OTTAWA – The complexity – some might say silliness – of Canada’s telecommunications foreign ownership rules were on full display last week as the Federal Court heard arguments on a petition to overturn Cabinet’s decision to approve Globalive Wireless’ ownership structure.
According to people at the hearing, Globalive Wireless’ lawyers argued that because the Telecommunications Act says Canadian telecom firms can’t be controlled by non-Canadians doesn’t mean they must be controlled by Canadians. Therefore, a telecom company can find itself in the situation of being controlled by neither Canadians or non-Canadians.
Globalive, of course, is in business under the Wind…
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“COME WITH ME. I’LL show you why I wanted to be president of the CBC.”
Those were CBC president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix’s first words to me last week as we sat down in the meeting room overlooking the Montreal skyline and St. Lawrence River at Radio-Canada’s headquarters. I jumped to my feet and followed him into his office.
Just inside his door is a headless mannequin dressed in a whimsical suit, topped with a bowler cap. “It might be a bit before your time but do you know who this is?” he asked me, excitedly. I wrack my brain…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Responding to a wave of public criticism, the CRTC has asked the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) to reconsider its decision to ban the unedited version of the Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing”.
After the CBSC’s January 12th determination that the use of a derogatory word for gays in the song breached broadcast codes, the Commission said that it has received over 250 letters from Canadians, “most of which have suggested that the CBSC made an incorrect decision, and many of which have urged the Commission to take corrective action”. In addition to the “strong public reaction”, the…
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TIMMINS, ON – The NDP is calling for tighter net neutrality rules after describing usage-based Internet billing (UBB) as unfair and anti-competitive.
New Democrat digital affairs critic Charlie Angus, who is also the MP for Timmins-James Bay, said that the CRTC’s decision to allow useage-based billing will unfairly drive up Internet costs for all Canadians, rather than for just “the so-called bandwidth hogs”.
“We’ve seen this all before with cell phones”, Angus said in a statement. “Allowing the Internet Service Providers to ding you every time you download is a rip-off. Canada is already falling behind other countries in terms of choice,…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC received more than 10,000 complaints from consumers about Bell Canada’s telemarketers, many of which described the calls as “aggressive and abusive”, according to a report in The Toronto Star.
The story says that the calls, which continued for about a year, allegedly included one death threat. Both the CRTC and Bell Canada have declined to say how many complaints were received from the public.
As Cartt.ca reported, Bell was fined $1.3 million in December for calling tens of thousands of consumers on the Do Not Call list.
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GATINEAU – In the CBC’s application to the CRTC for a new digital transmitter for CBAT-TV in New Brunswick, the Corp proposes to cease over-the-air television broadcasting in Saint John, N.B.
“The analog transmitter associated with CBAT-TV is located on Mount Champlain and provides service to both Fredericton and Saint John,” notes the Commission’s summary of the CBC’s application. “The proposed digital transmitter would be located in Fredericton and would provide service only to that market. The proposal would therefore result in a loss of over-the-air television service to the residents of Saint John.”
The city has a population of about…
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GATINEAU and TORONTO – “Let me repeat that. We do not traffic shape downstream traffic,” said Rogers Communications senior vice-president, regulatory, Ken Englehart, told Cartt.ca on Monday.
Englehart was responding to a complaint letter sent to Rogers from the CRTC over the company’s network traffic management practices. The Commission cited a few complaint filed by Rogers customers over recent changes made by the company to its traffic management practices that affect the downstream flow – and that the company was not complying with the Commission’s disclosure requirements when it comes to ITMP (Internet traffic management policies).
The complainant said Rogers did…
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TORONTO – A growing subscriber base combined with an increase in average monthly subscription revenue per Subscriber (ARPU) helped to drive up revenues at XM Canada by 12.6%, the satellite radio company announced.
Revenue for its first quarter ended November 30, 2010 was $15.4 million, up from $13.7 million in the same period last year. Despite the increase in revenues, the company’s adjusted operating loss grew to $2.2 million from $1 million due to absence of the $1.2 million credit on reversal of CRTC Part II licence fee realized in the first quarter of 2010 plus some one-time marketing credits.
ARPU was…
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OTTAWA – An attempt by Axia SuperNet to overturn the CRTC’s decision on Telus’ deferral accounts has failed.
The Commission said that Axia was unable to “demonstrate substantial doubt as to the correctness” of its determinations in Telecom Decision 2010-639 which gave Telus the go ahead to use its deferral account funds to expand broadband services to 159 communities in Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec.
Click here for more on the decision.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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TORONTO – Score Media saw a slight uptick in revenue, but a drop in net income for its first quarter of 2011.
Revenue for the quarter ending November 30, 2010 was $11.9 million, up 4% from $11.4 million year-over-year. But net income was down from $1.1 million in fiscal 2010 to $839,000, though last year’s results did include a one-time gain of $800,000 from the CRTC Part II fee reversal decision.
“Our business continues to evolve quarter after quarter and this quarter is no exception,” said chairman and CEO John Levy, in a statement. “Our growth in both revenue and EBITDA…
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