WE COULD WALK through the various undertakings and final replies filed by the many contributors to the CRTC’s TV Policy Review, but we’ve done more than 40 stories on the whole proceeding. The issues are well known and have been dismantled and well-explained repeatedly here – but it’s the final brief filed by American broadcaster Viacom which has set tongues wagging.
(Ed note: Yes, the filings and oral presentations of both Netflix and Google have been stricken from the record as threatened since neither company responded to the October 2 compliance deadline set by the Commission)
In its final reply…
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WHITEHORSE – Bell Mobility launched its 4G wireless service in Pelly Crossing and Burwash Landing, YT on Monday.
This expansion, completed in partnership with the Government of Yukon, is part of Northwestel's modernization plan, the company said. Launched in 2013, the plan must deliver advanced Internet and wireless services to northerners in all three territories. Bell Mobility is delivering on the wireless components of the plan after Northwestel transfered its wireless portfolio to Bell Mobility in October 2013.
Bell said that it will invest more than $1.8 million while the Yukon government is committing up to $758,000 over the next…
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GATINEAU – Quebecor’s Videotron will be Canada’s fourth national wireless player “if the CRTC creates the right conditions”.
The Montreal-based communications giant used its appearance Friday at the CRTC’s wireless hearing to encourage the Commission to regulate tower sharing and introduce roaming charges that are based on real network usage costs.
"Currently, the rates stipulated by Bill C-31 are based on costs that include equipment subsidies, marketing, customer acquisition, retail and online distribution channels, customer service and debt collection," said Videotron president and CEO Manon Brouillette. "It is unfair and absurd to make new entrants finance the incumbent carriers by supporting their…
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OTTAWA – The phrase ‘you win some, you lose some’ rang true this week for Sun News Network after it won one application for final offer arbitration with Telus, but lost another such application with Rogers.
In final offer arbitration, the Commission examines the final offers submitted by the parties and selects one in its entirety. The Commission’s decision is binding on the parties, though in rare instances, where neither offer is in the public interest, the Commission may reject both offers.
In its decision between Sun News Network (SNN) and Telus, the Commission said that it considered rates paid by…
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OTTAWA – Consumer complaints received by the CRTC regarding bandwidth throttling by their Internet service providers (ISPs) continued to fall in the third quarter of this year.
In its latest status report issued Thursday, the Commission reported that it received a total of 6 complaints regarding Internet Traffic Management Practices (ITMPs) from July 1 to September 30, down from the 10 complaints that were filed in the second quarter between April 1 and June 30, 2014.
There is no distinction made between ITMP disclosure complaints, (those related to whether the ISP has disclosed information, on its website or in customer materials, about any ITMPs…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC will not try to go to the courts to force compliance and instead has threatened to strip the interventions, submissions, oral presentations, research and other supporting documentation made by Netflix and Google from the public record of its recent TV Policy Review because the companies continued to refuse to provide specific information.
In a letters dated September 29 and addressed to Google’s Canadian public policy and government relations counsel Jason Kee and to Netflix’s director of global public policy Corie Wright, (pictured in a CPAC.ca screen cap, below),…
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MONTREAL – The Canadian wireless sector is not only well-priced, it offers better service than many other large industrialized countries, and does not need new “interventionist measures” to promote competition, according to a new publication from the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI).
The organization published a new Viewpoint Monday entitled Three Myths about Competition in the Canadian Wireless Sector, timed to coincide with the start of the CRTC’s hearing into the wholesale wireless market.
According to the document, wireless prices in Canada are lower than those in the United States, Japan, and Australia. Moreover, by comparing different mobile wireless service bundles…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable could add wireless service to its mix as the country’s newest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), a move that it said will help foster wireless competition in a market dominated by incumbent providers.
In advance of its appearance Monday at the CRTC’s review of wholesale mobile wireless services, Cogeco said in a statement that it will seek “the implementation of appropriate regulatory measures to allow it to enter the wireless market as an MVNO to offer customers more choice, better value and differentiated wireless services”. MVNOs are mobile wireless service providers that lease capacity from facilities-based wireless…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – With wireless service networks now accessible to 99% of the population, more and more Canadian households are dropping their landlines, according to the 2014 edition of the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report.
The report, released Thursday, provides an overview of the Canadian communication industry for the year ended August 31, 2013. This year, the CRTC is releasing the report in three parts. The first, about the country’s broadcasting sector, was released earlier this month, and the third part will be released in October with data on international comparisons, the National Do Not Call List and consumer spending on…
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BANFF – Three days of great weather, stunning scenery, clean mountain air and a ton of networking and learning made for another super CCSA CONNECT conference, where much of the talk surrounded the lengthy and somewhat contentious TV Policy Review hearing.
After CRTC vice-chairman broadcasting Tom Pentefountas opened the conference Monday morning with his speech (one which pretty much stayed away from the hearing), one of the conference’s sponsors AMC’s Lesley Fields, showed she’d been listening to the Commission’s Let’s Talk TV hearing when she noted she felt nervous following Pentefountas saying: “I feel the need…
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