By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – As bill C-18 enters its final stretch in the Senate, two former senior officials with the CRTC have proposed alternative ways to support Canada’s struggling news industry beyond the Online News Act, whose aim to redistribute advertising income from such digital platforms as Meta’s Facebook and Alphabet’s Google to new organizations is untenable in their view.
“The industry and public policy-makers need to accept that during a period of disruption such as the one currently underway, there will be companies incapable of surviving,” write former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and past CRTC…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – In proposed policy directions released Thursday to the CRTC on implementing bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, the federal government reaffirmed that there would be no regulation of social media content or its users.
The CRTC will be directed to exclude from regulation social media creators, including podcasters, as well the video games media form. Broadcasters that post on social media as well as other platforms, like TV and radio, however will not necessarily be exempt.
To promote a wide range of Canadian programming, the CRTC will also be directed to consider various means…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday that the move by Google and Meta to trial blocking news on their platforms in response the Online News Act is “not going to work.”
In a response to a question about Meta’s move last week to test block news on its Facebook and Instagram products, Trudeau said “these internet giants would rather cut-off Canadians’ access to local news than pay their fair share.” The Online News Act, Bill C-18, would require large technology platforms to compensate news publishers for linking to their work.
They are “resorting…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers has told the CRTC that it estimates it can take a year for it to provide third party access to its fibre-to-the-home network on newer technologies, according to a tariff letter dated last week.
When the CRTC launched its review of the wholesale internet framework in March, it said it would be expediting its proceeding on mandating third party access to the last mile fibre facilities of the incumbents under the current aggregated regime to speed up the process of driving more competition and lowering prices for higher internet speeds. The aggregated…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is requesting information surrounding the status of negotiations for access to the incumbents’ wireless networks by regional service providers.
In a letter dated June 1, the CRTC said it wants Rogers, Bell, Telus, and SaskTel and the regional players to provide it with status updates on June 8, July 7, and August 7 about access to the incumbent networks by mobile virtual network operators run by the regional providers.
It is requesting that the incumbents provide a list of agreements that are currently in place, a list of regional providers that have made requests to begin negotiations…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Fox News network is asking the CRTC to reject calls to ban it from Canadian television because doing so is “grossly disproportionate” and inconsistent with the Charter.
The CRTC last month opened a Part 1 process to collect comments on an April request by Egale Canada, an advocacy organization for equality for gays and lesbians, to hold a public consultation to remove the channel to protect LGBTQ people. The offending segment aired on March 28 in which former Fox host Tucker Carlson stated Egale ignored the death of children in a Nashville…
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YELLOWKNIFE – Bell subsidiary Northwestel said Monday that it has launched fibre internet in Aklavik and Nahanni Butte in the Northwest Territories.
The fibre will allow for speeds of up to the federal standard of 50 Mbps download, which is up from the previous 15 Mbps the communities to which the communities had access.
“We know how important fast, unlimited Internet access is to northerners,” Curtis Shaw, president of Northwestel, said in a release. “It can improve access to health care, distance education, and other services that enable people to stay in their own communities. We’re happy to now provide this…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is requesting specific information from mobile wireless service providers related to its investigation into international roaming rates, including specific agreements between Canadian and international providers.
A letter dated Thursday requests of over two dozen providers, including the big three, their active or most-recently expired roaming agreements, including number of subscribers; the rates in place, including pay-per-use call minutes, data, texts, daily and multi-day plans; how rates are set, including methodology and costing analysis; the rationale for past increases in rates; and payments made to roam on foreign networks between 2018 and 2022 and revenues generated from…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor is asking the CRTC to provide immediate relaxation of regulatory rules that require it to provide a specific amount of local programming or else it must make “difficult choices” related to TVA’s programming.
A CRTC licence renewal decision from 2017 and extended last year until August 2024 requires the TVA station CFCM-DT Quebec broadcast 18 hours of local programming per week, while requiring fewer hours in the region for other stations including CBC/Radio-Canada. Quebecor said these comparatively “unfair” requirements are strangling it, despite saying it is producing more hours than is mandated of it.
“Faced with…
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But Cogeco said it could still impact project cost and delivery in Ontario
By Ahmad Hathout
The replacement of utility poles preserved with pesticides using a toxic chemical called pentachlorophenol is unlikely to significantly impact broadband project rollouts, according to Innovation Canada and some telecoms, but concerns still linger.
Health Canada issued a notice in October 2022 cancelling the registration of products using the chemical, after reviews by the European Union, Switzerland, New Zealand and Japan found it posed health hazards. Health Canada’s special review found the chemical causes adverse effects on the environment and humans.
The notice ordered products using the chemical…
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