Telco focusing on content and mobility bundle
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell said Tuesday it will use the CRTC’s wholesale internet framework to launch fibre-based internet services in British Columbia and Alberta, reciprocating what its telco rival Telus is doing in eastern Canada.
The telco confirmed to Cartt that the launch of the services in western Canada “is a result of the CRTC’s recent decision,” which it does not agree with because of what it says is the policy’s negative impact on network investment. The regulator mandates that competitors have access to the bundled fibre infrastructure of Bell and Telus nationwide.
“Our position on…
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The News Forum and Rogers have reached a new agreement on the latter’s distribution of the former’s national news service, according to a letter filed jointly with the CRTC in late September.
With the new agreement in place, The News Forum is withdrawing its Part 1 application submitted to the commission in March, in which it alleged Rogers was unduly disadvantaging the discretionary network by excluding it from the cable giant’s legacy or grandfathered cable packages. In its April reply to The News Forum’s complaint, Rogers had called for the application…
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Proposing one-year trial for spoken word on FM
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday abolished radio licence renewal periods, thereby making licenses indefinite with regular compliance audits that it says will streamline the process and reduce the burden on both the industry and the commission itself.
The regulator said it was often processing over 300 licence renewal applications every year, with multiple rounds of information requested from each station. But it found that the vast majority of stations were in “full compliance at all times, and most of the non-compliance was minor and could be addressed easily.”
The new Broadcasting Act allows…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Several major telecoms have filed a review and vary application asking the CRTC to adjust its new outage reporting requirements and extend the deadline to implement them because they are currently “impractical or disproportionate” and impose “undue administrative burden” on their businesses.
The CRTC in September gave all telecoms two months to implement the new rules, which require them to report to certain official bodies major outages – newly defined as lasting at least 30 minutes and affecting 600,000 or more user minutes in most cases. Compared to the interim regime from 2023, the new…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The Federal Court of Appeal will hear arguments made by Cogeco and Eastlink that allege the CRTC made several errors when it rejected their request to relook at its decision to allow the three largest telecoms wholesale access to their cable networks.
The July leave application, granted last month, charges that the regulator made three errors of law when it refused to review and vary the August 2024 policy that they say will cripple their businesses.
The applicants argue in a notice of appeal filing, dated September 29, that the CRTC misinterpreted section 2(e) of the…
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The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) announced Wednesday its board of directors for the 2025-2027 term, and confirmed the appointments of Kyle Irving as CMPA board chair, Michelle Wong as treasurer and Lauren Corber as secretary.
“In this pivotal moment for Canada’s nearly $12 billion media production industry, it’s more critical than ever that we pull together for Canadian content and stories,” Irving said in a CMPA press release Wednesday. “The deep expertise of our diverse Board of Directors will ensure our members are well represented to continue telling Canadian stories on our own…
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By Ahmad Hathout
A non-profit tribal council is asking the CRTC to extend the proposed far north retail internet subsidy to remote indigenous communities.
The regulator ruled earlier this year that it will implement a monthly internet subsidy for residents of Canada’s far north, which has some of the most expensive high-speed internet services.
But Matawa First Nations Management (MFNM), which is comprised of nine remote First Nations in northern Ontario with a combined population of over 10,000, says in a Part 1 made public Tuesday that this subsidy should not be exclusive to far north…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to force the CRTC to make a decision on a joint complaint it made with Bell late last year alleging a Quebecor internet radio station is broadcasting on a commercial FM station illegally.
In August 2024, Quebecor made a deal with Leclerc Communication, the owner of commercial radio station CJPX-FM (99.5 FM) in Montreal, allowing Quebecor’s internet radio station QUB Radio to operate on those airwaves during primetime Monday through Friday.
“In the hyper-competitive world of Montreal radio, the upheavals of recent months in talk radio offer…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC’s vice president of broadcasting said Wednesday that some of the base contribution money collected from online streamers, which is to be delivered to Canadian content funds, has already been released, despite a court-ordered stay of that policy.
Scott Shortliffe told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in a briefing about the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, that the streamers’ money from the previous broadcast year – which ended on August 31 – has been collected by an independent company and that some of the money has already been delivered.
“We understand that the money has been…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday denied applications from Bell and Ontario charging that the commission made an error in a previous decision by failing to clarify that it had exclusive jurisdiction over long-distance calls in correctional facilities.
The commission said Friday that this issue was not central to its 2024 decision – which determined that those call rates were forborne from regulation since 1997 and it did not have authority to retroactively adjust the rates charged by Bell between 2013 and 2021 – and that the Telecommunications Act does not give the CRTC “authorities in exclusive…
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