By Ahmad Hathout
WHITEHORSE – Northwestel will join the Connecting Families program, officials from the Bell subsidiary said Friday, after participants in the CRTC’s far north hearing this week expressed disappointment about its absence from the broadband discount program.
“We’ve listened to our partners this week and I would like to announce today that Northwestel will be joining Canada’s Connecting Families program,” Tammy April, Northwestel’s vice president of customer experience, said during the company’s opening comments. Its participation will be subject to CRTC tariff approval because it cannot set its own price, it said.
The program, which is funded by the participating…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA — Despite its recent test to limit news for some users in response to its objections to bill C-18, “Google is deeply committed to Canada” and is “one of the world’s biggest supporters of journalism,” Kent Walker, president of global affairs and chief legal officer of the search-engine giant and its parent company, Alphabet Inc.
“We believe that the legislation could be amended to support journalism and to provide consumers with a more diverse range of perspectives delivered in innovative and accessible formats, without undercutting core principles that allow the internet to benefit Canadians and people around…
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By Ahmad Hathout
WHITEHORSE – Telus announced Thursday that it has struck a deal in principle to transfer incumbency to Bell’s Northwestel in the region of Atlin, British Columbia to better serve the area.
There are only three communities in the far north that are served by Telus as the incumbent – Fort St. John, High Level, and Atlin. But unlike the former two, Telus does not serve Atlin with its own transport facilities. Instead, it leases a stretch of 1,300 kilometres of the transport portion from Bell subsidiary Northwestel.
“It is an island completely separated from the rest of TELUS’ ILEC…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has denied an application by Telus that challenged the CRTC’s decision not to regulate wireless access to municipal infrastructure and that forced the carriers to provide seamless roaming to other providers.
Telus argued that the two components of the CRTC’s April 2021 decision – which mandated regional carrier access to the wireless infrastructure of the large players – were made in error. The thrust of the telecom’s argument – which was backed by Rogers and Bell – was that the CRTC too narrowly defined the term “transmission…
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The regulator has been urged not to rely on carrier negotiations for roaming rates
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed an application by Globalive that sought a commission review of wholesale roaming rates in general and a roaming agreement between Rogers and Videotron in particular, citing an existing application before the regulator addressing similar issues.
Globalive filed the Part 1 application late last month, which requested the CRTC make interim the current wholesale roaming rates, require the national carriers to file updated studies supporting new rates, and to open an investigation into Rogers’s proposed roaming agreement…
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WHITEHORSE – Officials from the Northwest Territories government recommended the CRTC adopt two affordability streams to address higher telecommunications prices in the far north.
The officials said Monday the CRTC should consider having both a low-income subsidy and a universal service subsidy to deal with higher prices in the region.
The government officials expressed disappointment that Northwestel, the Bell subsidiary that is the dominant provider in the region, is not participating in the Connecting Families initiative – a service provider effort to get eligible households on discounted internet services.
The officials said the regional government is open for the subsidies to be…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A group of six public interest groups is asking the CRTC to expedite the payment of money owed to the Broadcasting Participation Fund from the commission’s approval of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw’s broadcasting assets.
The group, which includes the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, filed a Part 1 application Monday urging the commission to amend a stipulation requiring Rogers pay the fund – which bankrolls public interest group participation in broadcast hearings – $725,439 in equal amounts over three years.
The application asks that the commission force Rogers to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The fund that bankrolls consumer interest participation in CRTC hearings is warning that it is at a “critical juncture” with not enough money available to reimburse participants in broadcasting proceedings.
The Broadcasting Participation Fund said in a press release last week that it had less than $330,000 remaining in the fund to begin the year. In a busy year, it said, costs exceed $700,000.
“If the gap between available funds and qualified applications is not addressed, the Fund must cease operations either temporarily or permanently this year,” it said in the release. At the end of 2021,…
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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
