OTTAWA – Public Mobile got the green light from the CRTC on Thursday to proceed with the launch its new wireless service.
In its ownership and control review, the Commission determined that, subject to certain modifications to the company’s unanimous shareholders agreement, Public Mobile will meet the requirements of the ownership and control regime making it eligible to operate as a Canadian telecommunications common carrier.
Public Mobile, which spent $52.3 million for G-Band spectrum covering the Windsor to Quebec City corridor across Ontario and Quebec, opened 25 stores in Toronto and Montreal last month. Company CEO Alek Krstajic said…
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OTTAWA –GATINEAU – Despite a slumping advertising market, Canada’s specialty, pay, pay-per-view television services, and video-on-demand services saw total revenues grow 6% in the 2009 broadcast year, says the annual CRTC report released Thursday.
From September 1, 2008 to August 31, 2009, revenues increased from $2.9 billion to $3.1 billion, as subscriber revenues offset advertising declines, while expenses rose from $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion.
As a result, profits before interest and taxes (PBIT) improved to $728.7 million, up from $648.2 million in 2008. These services posted a PBIT margin of 23.5%, slightly better than the previous year’s margin of 22.1%.
Cable TV…
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OTTAWA – The case goes back a few years and involves a complex network migration of Department of National Defence telecom services from Bell to Telus, but Telus is again insisting to the CRTC that its decisions in the DND versus Bell Canada dispute will have a negative impact on future competition in the large enterprise market.
The western-based telco filed the Part VII on April 12, appealing two previous rulings in the case (Decisions 2009-85 and 2010-11).
The CRTC ultimately determined that DND would have to pay Bell for a set period of time while services were…
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OTTAWA – Industry minister Tony Clement created a tilted ice sheet when he overturned the CRTC decision on Globalive’s ownership, Public Mobile CEO Alek Krstajic told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology earlier this week.
Krstajic used a hockey analogy to explain the impact of the minister’s decision.
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“Had we known that we could have had a different structure with almost all our money coming from foreigners, we would have been able to bring on more capital and buy more spectrum,” Krstajic explained.
Simon Lockie, chief legal officer and secretary for Globalive Communications Corp., said that under…
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OTTAWA – Glassbox co-CEO Raja Khanna was nearly at a loss for words Wednesday after hearing that the CRTC had turned down his company’s request for a new French-language Category 2 station dedicated to new musical artists, thanks in large part to objections from incumbent MusiquePlus.
“I’m shocked… really surprised”, he told Cartt.ca. “(The decision) is very, very surprising and I don’t understand what happened. It’s a blow to the Quebec emerging music scene.”
And at least one CRTC Commissioner agreed with him. Wednesday’s ruling was followed by a lengthy dissenting opinion by Commissioner Michel Morin who called the…
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HAVING READ THROUGH some of the reams of paper (virtual, thankfully) submitted on the CRTC’s proceeding into its regulatory framework for community television, the most prescient comment I read came from the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance.
While urging the Commission to be more flexible (don’t all submissions, by some sort of unwritten law, have to urge that?) the CCSA’s Chris Edwards wrote: “The term ‘community’ should be used to denote a ‘community of common interest’ rather than a specific geographic area.”
Its submission was about the seventh I read and when I saw that line, I nearly shouted, “YES!”
Now, the…
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Perry Hoffman
OTTAWA – It’s not very often the country’s telecommunications and cable firms agree with anything the regulator has to say, but on foreign ownership rules, they at least partially support the CRTC’s proposal to a Parliamentary committee studying the matter.
One after the other last week, they addressed the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology on the need to liberalize current foreign investment restrictions for both telecommunications and broadcasting companies. They echoed the CRTC’s position that regulations can protect Canadian content on television and radio.
“While we do not believe there is a problem today, given…
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OTTAWA – CPAC will carry live on-line coverage of the CRTC’s public hearing on community television.
Starting Monday at 9 a.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, a number of groups including cable providers and industry organizations are scheduled to appear before the Commission, as the federal regulator undertakes a review of the policy framework of community television.
Cartt.ca will be there with daily reports.
To watch the hearings live, visit www.cpac.ca.
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OTTAWA – With less than a week before the CRTC begins its community television hearing, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) has released details on a proposal which it says will hand community channels back to Canadians.
CACTUS suggests that the money that cable companies collect from their subscribers, (which it estimates as more than $100 million per year), be directed to a Community-Access Media Fund (CAMF) which would then be used to establish 250 community-run multi-media training and production centres across the country “in communities that have lost a distinct service on cable”.
The new centres would…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Ontario’s rapidly growing 905 region will become the first territory in Canada to have a third area code.
The CRTC has announced that new telephone numbers assigned in the regions around Toronto may be given the area code 365 starting March 25, 2013, in order to manage the telephone number shortage that will affect the areas currently covered by area codes 289 and 905.
These measures are being implemented in response to the Canadian Numbering Administrator’s warning that the region is expected to run out of telephone numbers by March 2014. Existing customers will keep their current area code and…
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