TORONTO — While applauding the federal government’s decision to increase funding available through its Universal Broadband Fund to $1.75 billion, independent service provider Distributel today said now it’s time for the CRTC to enforce its 2019 wholesale rate decision to create certainty for independents and stimulate investment and innovation (something fellow independent TekSavvy is also advocating).
Enforcement of the 2019 decision will not only establish rate certainty, it will provide independents with a retroactive overpayment refund which Distributel says it “will use predominantly to accelerate efforts to expand rural broadband and invest in other innovative initiatives that…
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GATINEAU — Having already extended the deadline once for submissions to its proceeding regarding the appropriate network and service configurations for disaggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services, the CRTC says it won’t delay the proceeding further by agreeing to add procedural steps requested by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC).
The Commission launched the proceeding in June, and then revised the deadlines in July, making interventions due by October 5 and replies due by December 7, 2020.
However, on November 2, CNOC sent a letter to the CRTC asking for a Commission order to address alleged instances of…
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GATINEAU – When in August 2020, the CRTC found both Iristel and Telus had violated the Telecom Act, Iristel for traffic stimulation and Telus by taking matters in its own hand in blocking traffic to Iristel, it initiated a proceeding to determine whether Administrative Penalties (AMPs) were warranted.
After Iristel went to the CRTC seeking a Review and Vary (R&V) and a stay of the decision right away, on November 6, Telus also sought a R&V of the same decision to argue that they di not unjustly discriminated. It was posted to the Commission website on Thursday.
“The Commission,…
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TORONTO – When the CBC appears in front of the CRTC in January asking for its broadcasting licences to be renewed, the commissioners had better ask the public broadcaster about Tandem, say a large group of former employees.
The CBC announced the new Tandem unit in September, which was meant to “enhance its offer to advertisers and media agencies in Canada with the dedicated service for the creation of unique and distinctive branded content,” by using CBC folks to create special content for certain clients – such as the Go The Distance podcast for Athabasca University, hosted by…
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CHATHAM, Ont. — Independent ISP TekSavvy today voiced appreciation for the federal government’s launch yesterday of its $1.7-billion Universal Broadband Fund, which will provide subsidies for broadband infrastructure projects in rural and remote Canadian communities.
The company also welcomed the Canadian government’s $600-million agreement with Telesat to subsidize satellite-based Internet providers, as well as the Ontario government’s announcement last week of its plan to spend almost $1 billion over six years to improve and expand broadband and cellular access across the province.
In a press release today, TekSavvy says these historic public subsidies for rural broadband projects…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC today denied a review and vary application from Rogers Communications concerning the Commission’s decision in April to extend the deadline for Bell to deploy one-way toll trunks between the two companies’ networks — a deadline extension which Rogers wasn’t happy about.
Considering the Commission’s decision today comes two and a half months after the deadline by which Bell was supposed to have deployed the one-way toll trunks (to connect to Rogers switches in the Bell operating territories where Rogers also provides service), perhaps the whole matter of the R&V denial has become a moot point.
The…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU and TORONTO – There is a general rule in Ottawa that one should not steal the spotlight from public officials, especially Ministers of the Crown. They, of course, had to be elected while officials are merely appointed. And the chairman of the CRTC, a distinguished official, did not derogate from that rule.
As luck would have it, while Ian Scott was addressing the Competitive Network Operators of Canada’s 10th annual ISP Summit being held virtually Tuesday and Wednesday, Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, was in Ottawa introducing significant changes to the Broadcasting Act at the…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the reply phase in the CRTC’s “Call for comments on an application by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters requesting regulatory relief for Canadian broadcasters in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Canadian Association of Broadcasters re-iterated their members’ situation is dire and help can’t be delayed.
As readers will remember, the CAB filed an application in July saying its members expect to be in non-compliance on their Cancon spending for the 2019–2020 broadcast year, which ended on August 31st, due to the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. In response, the Commission issued a…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC today launched a proceeding to review certain elements of its regulatory framework for Bell subsidiary Northwestel, and is asking for Canadians living in the North to provide feedback on telecom services in the region.
“The CRTC is seeking to better understand the state of telephone, wireless and Internet services in the areas served by Northwestel. This will help determine whether more needs to be done to ensure Canadians living there have access to high-quality services at reasonable rates,” reads the Commission’s press release.
Broadband services, or their limitations, are a constant topic of conversation in…
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CHATHAM, Ont. – Independent ISP TekSavvy Solutions has asked the Federal Court of Appeal to quash the September 28 CRTC decision which granted Bell Canada’s request to stay the implementation of the CRTC’s August 2019 order setting final rates for wholesale Internet services.
Over fourteen months ago, the CRTC released its final wholesale rates which third party internet access providers pay incumbent network owners. The rates in that decision are far lower than the interim rates which had been in use and called for retroactive payments. This came after a four-year proceeding and as readers will recall, the incumbents…
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