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.
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Following the British Columbia government’s Part 1 application filed last month requesting the CRTC mandate a testing environment for Canada’s next-generation 911 (NG911) networks, a group of representatives of Canadian public safety answering points (PSAPs) has filed its own Part 1 asking for a commission decision in support of a pre-production NG911 network and quality assurance program.
Signatories to the application — dated Sept. 22, filed with the CRTC on October 4 and posted on the CRTC’s website Tuesday — include representatives from Barrie Fire Dept., BC Emergency Health Services, City…
Continue Reading
Regulator credits Quebecor for lowering prices in market
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Quebecor will need to use the rate proposed by Bell for access to the telco’s national wireless network, the CRTC ruled Tuesday.
The regulator selected Bell’s price per gigabyte of data after the two parties could not on their own agree to commercial terms for access by Quebecor’s mobile virtual network operator business to Bell’s national wireless network.
“That rate best meets the evaluation criteria, and will promote competition, affordability, and continued investment by both companies in their networks,” the regulator said in a statement.
“With access to larger networks, regional…
Continue Reading
YELLOWKNIFE – Bell subsidiary Northwestel announced Wednesday it has launched fibre internet in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, making it the northernmost community in Canada to have fibre technology.
Northwestel customers in Tuktoyaktuk can now access high-speed, unlimited fibre internet with speeds up to 50 Mbps, up from 15 Mbps previously, says a press release.
“We’re very proud to bring in-community fibre to the first Arctic Ocean community,” Northwestel president Curtis Shaw said in the release. “Technology like this helps break down barriers to distance education, virtual health care and enables more participation in…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Representatives from the country’s largest independent internet service provider spoke directly with CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides in February about acquisitions that have swept the industry in recent months, according to documents obtained by Cartt.
Andy Kaplan-Myrth, TekSavvy’s vice president of regulatory and carrier affairs, sat down with the head of the regulator to talk about an “overview of market conditions for retail internet services,” including “observed pricing trends,” and a discussion “regarding the recent acquisitions in the market,” according to an outline of the morning meeting held on February 15 and obtained via access to information…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) announced Tuesday a number of changes to its board of directors that include long-time board member Jim Deane assuming the role of chair.
Until his retirement from Regina-based Access Communications earlier this year, Deane had served as Access CEO since 2000. He has been a CPAC director for more than 20 years “and brings a wealth of institutional knowledge to the role” of board chair, says a press release announcing CPAC’s board changes.
Pam Dinsmore, vice-president of regulatory for cable at Rogers Communications, is joining the CPAC…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Telus is accusing the CRTC of deviating from precedent when it argues that spectrum sale and leasing revenues count toward the telecoms’ total operating revenues for the purposes of calculating what fees are owed to the commission.
The Vancouver-based telecom argued in a submission Thursday that those revenues have traditionally not been filed under total operating revenues when using the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for financial reporting, which has been used by the CRTC to calculate contributions owed to the commission.
Telus was backing a point made by mobile satellite and cell services provider TerreStar, which…
Continue Reading
