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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The commission should not fear threats of lower investment in incumbent networks when it comes to set wholesale internet rates, the benefits of which will allow independent service providers to build their own networks, the CRTC heard on the final day of its wholesale internet hearing.
The CRTC has been wrangling during the week-long hearing over the question of what the sweet spot is for a rate on which independent internet service providers can lease capacity from the incumbents’ networks. Adam Scott, the CRTC’s vice chair of telecommunications, referred to the risk of the commission falling on either…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Telus’s proposal to ride on its competitors’ internet networks outside of its home territory would be destructive to facilities-based competition and would create an existential crisis for regional wholesalers, two prominent cable companies told the CRTC on Thursday.
Representatives from Telus said Wednesday that the Vancouver-based telecom should be able to wholesale internet capacity from competitor networks to drive diversity of choice and competition, or the regime would be “useless.” The telco also pushed back against claims that it is a national incumbent, instead saying that its preferred status would be a regional player that’s a new…
Continue Reading
Bell says market has ‘never been more competitive’
By Ahmad Hathout
Telus said Wednesday that it should be allowed to use the wholesale internet regime outside of its operating territory, but noted that an unfettered framework without limits will create a disincentive to invest in networks.
Telus took issue Wednesday with being labelled a national “incumbent” because it mainly operates in the west and has few facilities east of its home court, including some in Quebec.
The telco argued that it be given access to the wholesale regime in areas outside of its operating territory because that would boost competition. In contrast, it…
Continue Reading
In late January, the CRTC shot a letter to Telus’s vice-president of telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel, Stephen Schmidt, requesting detailed information about the Vancouver-based telecom provider’s proposed March 8 disconnection of home telephone service in an area of Tranquille Valley near Kamloops, B.C.
Having become aware of Telus’s intention to disconnect the service, CRTC staff “is concerned that TELUS’ plans could jeopardize access to telephone services in the Tranquille Valley, and perhaps elsewhere,” the letter said.
“Without reliable alternatives, Canadians in this area would lack access to public safety services…
Continue Reading
The CRTC last week said in a letter to several Canadian wireless ISPs (WISPs) that the commission’s joint study with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) tracking fixed wireless internet performance must be completed by the end of March and no extensions are possible.
The commission has previously asked the WISPs to participate in the study — the third phase of its Measuring Broadband Canada (MBC) project — which aims to better understand how Canadians subscribing to fixed wireless internet services with the federal objective speeds of 50 Mbps download and…
Continue Reading
The CRTC last week informed TerreStar via letter that the commission was denying the Montreal-based mobile satellite and cell services provider’s request for a stay of its June 2023 decision not to allow the company to reduce its regulatory fee obligations by deducting its spectrum leasing revenues.
TerreStar has argued the revenues generated from the sale or leasing of spectrum did not qualify as a telecommunications-related expense, which would have reduced its obligation to the National Contribution Fund (NCF), which is used to fund broadband infrastructure in Canada.
TerreStar filed a Continue Reading
