Regulator argued Rogers’s investment capacity won’t be harmed
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has selected Quebecor’s price to access Rogers’s wireless network for the purposes of building out its mobile virtual network operator business, the regulator announced Monday afternoon.
The two parties were granted a final offer arbitration hearing in May after they couldn’t hammer out a deal on their own. The process involves the two sides presenting their own price offer for access and the regulator choosing one.
The CRTC ruled that despite its finding that both offers would have satisfied the policy objectives, it was Quebecor’s offer that…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Quebecor has won an arbitration hearing at the CRTC to determine the cost to access Bell’s wireless network.
In a letter dated July 13, the CRTC accepted Quebecor’s June 22 application for the commission to call the final offer for that access, which the Montreal-based company said is integral for its mobile virtual network operator business and its growth as the fourth national carrier after acquiring Freedom Mobile from Shaw.
Quebecor argued that the two sides tried their best but could not hammer out a deal within the 30 days they were required to make a best-efforts…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers told the CRTC that it must act expeditiously on its request to access Bell and Telus poles because the new policy direction from Cabinet requires it.
Rogers said as much in a reply submission last week to Bell and Telus, who told the CRTC to deny Rogers’s request last Wednesday asking for interim access to attach wireless equipment on their poles.
Telus said in its submission that the expedited request is “unsubstantiated” and that Rogers allegedly failed to “demonstrate any need for the Commission to exercise its discretion to implement an expedited process…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – With less than a month remaining to get an agreement hammered before the CRTC-imposed deadline, Cogeco CEO Philippe Jette said the telecom is still working to get a deal done to roam on the large carriers’ wireless networks.
“We’re still determined to launch a mobile service in Canada and we are now in negotiations with the MNO,” Jette said on the company’s fiscal third-quarter conference call with analysts Friday. “For competitive reasons, we won’t go further on this call…it remains a critical element for our business case to enter for the long-term this market, so we…
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TORONTO – Media company Corus announced Thursday its Nelvana subsidiary has agreed to sell an animation business for $147.5 million to Integrated Media Company.
Integrated Media will acquire Montreal-based Toon Boom Animation, marking Corus’s exit from the animation software business at a time when the company is struggling with a rough advertising market and what it says are onerous regulatory burdens.
Corus said it expects to use the money to pay down debt.
“After an enterprise-wide review of our operating model and asset base, we have decided to exit the animation software business,” Colin Bohm, Corus’s executive vice president…
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Bell alleges it has approached Rogers about terms and didn’t hear back
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers is accusing Bell and Telus of delaying its requests to attach wireless equipment on their poles and is asking the CRTC to make an interim order granting those requests on an expedited basis.
Rogers said in a Part 1 application filed earlier this month and published Wednesday that Telus had invited it to apply for attachment permits last year, but “abruptly changed its position” on the basis that the CRTC said it would be reviewing the wireless attachment framework in a decision on wireline…
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YELLOWKNIFE – Bell subsidiary Northwestel announced Wednesday it has launched fibre internet to three more Northwest Territories communities, bringing the total number of NWT communities hooked-up with fibre to 21.
The region’s dominant provider, which also provides live and on-demand TV through its app, now provides download speeds of up to 500 Mbps and unlimited monthly data in the communities of Fort Resolution, Kakisa, and Enterprise.
“These fibre upgrades are part of Northwestel’s Every Community Project, a 3-year project to bring high speed unlimited Internet to 10,000 homes across the Northwest Territories and Yukon,” the company said in a press release.
“Northwestel…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has issued a contract Friday for analysts and managers to assist it in managing the workload of implementing legislation that requires online streamers to contribute to Canadian content.
The regulator said it requires the ability to call upon one to eight professionals per year to support its work.
The regulator is now seeking to be able to call upon an intermediate statistical analyst, three senior statistical analysts, a junior project manager, an intermediate project manager, a senior project manager, a senior subject matter expert and a senior technical writer for its consumer, research and communications…
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OTTAWA – Bell filed Wednesday a letter of support for the Supreme Court of Canada to review a Federal Court of Appeal decision affirming that the CRTC does not have jurisdiction over wireless attachments on municipal structures.
The one-page letter supporting Telus’s application includes a copy to Rogers, Cogeco, Quebecor, Xplornet, Ice Wireless, the province of British Columbia and opponents of the argument, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Electricity Canada.
Telus filed the appeal to the high court last month, which has yet to decide if it will hear it. The Vancouver-based telecom argued that the appeal…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The spate of acquisitions by incumbents of wholesale internet service providers in recent months is not because of a difficult market or bad wholesale access rates, Bell argued in its most recent submission to the CRTC’s wholesale internet framework proceeding, which is messaging that runs counter to what competitors have been saying.
“These acquisitions were completed for a variety of reasons, including succession planning, and the sales were made at strong valuations, not because the Resellers went bankrupt, were driven out of the market or…because of ‘the broken wholesale access model,’” Bell said, in reference to…
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