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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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The creative industry applauded the House moving bill C-11 forward after accepting most of the Senate’s amendments Thursday night.
But the industry also held some reservations about certain provisions as the bill heads back to the Senate and inches closer to becoming law.
The law would require streaming services to contribute in an equitable and flexible way toward Canadian content, while prioritizing support for content from francophone, Indigenous, LGBTQ2+ and racialized creators.
The federal government obtained support from the opposition, New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois to accept 20 of the Senate’s 26 amendments, including two with modifications.
According…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Two years and 16 days after Rogers and Shaw announced their intention to merge, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne indirectly approved one of Canadian history’s largest corporate consolidations Friday by allowing for the transfer of Shaw’s Freedom wireless assets to Videotron – promised as the competitive fourth player in the telecom market.
The stipulations laid out by Champagne in a press conference on Friday are as follows: Videotron will commit to offering retail services that are “at least 20% cheaper” than from those of the major players outside its home territory, it cannot transfer Freedom spectrum licences…
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By Christopher Guly
Gatineau, Que. – Neither Canadian Heritage nor the Broadcasting Act should play a role in overseeing telecommunications or the internet, Alberta Conservative member of Parliament Rachael Thomas told an audience at the Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Service Providers conference in Gatineau, Que. on Wednesday.
“When we choose to use the Broadcasting Act, which is meant for TV and radio, and we’re bringing the internet underneath that, that’s an incredibly antiquated move,” Thomas, the official opposition shadow minister for Canadian Heritage, told Cartt in an interview following her appearance at an afternoon panel. The panel discussed Bill C-11,…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein, former chair of the CRTC
The Senate will review Bill C-18, the Online News Act, next week. Hopefully it will be a thorough review and improve this very deficient bill. Its constitutionality is doubtful, it is unclear what will be the subject matter of the mandated negotiation, and its implementation will be problematic. One can only hope that the Senate can remedy some of these issues.
However, in addition, there is one glaring legal mistake that requires fixing. Section 36 of the bill passed by the House of Commons now reads as follows:
36. The…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Monday denied an arbitration request from television distributor Coopérative de câblodistribution Hill Valley for a deal to retransmit Quebecor’s TVA Sports.
Quebecor has said it refuses to engage in negotiations with Hill Valley, after the Federal Court found it violated the Montreal company’s copyright by restreaming its channels to hotel customers without its consent.
The commission ruled Monday that Quebecor is under no regulatory requirement to provide its channel to Hill Valley, and its refusal to engage in negotiations “leaves no room for process to unfold.”
Despite Quebecor’s intention, the CRTC continued…
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By Connie Thiessen
Political leaders and Indigenous artists gathered in Montreal on Tuesday to demand that the CRTC introduce a five per cent minimum quota for Indigenous music content on commercial radio.
The demand is based on the recommendation of the Mémoire sur le contenu musical autochtone (Memorandum on Indigenous Musical Content), the result of a public consultation conducted last summer, spearheaded by Indigenous record label Makusham Musique, in collaboration with Innu Takuaikan, the Innu First Nations band government in Quebec. It found that 94.83% of the 312 Canadians surveyed believed a percentage of Indigenous music content should be imposed on commercial radio stations in Quebec and Canada, expressing that they almost never…
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