Appeal to hear its case.
The appeal, which was received by the court last month and filed Wednesday, charges that the CRTC’s February decision was “unreasonable, incorrect, and arbitrary due to errors of law, jurisdiction, and fact.”
The regulator’s decision said the addition of another FM station would financially harm the incumbent and only commercial station in Yellowknife, Vista Radio’s CJCD-FM, which has experienced declining revenues in the five years…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Cabinet will not send back a decision by the CRTC that declined to force Eastlink to relocate an internet access point in Nova Scotia, according to an order in council last week.
City Wide Communications filed a review and vary application with the CRTC and a petition to cabinet last March challenging a decision that denied its application in 2020 alleging Eastlink misrepresented that its rural Pennant Point interconnection centre was carrier-neutral and served by competitive transport facilities when the CRTC approved it in 2016. City Wide said the connection point increased its transport costs and…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Monday denied an arbitration request from television distributor Coopérative de câblodistribution Hill Valley for a deal to retransmit Quebecor’s TVA Sports.
Quebecor has said it refuses to engage in negotiations with Hill Valley, after the Federal Court found it violated the Montreal company’s copyright by restreaming its channels to hotel customers without its consent.
The commission ruled Monday that Quebecor is under no regulatory requirement to provide its channel to Hill Valley, and its refusal to engage in negotiations “leaves no room for process to unfold.”
Despite Quebecor’s intention, the CRTC continued…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent a letter to Rogers and Bell on Thursday asking them to lay out what off-tariff wholesale internet access agreements they have with competitors.
The request for information includes details of a proposed arrangement that would see Rogers give Videotron access to its broadband network at favourable wholesale rates to win over regulators in its pursuit of Shaw.
The request is part of the CRTC’s evaluation of an application filed by TekSavvy, which alleges that Rogers and Bell are engaging in agreements that are disadvantaging competitors who don’t get similar rates…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC ruled Thursday that Rogers gave itself and its own sports channels an unfair preference by refusal to carry for broadcasting Timeless’s OneSoccer.
Timeless first brought the complaint last summer that alleged Rogers refused to carry OneSoccer because it was concerned about competition with its own Sportsnet channels. Rogers said it refused to carry the channel because it allegedly had limited appeal to viewers. Telus, which has carried the channel since 2021, urged the commission to investigate the matter.
The regulator ruled Thursday that OneSoccer is a comparable service to the sports channels of…
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