OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved the use of deferral account funds by Bell Aliant and Bell Canada to expand broadband services to 38 distribution serving areas in 10 Ontario and Quebec communities.
Harriston, Hastings, Hepworth, Lanark, Michigan, Tweed, and Wingham, Ontario were approved, as were La Patrie, Napierville, and Yamaska in Quebec.
The Commission denied the Bell companies’ request to use deferral account funds in 29 other distribution serving areas in eight additional Ontario and Quebec communities.
Click here to read the full decision.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – Wireless industry stakeholders are calling on the CRTC to initiate a separate review of the mobile data services framework and its applicability under the recently established Internet traffic management practices (ITMP) framework, rather than include the matter in a broader consultation on certain legacy telecom obligations.
They say the matter is largely administrative in nature and can be best handled separately.
“It would be a lot simpler in my mind to have dealt with that in a very small paper proceeding,” Michael Hennessy, Telus’ senior VP of regulatory and government affairs said in an interview.
“I suspect…
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OTTAWA – Three of Canada’s largest telecommunications service providers agree that it’s time to review the nearly 10-year-old contribution regime and make changes to the local subsidy that better reflect the reality of today’s telephony landscape.
Their comments come after the CRTC issued a consultation on the contribution regime and other related matters last week (Telecom Notice of Consultation 2010-43).
The current contribution regime, established back in 2000 (Telecom Decision 2000-745), requires all TSPs with revenues greater than $10 million to provide a portion of their earnings to a national pool that would be made available to telecom…
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MONTREAL; WINNIPEG and OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Both Bell and MTS Allstream debuted their enhanced wireless 911 services Monday, squeaking in just under the CRTC-imposed deadline.
Wireless E911 is now available to Bell Mobility and Solo Mobile clients with compatible handsets wherever wireline 911 service exists in Canada, while MTS Allstream introduced the service across its CDMA cellular network in Manitoba. Telus launched its upgraded emergency service last week.
The enhanced 911 (E911) phase II capability is the result of a year-long effort involving Canada’s wireless carriers, local telephone companies and 911 call centres across the country. The CRTC set February…
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MONTREAL – Corus Entertainment’s AM Info690 Montréal and AM940 Montreal’s Greatest Hits will sign off for good today at 7 p.m. Ten people will lose their jobs.
The two stations are unprofitable and have been for some time.
“Corus Québec and its employees worked to grow audience and revenues on both these stations while operating them as efficiently as possible. It is clear that these two AM stations are not viable, particularly in the current economic climate,” reads the press release.
This decision affects 10 positions, including eight positions at Info690: three journalist positions, two traffic reporter positions and three operations positions….
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VANCOUVER – Telus announced today it can better identify the location of wireless 911 calls with the launch of new Global Positioning System (GPS) and triangulation technologies.
Telus has now implemented phase II enhanced wireless 911 (e911) services across its three wireless networks, which are based on HSPA, CDMA, and iDEN (Mike) technologies. Telus has been working with individual 911 operations centres across the country to test and bring phase II e911 technology online for many months, the company said today.
“Through our partnership with 911 and emergency services operations centres across Canada, this new enhanced 911 service will make…
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OTTAWA – You can’t sell what isn’t yours.
That, in a nutshell, is what some of the interveners into Mediadenovo’s application for a broadcast license have said about the company’s plans to sell the local availability advertising time on American specialty services to national Canadian advertisers. The concept will face the commissioners in a non-appearing hearing on February 22. Comments closed Wednesday. (A prior version of this story suggested this would be a traditional public hearing. At this time, that is not the plan.)
In 2009 Mediadenovo, a re-branded Only Imagine (which had a similar submission shot down by the CRTC in…
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AS A CANADIAN LIVING in California, I still follow developments in Canada, particularly in the broadcasting system. As someone formerly involved in CATV, in specialty services and the public sector, I miss the Canadian system for what was and continues to be a very unexpected reason.
I had assumed, while living in Canada, that the U.S. system would be superior to Canada’s, which had always struck me as over-regulated and over-priced.
Well, it sure turned out to be VERY not so. It is significantly more expensive here for inferior offerings and limited choices. The greatest difference is in pay TV, where…
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ALMOST 60 PEOPLE working for Citytv across Canada lost their jobs last week as two news shows were cancelled.
It’s not something Leslie Sole, president of Rogers Media Television, had envisioned doing when Rogers Communications bought the five Citytv stations in 2007.
He and the company had envisioned taking Citytv back to its “fiercely local” roots, he told Cartt.ca on Monday in an exclusive interview. The company’s leadership was hopeful back then that the CRTC would reduce or eliminate its priority drama obligations so that the broadcaster could concentrate on local news in the cities it operates. Sole launched Citytv’s five…
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TORONTO – Reduced CRTC requirements and the recession are the real reasons behind the program cuts and layoffs at Citytv in Toronto, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP).
Canada’s largest media union confirmed that Rogers Television handed out layoff notices to 36 full-time employees and seven part-time employees at the Citytv flagship station in Toronto on Tuesday. Additional program cuts were also made at Citytv stations in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.
"Citytv viewers will notice a big difference", said Bob Huget, VP of CEP’s Ontario chapter, in a statement. "The CRTC has permitted major market television stations to reduce local programming…
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