Not-for-profit media company Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC late last month requesting that the regulator hike the rate broadcasters pay to carry its programming temporarily until the next licence renewal period in August 2026.
Broadcasters are required to carry English-language AMI’s AMI-tv and French-language AMI-tele programs, which are funded by the fees AMI is paid for that mandatory carriage under the Broadcasting Act’s 9(1)(h) rule. AMI says an overwhelming majority of the revenue of its services come from these BDU subscription fees.
However, because the cost of doing business has gone up due to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell CEO Mirko Bibic said Tuesday that the telco is anticipating that the CRTC will mandate access to incumbents’ fibre facilities, and the outstanding questions about that access will determine what types of difficult business decisions it will have to make.
Bibic was speaking at Scotiabank’s TMT conference when he was asked about regulatory assumptions the telco makes that affect how it approaches business decisions.
In response, Bibic targeted the regulator’s November decision to temporarily provide competitors access to the bundled middle and last mile fibre facilities of Bell and Telus in Ontario and Quebec until it concludes its…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC launched Wednesday a proceeding to probe whether it should mandate all telecommunications service providers to join an effort to mitigate nuisance calls on their networks.
The regulator had adopted most of the recommendations of a working group of its Interconnection Steering Committee when it approved the rollout of the traceback process in August 2021, which requires the provider to keep a time-limited call log to trace the origin of nuisance calls that are in violation of telemarketing rules.
While the CRTC had previously said that the success of such an enforcement mechanism involves all providers, it deviated…
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More than a year after Execulink Telecom asked for the CRTC’s help to gain timely access to three multi-dwelling units (MDUs) in Tillsonburg, Ont., the commission has approved the southern Ontario telecom service provider’s request and is enforcing its MDU access condition against JLC Homes Ltd.
On Feb. 22, 2023, Woodstock-based Execulink filed a Part 1 application saying it had been denied timely access to three MDUs owned by JLC Homes Ltd. The property owner had previously indicated to Execulink that it had exclusive access agreements with other carriers, and when informed by Execulink that exclusive…
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Bell says it ‘competes in fair manner and follows all regulations’
By Ahmad Hathout
Videotron has filed two complaints to the Competition Bureau Tuesday alleging Bell is using anticompetitive pricing tactics to push competitors out of markets in which it is the dominant provider, according to the applications seen by Cartt.
In the first complaint already raised to the CRTC in March last year, the regional competitor alleges Bell is forcing Videotron’s Fibrenoire subsidiary, which provides fibre services to businesses, to take up long-term contracts to use its traffic transport fibre network or face higher monthly costs in areas…
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The Canadian telecommunications sector experienced a 3.5-per-cent increase in total revenues in 2022, similar to the 3.4-per-cent growth achieved in 2021 and a clear progression from the sector’s revenue decline in the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic year, according to the CRTC’s Communications Market Report (CMR) for calendar year 2022, released Tuesday.
Telecom revenues totalled $57.2 billion in 2022, primarily driven by the almost $1.7-billion increase in mobile revenues, which represents a 5.7-per-cent increase over 2021, according to the report. Mobile service revenues grew to $30.9 billion in 2022 from $29.2 billion in 2021. This was mostly due…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell wants the CRTC to defer to the Federal Court of Appeal to determine whether the regulator has jurisdiction over small cell attachments on telco-owned or controlled structures – or, in the alternative, separate that question from the rest of its proceeding on the matter.
The telco filed a Part 1 application Tuesday challenging the CRTC’s preliminary view on which it launched a proceeding earlier this month that it has concurrent jurisdiction with Innovation Canada (ISED) over the wireless attachments crucial for 5G technology. Bell has always argued that ISED, which manages spectrum auctions required…
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Canadian Heritage announced Thursday the appointment of Nathalie Theberge to a five-year term as the CRTC’s vice chair of broadcasting, starting April 3.
Theberge, who has been vice chair and CEO of the Copyright Board of Canada since 2018, is replacing Alicia Barin, who stepped down last month.
Before her stint at the Copyright Board, the long-time public servant has been working in various capacities in the Canadian Heritage department for 18 years, including her latest as the director general of creative marketplace and innovation. In descending order, she was also director general of copyright and international trade; direct…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is warning the CRTC that an application by TekSavvy requesting that the cableco be forced to maintain its coax facilities or else provide aggregated last mile fibre access so it can maintain connectivity to its customers at locations in Burlington and Windsor is offside.
TekSavvy filed the Part 1 application last month warning that its customers at those locations will lose access if Cogeco continues its migration away from older coax technology and toward fibre, alleging that the only means for the wholesaler to get fibre access from a cable company is through the disaggregated regime…
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The CRTC plans to conduct the next steps in its Broadband Fund policy review in two phases, the commission told respondents to its March 2023 notice of consultation in a letter published Monday on its website.
“The Policy Review aims to make the application process faster and easier, broaden the type of funding available, and advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples through changes that support Indigenous applicants and Indigenous communities,” the letter reads.
The first phase will address issues relating to the existing Broadband Fund framework for capital projects that build or…
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