OTTAWA-GATINEAU – While the cable industry was fixated on the voice over Internet protocol decision yesterday, the CRTC issued another one at the same time which will affect a number of small cable operators carrying high definition programming.
In the decision, the Commission told Star Choice that it must, within 30 days, cease transmitting its so-called “omnibus” high definition channels it has been distributing to customers for some time. None of these channels were created with the consent of the broadcasters, who complained to the regulator.
Basically, Star Choice takes high definition programming it finds on CBS, ABC, Fox…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – At least it won’t be an election issue this time around.
The CRTC today added Italian channel RAI International to the eligible satellite list of services for distribution on a digital basis.
Getting RAI on has been quite a battle for the cable companies since the Commission originally sided with its policy of genre-protection, shutting RAI out in 2004 in favor of protecting Corus Entertainment-controlled Telelatino.
The channel was an election issue last time around as politicians promised Italian-Canadian voters the channel would be added.
Rogers Cable says RAI will go live on its systems June 2,…
Continue Reading
BURNABY, B.C. – The Telecommunications Workers Union doesn’t trust the free market and says that the CRTC’s VOIP decision issued yesterday was wrong-headed.
"The Commission dropped the ball with this decision," said Telecommunications Workers Union president Bruce Bell. “They focused totally on promoting competition among the companies that will provide the service… Their underlying assumption seems to be that by setting the terms of competition, the workings of the ‘free market’ will take care of everything else.
“This focus is way too narrow," Bell continued. "The TWU has always taken the position that the CRTC’s most important responsibility is…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Coalition for Competitive Telecommunications said today it too believes the CRTC’s VOIP decision wrong-headed.
"The Coalition argued that users ultimately pay for the entire telecommunications cost structure and we should have more say in the regime governing our freedom of choice in technology and service providers,” said Ian Russell, coalition chair (and senior vice president, Investment Dealers Association of Canada). “Regrettably, this is a decision about picking winners rather than leaving customers and markets generally to determine outcomes. The CRTC has once again ignored the users.
“It appears the CRTC is far more interested in settling…
Continue Reading
SAINT JOHN – Saying it, too, thinks the CRTC’s decision stinks, eastern Canadian telco (and BCE division) Aliant reaffirmed today its commitment to offer voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) telephony to Atlantic Canadians in 2005.
While Thursday’s CRTC decision determined that Aliant’s VoIP service will be price regulated, the company remains committed to bring this new technology to the region.
Aliant faces a different competitive market than its fellow incumbents as it has been locked in a battle for several years with MSO EastLink, which continues to make strong inroads in the voice market in Nova Scotia and Prince…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – “We’re extremely pleased with the decision,” Chris Pierce, executive vice-president government and regulatory affairs for Manitoba Telecom Services, told www.cartt.ca on Thursday after the VOIP decision was released.
While MTS is the entrenched Manitoba incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), it is also a national competitor in the VOIP space via its Allstream division – and wanted as much as Canadian MSOs for the decision to go the way it did. For example, MTS/Allstream is helping Mountain Cablevision in Hamilton with its voice over IP product, which is already in the marketplace.
“(The Commission) didn’t accept, really,…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Rogers Communications vice-president, regulatory, Ken Englehart told www.cartt.ca that the CRTC’s demand that cable open up its third party Internet access (TPIA) tariff agreements to explicitly include provisions for voice service, should not pose much of a problem.
While the Commission did adjust its position somewhat, calling for cable to make provisions for access-dependent” third party voice, “things change” shrugged Englehart.
“We had said that access independent voice (where the consumer and their new VOIP provider installs his or her own telephone service on top of their Rogers High Speed service) is okay. We think that…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Did the industry have this decision pegged or what?
Mere minutes after the CRTC’s voice over IP decision was put out, the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association issued a press release declaring itself pleased by the decision, while Bell Canada wired one out which blasted the decision, saying it will appeal immediately, just like BCE CEO Michael Sabia said here last week.
“I think we’re very happy,” CCTA president Michael Hennessy told www.cartt.ca in Ottawa today upon the decision’s public release. “It’s pretty much what we expected and for the telephone companies, they’re allowed into the market, allowed…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association has asked the CRTC to let its members drop FM radio from their carriage requirements.
Specifically, the association wants the Commission to repeal section 22 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, which currently require all cable systems to carry every local FM radio signal in their regions on their cable plant.
The CCTA says that so few people actually listen to the radio via cable that it’s a waste of bandwidth that could be put to better use… carrying high definition TV for example. MSOs could, if they wished, still carry the stations…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – It’s a key decision for the cable and telecom industry and www.cartt.ca will be there.
While the CRTC’s voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) decision itself will officially be released at 4 p.m., cartt.ca will be in the media lock-up at 2 p.m., poring over the decision and chatting with Commission staff to get the full story and what it means out to you as soon as possible.
Check back here later this afternoon for not just the decision or the press release, but a full account of the Commission’s VOIP announcement from Ottawa.
Continue Reading
