GATINEAU – When the CRTC issued decision 2019-288 in August 2019, its decision on third party internet access wholesale rates, everyone grasped the complexity of the file but perhaps not all had considered the complexity of concurring applications to different avenues of appeal.
Of course, the same players are involved in the various proceedings but this is why, when the cable carriers and Bell asked for an extension of 60 days to file a Review & Vary application to the Commission, nine days before the end of the 90-day periods to officially file, many were skeptical…
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MONTREAL – During Quebecor’s third quarter conference call with financial analysts last week Videotron president and CEO Jean-François Pruneau shed some light on the company’s motivation behind its decision to stop offering its highest broadband speeds at retail and wholesale.
Last month, as we reported, Videotron wrote the CRTC to remove its offered wholesale tariffs on its 1 Gig service, indicating it would stop offering it to wholesalers and therefore also had to stop offering it to their retail customers, too.
At the time, Videotron refused to comment on its motivation although many speculated it was directly…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC has initiated a show cause proceeding as the result of six telecommunications service providers (TSPs) failing to become participants in the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services Inc. (CCTS) and ignoring letters and requests for information sent by CRTC staff in the last year.
In its Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2019-363, the CRTC said the six telecom resellers who have not become CCTS participants are WISP Internet Services Inc., Golden Rural High Speed, Pure Channel Communications Inc., MySignal.ca Solutions Inc., Redbox Solutions Ltd., and Total Cable Service Inc. The Commission said it is launching…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC says the total amount of Part II licence fees to be assessed by the Commission in 2019 is estimated to be $116.6 million.
The Commission made the announcement Wednesday in Broadcasting Order CRTC 2019-359. Sections 11(1) and 11(2) of the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations set out the components for the calculation of the Part II licence fees, paid by major licensed broadcasting undertakings.
The CRTC said it calculated the total annual amount of Part II licence fees to be assessed in 2019 by taking last year’s total of $113,973,360 in Part II licence fees and applying…
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GATINEAU – An acquisition which would see Bell Media pay $20 million to add five conventional French television stations in Québec, Montréal, Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières from Groupe V Media will be probed by the CRTC in February.
In July, Bell Media announced its intention of to purchase certain Groupe V assets, pending CRTC approval and the application was made public today, Bell is requesting the conditions of licence for the V conventional stations relating to the broadcast of local programming and local news be maintained where:
each station shall, in each broadcast week, broadcast at least five hours of…
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GATINEAU – After a lot of back and forth with the Competition Bureau, which asked for much additional, specific, information in the spring, then some complaints from wireless companies, resistance from the CRTC and eventually, compliance to the Bureau’s modified requests, Commission has come to realize the January hearing for its review of the Canadian wireless industry is too tight.
The Bureau, the companies and others all told the Regulator there was not enough time to answer and respond to newly filed information, so today, the Commission released…
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New one is coming, though
GATINEAU – On October 11, 2019, Videotron filed an application to the CRTC to decommission its fastest Internet service, saying it would cease offering its Giga-Service to its retail as well as wholesale customers.
In a bit of a twist, the CRTC wrote back to Videotron noting mistakes in the application meant it could not accept it – and so it returned it to the company.
First, Videotron had indicated it wished to cease offering the Giga Service starting immediately but Commission staff told the company that such service eliminiation has to be…
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Competition Bureau has its worries, too
GATINEAU – In the summer Rogers Wireless introduced 36-month device financing plans into the Canadian wireless marketplace.
The service providers which introduced these new plans (Telus quickly followed suit, and then Bell and Ice Wireless had begun or where about to launch three-year device plans) were hailed by some as increasing smartphone affordability and generally being pro-consumer. Others hailed in the opposite direction.
On August 2nd, as we reported, the CRTC sent a letter to providers to cease that practice and then on August 30th, Continue Reading
GATINEAU – As part of the unrelenting effort by Canada and other jurisdictions to put an end to fraud and scam calls, last December, the CRTC launched a proceeding that would see the Implementation of universal network-level blocking of calls with blatantly illegitimate caller identification.
The deadline for telcos to have that in place, if they don’t already, is December 19th.
This summer, however, Bell suggested going even further and, as Cartt.ca reported, applied for Commission approval for a pilot project which would use artificial intelligence to build on universal network blocking tools to stop certain verified fraudulent and…
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GATINEAU – The first call for applications for Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and all other satellite-communications-dependent communities in Canada closed on October 3.
While the CRTC confirmed that it has received 15 applications for funding, these applications were filed confidentially and will not be made public by the Commission.
Northwestel, however, made a sunmary of its own application public and Iristel has shared its application with Cartt.ca, defining the companies’ visions for bringing 50/10 Mbps Internet with unlimited data options to every community in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
We asked a handful of other companies for their applications, too, but…
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