YELLOWKNIFE – Another Northwestel competitor is taking issue with that company’s proposal to tie its modernization plan to its parent company’s pending acquisition of Astral Media.
Noting that tangible benefits in such transactions are meant to be directed to Canada’s broadcasting system and not telecommunications carriers, Ice Wireless and Iristel called the move “nothing short of a shell game by Northwestel and its owner Bell Canada to move money around in a last gasp attempt to keep competition and innovation out of the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut”.
Privately-held VoIP provider Iristel, which is a major shareholder in Ice, is…
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OTTAWA – Industry stakeholders are lamenting the anticipated shutdown of 623 CBC and Radio-Canada analog transmitters on Tuesday, a move that ends free access to the national broadcaster over the air in hundreds of small Canadian cities, towns and rural areas.
Despite the protests of more than 2,000 Canadians and a proposal by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) on how the equipment could be repurposed, the CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s plan to mothball the transmitters and repeaters with no conditions and no requirement to reach out to the affected communities.
"The CBC-TV and Radio-Canada analog transmitter shutdown…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has amended various regulations relating to the implementation of its vertical integration framework.
The amendments encompass the distribution of Category B services; the “no head start” rule; the prohibition against tied selling;the standstill provisions; and dispute resolution provisions.
In addition, the Regulator also issued amendments to the terms and conditions of the exemption order for terrestrial BDUs serving fewer than 20,000 subscribers, and amendments to the exemption order for digital media broadcasting undertakings.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The CRTC logged only 10 new complaints in the second quarter of 2012 about the Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs) used by Internet service providers.
In its latest status report, the Commission noted that the majority of the complaints centred on ITMP usage, which are complaints related to the effect of such practices on customers.
As of June 30, the CRTC still had 4 active complaints but had closed 14. Closed complaints include complaints where Commission staff determined that the ISP is compliant with the CRTC’s policies, or the ISP has come into compliance subsequent to the complaint, and therefore the…
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MONTREAL – The Quebec Superior Court has sided with Quebecor, in part, in civil actions filed against Bell Canada over alleged signal piracy that occurred nearly a decade ago.
The court awarded Videotron/TVA $600,000 in damages, a far cry from the nearly $400 million that the two Quebecor subsidiaries were asking when the trial began last September. The actions stemmed from allegations made by Quebecor that Bell failed to prevent the piracy of its Bell ExpressVu satellite television service between 2002 and 2005.
"We are glad to see the Superior Court condemn Bell for resorting to illegal means that weaken its…
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YELLOWKNIFE – Broadband provider SSi is urging Canadians to take a close look at incumbent Northwestel’s proposed ‘modernization plan’ which it says may just be too good to be true.
That plan, announced earlier this month, centres around a $273 million Internet and wireless upgrade over five years to the 96 communities that it serves. But according to Yellowknife-based SSi, the “modernization” focuses on one-time capital expenditures to develop infrastructure, but does not include a plan for ongoing sustainability to ensure that the system will be affordable.
The company also took issue with Northwestel’s use of CRTC subsidies to fund its own fibre…
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VANCOUVER – Telus says that it has always been compliant with Canada's foreign ownership restrictions for telecommunications companies, and called on the CRTC to dismiss the “misleading allegations” made by Globalive and Mason Capital.
In a formal response to the Commission on Monday, the telco reported that as of June 29, 32.59% of its voting shares were held by non-Canadians, an amount that falls just below the federal limit of 33.3%. This includes the holdings of its shareholder Mason, a New York-based hedge fund, which recently reported that it held a 19.98% ownership stake of Telus’ common shares.
"Globalive relies on…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Television has received the CRTC’s permission to move forward with its plans to launch British Columbia’s first all-news channel.
The English-language Category B service, which was green-lit by the Commission on Friday, will be called Global News: BC 1 and programming will include “a mix of local and regional news, traffic, weather, business, sports and entertainment information devoted to serving residents of British Columbia, with a special focus on the Vancouver/Victoria Extended Market”, according to its application.
In response to an intervention by Victoria-based local broadcaster CHEK-TV, the CRTC imposed a condition of licence that precludes Global News:…
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OTTAWA – While Friday’s CRTC rulings may indeed eventually pave the way towards more choice for consumers in the selection of TV channels, what remains unclear is whether that “choice” will truly be driven by Canadian viewers or continue to be shaped by the country’s biggest broadcasters and television service providers.
Friday’s CRTC decision, which chose Bell Media’s final offer over the one presented by the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG), noted that “both parties’ offers moved in the direction of providing more consumer choice”, plus contained “incentives to provide a wide choice of programming in the broadcasting system, and…
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OTTAWA – Communications giant Bell Media was batting .500 Friday after the CRTC awarded it a win, and a loss, in two final offer arbitration disputes between it and the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG) and Telus.
In its decision on Bell Media versus the CIDG, a group consisting of the CCSA, Cogeco and MTS, the Commission noted that both sides made “significant strides” to resolve the issues between them, and that both offers provided commercially reasonable terms and more consumer choice.
The CIDG final offer affiliation agreement, however, was “inconsistent” with the standstill rule of the Commission’s vertical…
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