MONTREAL – Independent Internet service provider Distributel Communications is offering unlimited packages for its Quebec customers and announced plans to reduce overage charges on its existing plans by more than 60% starting immediately.
The new unlimited plans start at $37.95 per month. Existing customers on Distributel's 15 Mbps plan will soon receive notification that their plan is now unlimited (there was previously was a 90 GB cap), while customers with 3 Mbps or 8 Mbps plans will see their rates for data transfer in excess of their limit cut from $4.50 to $1.50 per GB.
"Distributel will continue to put its customers…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has received 108 complaints since October 2009 about the Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs) used by the country’s Internet service providers.
In a new status report released Tuesday, the Commission broke out the complaints by 'ITMP disclosure complaints', which are those related to whether the Internet service provider has disclosed information on its website or in customer materials about any ITMPs it uses; 'ITMP usage complaints', which are those related to the effect of ITMPs on customers; and 'non-ITMP complaints', which are complaints that are determined not to be related to an ISP’s use of an ITMP…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is considering amending the definition of the “broadcast day” as it applies to the standard conditions of licence for competitive mainstream sports specialty services.
The Commission said Tuesday that the proposed amendment would allow licensees of specialty Category C services operating in the mainstream sports genre to choose between an 18- or a 24-hour broadcast day. Currently, the broadcast day is defined as the period of up to 18 consecutive hours, beginning each day not earlier than six o’clock in the morning and ending not later than one o’clock in the morning of the following…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given Bell Media the green light to add a pair of new transmitters to its CTV Two station in Barrie, a move that was opposed by two of its own commissioners in addition to a host of competing broadcasters.
Bell Media asked to add two new digital transmitters to CKVR-DT Barrie to serve the areas of Burlington, Fonthill, Fort Erie, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Oakville and Welland, Ontario. Opposing interveners, which included Channel Zero, Rogers Broadcasting, CBC, and Shaw Communications, argued that approval of the applications would have a negative impact on other Canadian…
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THUNDER BAY – Due to popular demand, Shaw Cable said as of January 31, customers in the Thunder Bay area will begin receiving standard- and high-definition U.S. feeds for ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and PBS from Minneapolis.
In July, to comply with regulatory requirements, the feeds for these American channels were switched to markets in the same time zone as Thunder Bay (to Detroit stations). Due to local response to the changes, Shaw applied for and was granted an amendment from the CRTC to allow customers in the Thunder Bay area to receive U.S. channels from Minneapolis, as they had…
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada says there is nothing it can do to make content from the National Football League available to other mobile network providers in Canada, no matter what the CRTC wants.
Back in December, thanks to an original complaint by Telus, the Commission ruled that Bell Mobility gave itself a “significant competitive advantage” by entering into exclusive agreements for the mobile rights to popular National Hockey League (NHL) and National Football League (NFL) content. It gave Bell until the end of January to say what it plans to do to make the content available to other mobile carriers….
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The new wholesale rates for independent Internet service providers (ISPs) will be implemented on schedule starting Wednesday.
The CRTC confirmed on Friday that large telephone and cable companies will proceed as scheduled with their proposed implementation plans, with the exception of the Bell companies who have seen their plan modified temporarily while the CRTC resolves issues raised by the Canadian Network Operators Consortium. As an interim measure, independent ISPs who are customers of the Bell companies will have the flexibility to either merge their business and residential Internet traffic, or keep them separate.
“We are moving ahead with the implementation as…
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REGINA – The CRTC has approved SaskTel’s request to raise the rates charged to its customers in High Cost Serving Areas (areas outside of Saskatchewan’s nine largest urban centres)
“The rate increase was essentially required by the CRTC decision that mandated high cost serving area (HCSA) rates needed to increase to $30 per month across the country by June 1, 2013, in order to reduce the amount these rates are subsidized from the National Contribution Fund,” said Ron Styles, SaskTel president and CEO in a press release.
“SaskTel has consistently argued that rates in high cost serving areas should be roughly…
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GATINEAU – Chris Seidl has been promoted to executive director, telecommunications, it was announced today.
Seidl had been serving as acting ED since John Traversy was promoted to Secretary General in October.
“Chris’ telecommunications experience in both the CRTC and the private sector will serve him well in his new functions,” said acting CRTC chair Len Katz in a staff memo.
Prior to his new post, Seidl (right) was director general of convergence policy at the Commission and before…
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MONTREAL – While its competitors in the telecom industry are becoming more vertically integrated, Cogeco president and CEO Louis Audet says his company is comfortable in its position as a mid-sized telecom and has no plans to copy companies like Bell and Rogers by acquiring TV specialty channels or building a wireless network.
Audet has a reason to be confident. Cogeco's first-quarter earnings, released Thursday morning before the annual shareholders' meetings of the company and subsidiary Cogeco Cable, shows its profit up 20% to $47.9 million from $39.8 million for the first quarter of last year,…
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