OTTAWA – The CRTC last week informed Cogeco Communications via a letter it was closing a tariff application proposing revisions to Cogeco’s third-party internet access (TPIA) tariff, and suggested the ISP resubmit the application with additional information required under the commission’s tariff application rules.
In its Sept. 8 application to revise its TPIA tariff, Cogeco said it had started to increase the upload speed of its 360 Mbps and 1 Gbps downstream high-speed retail internet services from 30 Mbps to 100 Mbps, and this increase would be progressively rolled out throughout Cogeco’s serving…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC last week approved Skigin Radio Incorporated’s November 2022 application for a broadcasting licence to operate a low-power, Indigenous FM radio station in Woodstock First Nation, New Brunswick.
Serving the Maliseet people of the Wolastoqiyik territory, Skigin Radio’s 50-watt station will operate at 107.7 MHz.
In its licence application, Skigin Radio had proposed to broadcast 112 hours of local programming and 14 hours of wrap-around programming (programming that originates from other radio stations) per broadcast week. Of that programming, 104 hours would be devoted to musical content, 20 per cent of which…
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OTTAWA – Telus has been awarded Friday more funding on top of the $12 million it was allocated for four projects backed by the commission’s Broadband Fund.
The CRTC has approved the Vancouver-based telecom’s request for an additional $4.5 million – a nearly 40 per cent increase – on the basis of unanticipated increases in costs including labour since the pandemic and changes in equipment that would “improve the sustainability, resiliency, and cybersecurity of the project.
The projects will build and/or upgrade mobile wireless, local fixed access, and transport infrastructure in a total of 26 communities and along roughly 305 kilometres…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC on Thursday is proposing to relax Corus Entertainment’s regulatory obligations on an “exceptional basis,” as the pure-play media company saw a dramatic decline in its financials over the year.
Corus sent an application to the regulator last Wednesday stating that high inflation, its sub-$1 share price, and its debt-to-liquid cash ratio reaching “unacceptable levels” after the content company saw a 61 per cent free cash decline over the previous year have put it in a precarious position with rapidly declining profitability. The company said it has had to halve its dividend since its November…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Regina member of Parliament Andrew Scheer has asked the federal government to provide more information about the rationale and cost behind a registry of companies set up by the CRTC that is intended for them to contribute to the enrichment of Canadian content.
The former Conservative Party leader has tabled two sets of inquiries in the House of Commons Monday, with one requesting specifics as to the overall rationale for setting up the registry and how the commission arrived at the $10 million annual revenue threshold to include companies for possible regulation.
Under that set of questions,…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor is patting itself on the back as Statistics Canada’s latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, released Tuesday, indicates cellular phone service prices have fallen considerably since this time last year.
In a press release distributed Tuesday afternoon, Quebecor claims “the decisive factor in the decline of Canadian wireless service prices shown this morning in Statistics Canada’s monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is increased competition from Videotron, Fizz and Freedom Mobile.”
Quebecor notes in its release the overall CPI rose 3.8 per cent on a year-over-year basis between September 2022…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC announced Monday it has renewed the broadcasting licence for SaskTel’s terrestrial on-demand service SaskTel Pay-Per-View until Aug. 31, 2028.
The licence for SaskTel’s pay-per-view service was due to expire Dec. 31, 2023, having been administratively renewed by the CRTC three times since August 2021, which is when the service’s licence was originally scheduled to expire.
The CRTC explained in its decision Monday, after SaskTel Pay-Per-View’s licence was renewed in 2014, the commission created the category of on-demand services by consolidating what were formerly known as pay-per-view and video-on-demand services.
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to review whether the CRTC was allowed to automatically renew its broadcasting licences without notice or consultation.
The CRTC approved all of the broadcaster’s 66 television and specialty channel licences until August 2026 on an administrative renewal basis. But Bell still had an outstanding appeal in the form of Part 1 applications to the CRTC asking it to reduce the regulatory burdens on it because the financial climate for broadcasters has changed from when the licences were last renewed for a five-year term in 2017.
“There…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has asked Bell and its subsidiary Northwestel to maintain services to Iristel until it can make a decision on an interconnection dispute that is threatening to terminate an agreement within 10 days.
Iristel filed an urgent Part 1 application earlier this month asking the regulator to force Bell to continue providing it interconnection services in northern Quebec after the telco sent a 30-day disconnection notice on September 21 because of unpaid dues.
Iristel said it stopped paying certain fees to Bell because it alleges the telco is violating the tariff the CRTC approved that stipulates…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Iristel wants the CRTC to get involved in a dispute related to a voice network interconnection agreement that Bell is allegedly threatening to cut off if the north service provider doesn’t pay its dues.
Iristel said in a Part 1 application filed Tuesday that Bell has allegedly violated access services rules by not fulfilling an arrangement in which it allegedly agreed to provide an interconnection point at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec. Iristel said since 2015, it has reluctantly agreed to an interim agreement in which it would route traffic to Kuujjuaq point through a single exchange…
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