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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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IT SEEMS AS THOUGH most people in the industry have this afternoon’s CRTC voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) decision figured out.
Cable companies and telephone companies alike believe the Commission will maintain what it already said it believes: that despite the technology delivering it, VOIP is still just local phone. And that means the incumbent telcos will remain bound by the same traditional regulations they already have to deal with, mainly tariff-filing when they wish to alter their rates, which makes them a slower-moving competitor in the marketplace.
The telcos have done their level best to try to spook…
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OTTAWA – “Why did we find that VOIP is a telephone service? Because Canadians use it as a telephone service,” CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen said today at the Commission’s headquarters upon the release of its voice over Internet decision.
The decision confirmed what the Commission had said previously: that it would continue to regulate VOIP when it is provided and used as a local telephone service.
That means incumbents like Bell and Telus will continue to have to file rate tariffs with the Commission for approval – to make sure predatory pricing below cost doesn’t happen – while the…
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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, they’re…
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DARTHMOUTH, N.S. – Newcap Inc., announced today that the CRTC has approved its $2.3 million purchase of CJUK-FM, Magic 99.9, from Big Pond Communications Inc. of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
This transaction is expected to close May 30, 2005. Newcap signed the purchase agreement last June.
“We have had a presence in Thunder Bay for over 15 years," said Rob Steele, president and CEO, in a release. "The purchase of Magic 99.9 will perfectly compliment our existing station, CKTG-FM, The Giant."
Thunder Bay is the largest metropolitan city in Northwestern Ontario and represents an important commercial base for NCC’s penetration…
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