OTTAWA – Cabin Radio, the online news radio station that was denied by the CRTC an FM licence in Yellowknife, has filed an application for the Federal Court of Appeal to hear its case.
The appeal, which was received by the court last month and filed Wednesday, charges that the CRTC’s February decision was “unreasonable, incorrect, and arbitrary due to errors of law, jurisdiction, and fact.”
The regulator’s decision said the addition of another FM station would financially harm the incumbent and only commercial station in Yellowknife, Vista Radio’s CJCD-FM, which has experienced declining revenues in the five years…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Cogeco CEO Philippe Jette said Friday that wireless service providers are in a better position to focus on negotiating mobile virtual network operator deals with the conclusion of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw.
“It provides more predictability throughout the industry now that this transaction is over and we know what to expect of it,” Jette said on the company’s second-quarter conference call Friday morning.
“I think now every player is at a better place with the conclusion of the transaction and getting ready for the next steps negotiating partnerships and rates,” he added.
Earlier this month, Rogers and Videotron Continue Reading
TORONTO – Pure play media company Corus Entertainment announced Thursday dips in revenue and profit in its second quarter financial report, citing the difficult advertising space and a chunk of change it owes to meet its regulatory obligations.
For the three months that ended February 28, the company’s revenues and profit decreased 5 per cent to $343.9 million and 32 per cent to $59.1 million, respectively, compared to the same quarter the year prior. The company blamed a rough advertising market – revenue in that segment was down 7 per cent – due to supply chain disruptions, budget constraints and…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebec’s Superior Court denied last week an application by Videotron to pause a lawsuit that alleges it has not paid dues owed to Bell for connecting to its transport networking facilities.
Bell brought the lawsuit to the court in December, alleging Videotron has failed to pay $1.3 million for interconnecting to Bell’s traffic transport points. Videotron brought a complaint to the CRTC two months later claiming Bell is violating the Telecommunications Act by forcing it to accept a long-term contract or higher monthly prices in areas it says is dominated by Bell, Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell is asking the CRTC to institute an interim pole attachment rate for third parties in Ontario and Quebec until it can update cost studies to determine how it can recover costs it says it will incur after a decision by the commission in February that shifts the cost of corrective work on poles to the pole owner.
Among tariff filings on Monday, the incumbent pole owner in those provinces said the commission’s decision to shift costs onto the pole owner has shone a spotlight on its outdated pole attachment rate that it said is…
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Clarification: A previous version of this story omitted that TekSavvy does indeed have previous experience using Bell’s transport facilities where it is the dominant carrier, just not for regulated wholesale internet access.
By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor’s Videotron has not presented an adequate case for the commission to re-regulate rates it charges for third parties to connect to its fibre transport facilities, according to Bell’s response to the former’s application asking the CRTC to review those costs.
Videotron filed an application early last month charging that Bell is forcing the company’s subsidiary Fibrenoire to accept either a less expensive long-term contract…
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SAINT JOHN, NB – Jay Thomson, the head of the Canadian Communications Systems Alliance, will retire this fall, according to a release from the industry association representing over 100 independent internet, TV and telephone companies.
Thomson will depart following the association’s annual conference in St. John’s, Newfoundland, which will be held between September 11 and 13. The association has hired an Ottawa firm to search for his replacement, which includes an evaluation of internal and external candidates, the release said.
Thomson joined the association as CEO in 2017 and “over his six years at CCSA, he led a…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A six-month period of complaints collected by the watchdog Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services between August and January has revealed consumer complaints increased 12 per cent, with wireless being the most-complained about sector and Rogers taking the top spot for the first time following its major network outage last summer.
The Tuesday report tallied 13,962 issues with wireless leading the way with nearly 55 per cent of all issues at 7,616, down 0.9 per cent from the previous six-month period. Internet issues were second with 3,663, down 15.1 per cent; television issues were next with…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Investment firm Globalive is asking the CRTC to review the rates charged by the incumbents for wholesale domestic roaming and to investigate Rogers’s proposed favourable pricing to Videotron as a condition of buying Shaw.
The Toronto firm, which was once gunning for Freedom Mobile before it was sold to Videotron, said in its Part 1 application Friday that significant time has elapsed since the commission last reviewed the wireless roaming rates and that current rates are muting the impact of small and medium-sized wireless competitors.
It noted that the market has significantly changed since the CRTC said…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Cabinet will not send back a decision by the CRTC that declined to force Eastlink to relocate an internet access point in Nova Scotia, according to an order in council last week.
City Wide Communications filed a review and vary application with the CRTC and a petition to cabinet last March challenging a decision that denied its application in 2020 alleging Eastlink misrepresented that its rural Pennant Point interconnection centre was carrier-neutral and served by competitive transport facilities when the CRTC approved it in 2016. City Wide said the connection point increased its transport costs and…
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