WIND MOBILE PARENT COMPANY Globalive has said again the CRTC must hold a public hearing to find out for sure if the ownership of Telus is Canadian enough.
Back in June, Globalive sent a petition to the CRTC which said Telus’s recent aborted attempt to convert to a single share structure showed the Vancouver-based telco may not be complying with Canada’s telecom ownership rules and therefore it may well be in breach of the Telecom Act. So, a full public hearing must be held to determine whether or not Telus is Canadian enough.
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada was quick to respond to what it described as a “public misinformation campaign” launched by Cogeco, Eastlink, Quebecor earlier in the day around its acquisition of Astral Media.
The communications giant issued a statement acknowledging that the proposed transaction will change the competitive landscape, and said that “new reality has competitors worried”.
"With Astral, we're actually leveling the playing field with the long-dominant media/cable company in Québec, Québecor, and bringing new investment and increased competition to the media marketplace," said Martine Turcotte, Bell's vice chair for Quebec, in the statement. "Coupled with the fast growth of…
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OTTAWA – The number of complaints filed against telemarketers fell in June as Canadians continue to add their numbers to the country’s national do not call list (DNCL).
According to the CRTC’s latest status report, the DNCL contained 10,885,340 telephone and fax numbers as of June 30, with just over 40,000 numbers added during that month alone.
The Commission fielded approximately 11,700 complaints about telemarketing communications in June, down from over 13,000 in May of this year. Since the DNCL was launched in 2008, 568,041 complaints have been logged.
Six new investigations were opened in June, bringing the number of active investigations…
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LONDON – CBC/Radio-Canada has been awarded the Canadian broadcast rights for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and the Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Wednesday.
While financial terms of the bid were not officially disclosed, a source with direct knowledge of the talks who asked to remain anonymous told Cartt.ca late Wednesday that the amount CBC committed to for the rights to both future Games is “less than half” of the $153 million which then-CTVglobemedia paid in 2005 for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the London Summer Olympics. (Ed note: CTVglobemedia later brought in…
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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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