TORONTO, OTTAWA, WINNIPEG and REGINA — Signalling its exit from the wireless network market in the prairie provinces, and just days after it made the original applications, Wind Mobile’s proposed sell-off of AWS-1 spectrum to Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) and SaskTel was approved by Industry Canada on Friday.
In separate announcements, MTS said it will pay $45 million to buy 15 MHz of paired AWS-1 spectrum in Manitoba from Wind Mobile, while SaskTel will acquire six licences of paired AWS-1 spectrum in Saskatchewan for an undisclosed sum.
Industry Canada approved the two spectrum licence transfer deals Friday morning, publishing its separate…
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TORONTO — The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) has chosen Reynolds Mastin as its new president and CEO, filling the vacancy left by Michael Hennessy, who retired from the association earlier this summer.
“On behalf of the CMPA board of directors, I would like to first of all thank Michael Hennessy for his contribution to the association and to the industry over the past three years. It has been an honour working with Michael and I’d like to wish him the very best,” Jamie Brown, chair of the CMPA board of directors, said in a press release. (Prior to…
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JOIN BILL ROBERTS (former president and CEO of VisionTV) in an exclusive Cartt.ca podcast with Conway as she talks about CBC host firings, the effect of the CRTC’s Let's Talk TV policies, staff cuts, the future of streaming content, CBC Radio 2, ad sales, NHL hockey and more. To get right to the 32-minute interview done at the CBC headquarters, click here.
(Ed note: As a busy executive, Conway doesn’t have a ton of free time for media, so our preamble you’ll read below is taken from a post-podcast interview Roberts did with her to finish…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The CRTC has issued a call for comments on its proposed Simultaneous Programming Service Deletion and Substitution Regulations in its latest Broadcasting Notice of Consultation (CRTC 2015-330).
Simultaneous substitution (or simsub) occurs when a distributor temporarily replaces the signal of one TV channel with that of another channel showing the same program at the same time. According to the CRTC, during the Let’s Talk TV proceeding Canadians expressed ongoing frustration with the frequency in errors made during the simsub process.
The CRTC’s request for public comments regarding its proposed simsub regulations comes as the Commission awaits a report…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC’s recent wholesale wireline decision fails to adequately take into account the significant growth on online video, both regulated and exempt, says regional CRTC commissioner for Ontario Raj Shoan.
In a dissenting opinion to last week’s Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326, he argues that because telecommunications and broadcasting are now being delivered to Canadians over a single pipe, this requires a brand new approach to wholesale services regulation.
“In essence, under the current legislative framework, the Internet, through market forces, consumer use, and industry development, is evolving from a telecommunications service into a broadcasting service. The implications…
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OTTAWA – An independent ISP and a big cable company are both lauding Wednesday’s CRTC’s wholesale wireline decision as a win-win.
TekSavvy Solutions hailed the ruling, saying that if implemented properly, it will allow independent competitors to take their game to the next level. Rogers Communications, on the other hand, said that the ruling levels the playing field between cablecos and the incumbent telcos.
Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326 determined that access to the ILECs last mile fibre facilities is an essential service and mandated access to competitors. It also ushers in a disaggregated wholesale high speed access (HSA) model…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canadians frustrated by telemarketing calls masquerading as legit now have a chance to help the CRTC crack down on the practice of illegitimate caller identification (caller ID) spoofing.
Caller identification spoofing occurs when telemarketers hide or misrepresent their identity by displaying fictitious phone numbers when making calls. The CRTC said Thursday that it wants to gather information from both the public and the telecommunications industry to better understand the technical solutions currently available to help manage unsolicited telecommunications and illegitimate telemarketing calls.
"Canadians are very frustrated with telemarketers who hide their identity or misappropriate the legitimate numbers of Canadians…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s largest communications companies acknowledge that high speed Internet is now critical for Canadians to participate in the digital economy, but they remain divided as to whether the basic service objective (BSO) should be amended to include broadband.
It’s already “self-evident,” according to Rogers Communications Inc., that broadband is a basic telecommunications service because Canadians require it to access government, health, education, business and entertainment services.
“High-speed broadband Internet access is a necessary prerequisite for Canadians to participate in the digital economy in a meaningful way and almost all Canadians now have access to this important service,” it writes…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC appears have to struck a balance between competitors’ requests to access incumbent and cableco facilities, and the large providers’ need to invest with return on investment certainty.
The two big changes to come from Wednesday’s decision on wholesale wireline services is that access to the ILECs’ last mile fibre facilities by competitors is now mandated, and that there will be a transition to a disaggregated wholesale High Speed Access (HSA) model.
Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326 also greatly simplifies the wholesale services market. There is now a three point test (input, competition and duplicability) to determine whether…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) was quick to commend the CRTC for Wednesday’s wholesale wireline decision, one that it says will have a “profoundly positive impact on Canadian consumers, competition, and competitors.”
Referencing its stance at last November’s the fibre hearing, where it advocated for mandated access to all-fibre networks in multi-unit buildings and housing developments, as well as the introduction of a disaggregated model for transport services, CNOC said that the Commission’s decision to implement both “affirmed that additional regulatory measures were necessary”.
“This decision, once fully implemented in a graceful manner, will strengthen competition throughout Canada’s markets for…
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