OTTAWA – While Canadians complained less frequently about their wireless services last year, data overage fees and international roaming charges continue to cause bill shock for many, according to the CRTC.
The Commission released its 2016 Fall survey on wireless issues Thursday, part of its planned three year review of the Wireless Code that will also include a public hearing in Gatineau from February 6 – 9, 2017. The CRTC has conducted annual surveys on wireless issues and awareness of the Wireless Code since 2014.
In 2016, 17% of Canadians with wireless plans reported making a complaint, down from 26%…
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YELLOWKNIFE – Count SSi Micro amongst those stakeholders throwing their support behind the CRTC’s recent #TalkBroadband decision designating broadband access as a basic telecommunications service.
SSi, which has deployed satellite and local broadband wireless facilities throughout Nunavut and in communities of the Northwest Territories, said that it agrees with the Commission that a national broadband strategy must include participation from stakeholders that include the CRTC, the private sector, and various levels of government, including First Nations and Inuit organizations.
“We believe broadband is the new basic telecommunications service, and appreciate the Commission’s (Universal Service Objective) framework embracing that reality,” said SSi chief…
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NFL "confident" that Feds will act "reasonably and responsibly"
TORONTO – Bell Media and the NFL filed their latest notices of appeal Wednesday, seeking once again to quash the CRTC’s controversial decision banning simultaneous substitution of the broadcast of the Super Bowl.
In a notice dated December 28, 2016, Bell Media asked the Federal Court of Appeal to set aside the CRTC’s distribution order that bans simultaneous substitution (simsub) for the event, starting with Super Bowl 51 on February 5, 2017.
Simsub occurs when a BDU temporarily replaces the signal of one TV channel with that of another channel showing the same program at the…
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MARKHAM, ON – While applauding the CRTC’s decision designating broadband access as a basic telecommunications service, Iristel wants the new $750M broadband fund awarded to “companies committed to competition”.
Iristel, itself a CLEC as well as the majority owner of Ice Wireless, which offers 3G/4G HSPA+ technology in Canada's North, said that the #TalkBroadband decision shows that the Commission is serious about helping to bridge Canada’s digital divide.
"The Digital Divide is more than geography. It's also incumbent complacency”, said Iristel president Samer Bishay, in a statement Thursday. “… It is critically important that the money – coming from customers'…
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QUELLES QUE SOIENT LES nouvelles obligations au service de base que le CRTC impose aux compagnies de téléphone et FSI canadiens, Quadro Communications est plus que prête. Elle pourrait même être l’entreprise canadienne titulaire qui aura le moins de mal à s’adapter aux nouvelles règles.
La coopérative de 3 100 membres dont le siège est à Kirkton, en Ontario, a déjà déployé de la fibre jusqu’à chaque ferme, grange et commerce dans ses quatre systèmes situés dans les comtés d’Oxford, Middlesex, Perth et Huron dans le sud-ouest de l’Ontario, environ 45 kms au nord de London.
Difficile à croire mais les…
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CHATHAM – TekSavvy's Internet customers will soon have a little more money in their pockets after being told by the company that it will cut prices starting in January.
The independent ISP began contacting customers Monday promising to pass along savings that it realized as a result of the CRTC’s wholesale high-speed access rates decision in October. That decision made interim changes to slash the prices that the big incumbents are allowed to charge third-party internet providers for wholesale high-speed access services.
“Correcting wholesale network access rates to a fairer level lets us create more savings for our customers, get back…
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GATINEU – The CRTC today declared that broadband access is now considered a basic telecommunications service for all Canadians, that it is setting new speed targets while also creating a new fund that will invest up to $750 million over and above existing government programs.
Further to its legislative mandate, the Commission has set the following targets for the basic telecommunications services that Canadians need to participate in the digital economy:
speeds of 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download/10 Mbps upload for fixed broadband Internet access services. In 2015, 82% of Canadians already had access to speeds of 50 Mbps download/10…
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TORONTO – The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) has joined the fight against the CRTC’s decision to ban simultaneous substitution of the upcoming Super Bowl broadcast.
The performers union, which calls simultaneous substitution “a longstanding and successful CRTC policy that ensures Canadian advertising dollars stay in Canada”, wants its 23,000 members to contact their Member of Parliament to demand that the decision be reversed; share messages of support on social media; and visit the new website supportcreators.ca to help spread the word.
“Most Canadians don’t know that the Canadian ads they see during the Super Bowl…
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MONTREAL – Videotron has added music streaming service SoundCloud to its controversial Unlimited Music service.
The company said Wednesday that the service has more than 175 million unique listeners each month and that its subscription service SoundCloud Go, which recently launched in Canada, gives listeners access to a diverse music catalogue featuring music from the biggest artists to the freshest, raw talent. The move brings Unlimited Music’s catalogue to a total of 18 music streaming platforms.
Unlimited Music, which allows Videotron Mobile customers to stream music using popular music apps without using up any of their data plan, prompted the CRTC’s…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given MTS the go ahead to transfer ownership and effective control of its licensed terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings operating in Winnipeg and surrounding areas to Bell Canada.
The Commission’s decision is the first of three regulatory approvals required to complete the closing of BCE's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of MTS. The Competition Bureau, which is still reviewing the deal as part of a merger review, must also give its thumbs up, as does Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
The CRTC stressed that it exclusively reviewed the change in ownership of the licensed BDU, and reiterated…
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