Government “disagreed” with incumbent arguments about direction usefulness and legality
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada has kept its proposed policy direction to the CRTC largely intact, as the final version released Monday shores up language to reinforce the government’s perspective on the importance of competition and affordability in the wireline and wireless sectors of the telecommunications industry, while maintaining that the direction will encourage innovation and network investments.
The department clarified language in the final version that made clearer the importance in CRTC decisions of network reliability, fair roaming rates, and “just and reasonable” rates at which smaller internet service…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage and Innovation Canada are emphasizing the speed at which the CRTC makes decisions in a mandate letter to new head of the regulator, Vicky Eatrides.
“There is a perception that the CRTC is taking too long to make decisions,” the Monday letter said. “CRTC regulatory decisions are essential to creating a stable, competitive, and innovative business environment.
“Undue delays create uncertainty and potentially impact investment decisions and service offerings for Canadians,” the letter added. “As the pace of technological change continues unabated, timely decision making will only be more critical in responding to the needs…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – As bill C-11 faces a final vote in the House of Commons this week, “it’s unclear as to how it will work in practice” and whether streaming giants will be able to “simply repurpose” already made Canadian programming to qualify as Canadian content and how they would pay their fair share toward broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) that require private broadcasters to make a contribution of at least 5% of their broadcast revenues to CanCon and production, according to CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait.
The Senate’s passing of the Online Streaming Act last week was…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has rejected today an industry association application that challenged a CRTC decision denying mandated wholesale access to multi-dwelling building fibre.
The Competitive Network Operators of Canada, a representative of independent internet service providers, filed an application in October arguing that the regulator made errors in its 2021 decision denying the essentiality of these facilities, and that it should revisit the issue of mandating third parties’ ability to lease the fibre in these buildings to serve tenants themselves.
But in its decision today, the CRTC said CNOC failed to show that the…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC today denied an application by Bell accusing Quebecor’s Videotron of giving itself an illegal preference by removing Bell’s channels from its rotation.
Videotron first proposed to remove Bell’s Vrak.tv and Z, claiming that it didn’t want to continue to pay royalties for channels that weren’t performing well. Bell fired back with a Part 1 application in August asking the CRTC to find that Videotron, by removing its channels, was giving its own channels an undue preference.
In order for Bell’s argument to work, the commission had to find that Vrak and Z were similar to Videotron’s…
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Bell also expects millions of homes to have access to 8-gigabit internet by year-end
By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said today that he looks forward to communicating with new CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides about competition and investments in the industry, as he turned away suggestions that broadband prices are increasing.
Bibic was responding to an analyst question on its fourth quarter 2022 results conference call this morning about comments made by the regulator related to higher broadband prices and the need to reconfigure the wholesale access market to drive competition. Outgoing CRTC chair Ian Scott and Eatrides both…
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OTTAWA — Bram Abramson is the CRTC’s next commissioner representing Ontario, Canadian Heritage announced today.
The lawyer with over 20 years of experience in the communications and technology industries will complete the nine-person commission when he takes his position on February 15 for a five-year term. The vacancy was created by the exit of Monique Lafontaine.
“Bram Abramson’s extensive experience in law and telecommunications will be a great asset in his role as CRTC Ontario Regional Commissioner,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said in a press release. “The CRTC’s regional commissioners ensure that the tribunal’s scope encompasses the entire country, thereby enabling…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent a letter to the largest carriers requesting a status update on negotiations for access to their wireless networks by mobile virtual network operators.
The letter, dated yesterday, asks Bell, Rogers, Telus and SaskTel to provide the commission by February 8 a list of regional carriers that have made requests to begin negotiations for that access and when those requests were made; the current status of any negotiations and whether rates have been discussed; and a timeframe for when they expect agreements can be executed.
If the parties cannot come to an agreement on rates, they…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Just over three months since the CRTC put in place guidance for its mandated mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) regime, the new chair wants providers to let the commission know about the status of negotiations.
“I would like to know where those negotiations are,” Vicky Eatrides, who took on the job just over two weeks ago, told Cartt as part of her rotation of media interviews on Friday. “We are going to follow up soon to figure out where those negotiations are between the larger players and the regional providers.”
The CRTC, under previous chair Ian Scott,…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA — The Competition Bureau today filed a motion at the Federal Court of Appeal asking for the court to allow it to submit into evidence an application by TekSavvy at the CRTC challenging the legality of Rogers allowing Videotron access to its network at below market rates as a deal to help close its purchase of Shaw.
The largest independent telecom in Canada filed the application yesterday for the CRTC to review whether Rogers could provide Videotron wholesale access to its network at below market rates, a deal TekSavvy said could be rampant in…
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