OTTAWA – Bell Mobility is officially appealing a CRTC decision banning it from providing mobile video applications that are exempt from counting toward customers’ cap on their wireless data plans.
After receiving leave to appeal earlier this month, Bell filed notice with the Federal Court of Appeal late Friday asking it to set aside CRTC Broadcasting and Telecom Decision 2015-26.
According to Bell’s appeal, the CRTC made errors in law and jurisdiction by ignoring Section 4 of the Telecommunications Act (which says the Act doesn’t apply to broadcasting undertakings), and by finding that Bell was giving itself…
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TORONTO – Guy Laurence insists he’s merely in the foothills of a long climb, pulling along with him the Rogers Communications brand.
He’s surely been active in his 15 months as Rogers CEO (Can it only be 15 months? So much has been done.) Since the announcement back in September 2013 that he would be the new CEO (Laurence officially started December 2 that year), Rogers purchased the national NHL rights in a $5.2 billion, 12-year deal; spent another $3.3 billion on wireless spectrum; unveiled a new Rogers 3.0 plan that is driving the restructuring of the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Concurrent with its review of basic telecommunications services, the CRTC also published an inquiry report on satellite services in Canada plus called for a review of Telesat’s “market dominance”.
Conducted by Commissioner Candice Molnar, the report found that satellite dependent communities, located in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon, as well as remote areas of British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, continue to rely almost exclusively on Telesat's satellite network for services including as voice, wireless, and Internet. Ottawa-based Telesat Canada is the main satellite operator in Canada providing fixed satellite services (FSS) to broadcasting, telecommunications, corporate,…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC kicked off a major proceeding Thursday designed to review basic telecommunications services in Canada.
The first phase of the proceeding will see the Commission solicit information from Canadians to better understand their current telecommunications services and determine which areas are not being adequately served or not being served at all. Noting that its current policy dictates that Canadians in all regions have access to a low-speed Internet connection, the Commission said that it must review its policies on basic telecommunications services “in order to be in step with the future and the changing needs of Canadians”.
Canadians…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada and BCE president and CEO George Cope announced this afternoon that Kevin Crull is no longer president of Bell Media, effective today.
"Kevin Crull departs Bell with our thanks for his contributions to our customers and shareholders," said Cope, in a press release sent out just after 4 p.m. ET. "Kevin has been a significant part of Bell's strategic transformation as he expanded Bell Media's leadership with major new investments in Canadian content, the successful integration of Astral and competitive innovations like CraveTV."
"However, the independence of Bell Media's news operations is of paramount importance to our…
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LET'S START WITH TWO MAIN themes: first, a description of how new technologies may continue to impact the media; and, second, a discussion of whether the CBC is the best mechanism to deliver a public subsidy to support public service broadcasting.
It's not my intention to question the rationale for public service broadcasting, but I believe that any discussion of the CBC should deal with more than short- or medium-term issues. If we ignore the longer-term structural questions, we run the risk of prescribing short-term solutions that might prove to be unsustainable. So let's jump forward 10 years to get…
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GATINEAU – Bell has toned down its controversial targeted advertising program after Canada’s Privacy Commissioner said that the program's “significant impact on privacy” could result in the matter escalating to the Federal Court.
Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien made public the findings of its investigation into the program on Tuesday, noting that the program had sparked “an unprecedented” 170 privacy complaints under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), Canada’s federal private sector privacy law, since it was first rolled out in the fall of 2013.
Known as the Relevant Advertising Program, the initiative tracks the Internet browsing habits of customers, along with their app usage,…
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OTTAWA – Bell Mobility will be able to challenge a CRTC decision banning it from providing mobile video applications that are exempt from counting toward customers’ cap on their wireless data plans.
Federal Court of Appeal judge Denis Pelletier said Thursday that he would grant Bell the leave to appeal CRTC Broadcasting and Telecom Decision 2015-26. That comes just over a week after Justice Pelletier dismissed Bell’s request for an immediate stay of the same decision.
As Cartt.ca reported, Bell filed for leave to appeal the decision in February, arguing that the CRTC made errors in…
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MONTREAL – Videotron has formed a nine person Citizen Advisory Committee for its French-language community channel MAtv, as directed by the CRTC in February.
As Cartt.ca reported, the CRTC found that MAtv was not complying with local and access programming requirements, and directed it to do so before its next licence renewal in August 2015. It also ordered Videotron to form a citizens' advisory committee by March 15 that will determine the mix, scope and types of programs that would best serve the needs and interests of the greater Montreal community.
“At the end of our recruitment effort, nine citizens…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canada’s new emergency alert system may have officially launched this week, but it can’t reach all Canadians after some of the country’s biggest TV service providers, including Bell and Shaw, have delayed its full rollout.
Known as Alert Ready, the system notifies Canadians of emergency situations over their radios and through their televisions. Issued by emergency management officials such as fire marshals, police officers and public health personnel, the alerts are meant to warn the public of dangers to life and property, like severe weather, water contamination and industrial disasters, as well as Amber Alerts.
While all cable and satellite…
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