REGULATING AN INDUSTRY involves a careful balance. Telecommunications is a perfect example. It is regulated so that consumers can expect fair prices, quality of service and universal access. On the other hand, the regulated telecom carriers require a predictable environment that allows them to make a reasonable profit in order to satisfy their shareholders and make forward-looking investments to expand their business and keep up with technological innovations.
It has been the mantra of CRTC that regulation should be fair, transparent, predictable and timely.
Telecom in Canada has been regulated since its inception. After all, it is a networked industry, meaning…
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GATINEAU – In a long-awaited decision, the CRTC today set final rates for wholesale access to the high speed wired networks of Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw, Telus, and Vidéotron.
The process had started in May 2015 and interim decision was rendered in October 2016. That said, this is a fight that has been going on for more than a decade.
The rates released today (which are paid by independent third party ISPs like TekSavvy and Distributel) are lower than the interim rates and retroactive to 2016. The monthly capacity rates are 15% to 43% lower…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC said this morning prices for most communications services decreased in 2018.
According to the CRTC's Communications Monitoring Report pricing publication issued today, the national monthly average reported price for wireless, Internet, television and home phone services (combined) was 11% lower in 2018 than in 2016.
The most significant price reduction was in the mobile wireless market. In the four mobile packages analyzed by the Commission, prices dipped by an average of 28% from 2016 to 2018, with the most significant drop being for services offering 5 gigabytes (GB) of data or more.
For example, reads the Commission press…
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TORONTO – TLN Media Group (some of you still might readily identify it as Telelatino), is asking its friends and supporters to get behind its petition to cabinet which asks the government to overturn the CRTC’s decision to grant a must-carry ethnic TV channel licence to Rogers Media.
As readers will recall, there was much competition for the 9(1)(h) TV licence which the CRTC decided to grant to Rogers to keep OMNI Television alive. Click here for our extensive prior coverage.
“Recently, the CRTC granted Rogers over 100 million dollars and a monopoly licence to operate a…
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GATINEAU – While saying it acknowledges some Canadian consumers might want to pay for a new smartphone over three years instead of two, making their monthly payments lower, the CRTC told Canadian wireless carriers this afternoon to stop offering 36-month payment plans.
The CRTC today said that the new 36-month device financing plans first launched by Rogers (since followed in a more limited way by Telus and Bell) “may not be compliant with the Wireless Code since customers may have to pay fees to switch service providers, even after 24 months,” reads the CRTC press release today.
“The Wireless Code was…
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GATINEAU – All large internet service providers will have to abide by the CRTC’s new Internet Code of conduct as of January 31, 2020.
The new code, which will apply to Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink, Northwestel, Rogers, Shaw, Sasktel, Telus, Vidéotron, and Xplornet has been created to try to ensure consumers receive easier-to-understand contracts, documentation and policies surrounding service calls, outages, security deposits and disconnections, reads the release. It’s worth noting here this new code does not apply to mobile wireless internet providers. (Correction: An earlier version of this story mentioned the code will apply to small…
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GATINEAU – Bell Media can go ahead and decommission 28 over-the-air TV transmitters after receiving CRTC approval today.
In its application, Bell noted the transmitters (at right), all in rural regions, rebroadcast the signals of various CTV or CTV2 stations “and none offer programming that differs from that which is offered by the originating stations,” reads the CRTC decision. “The applicant stated that these transmitters do not generate any incremental revenue and generally attract little to no added viewership.”
For example, the company’s Huntsville, Ontario transmitter rebroadcasts the feed from CTV Sudbury – which means it’s likely…
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GATINEAU – In August 2018, Cloudwifi, a Kitchener-based ISP that serves Canadian business and residential customers in nine cities and operates mostly in the apartment and condo space, filed an application with the CRTC requesting an order stating Bell Canada cannot interfere with a customer’s use of the inside wire.
Bell had disconnected Cloudwifi’s customers, says the company.
Cloudwifi had been using Bell’s in-building wire (IBW) to connect its customers in two residential apartment buildings in Toronto and Kitchener. In September 2018, Commission staff indicated they expected Bell Canada would not disconnect Cloudwifi’s customers at the…
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GATINEAU – Just before last Christmas, Iristel filed an application to the CRTC requesting both interim and final relief regarding alleged anti-competitive conduct by Bell Canada in relation to the rates for circuits associated with certain transport services.
The independent carrier complained Bell had increased it rates in a massive and unprecedented way and that it led them to suspect that Bell was re-monopolizing the transport services on some routes. Iristel submitted Bell “unilaterally and without proper warning increasing its rates for certain forborne circuits” from by 80% to 250% in some cases, and by over 125% in others,…
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Household expenditure data from 2013-17 showcased
GATINEAU – Canadian households continued to abandon landline telephone service in favour of mobile service, with almost a third subscribing to mobile service only, the CRTC said in its latest Communications Monitoring Report released today.
The data from 2013-2017 shows how household subscriptions to television distribution services continued their gradual decline, with “about three-quarters of households subscribing, while the percentage of households with Internet service increased slightly to 89%,” reads the report.
As well, adds the research, Canadian households spent an average of $233 per month on their communications services in 2017, an increase of…
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