By Ken Kelley
The president of Bell subsidiary Northwestel said Tuesday that the company is aiming to increase its fiber in the north over the next 12 months, which would improve access to at least the minimum speed objective to an increasing percentage of households in the region.
On the second day of the Canadian Telecom Summit, Northwestel President Curtis Shaw noted that as recently as 2016, not one northern household met the CRTC’s universal service objective of 50 Mbps download with unlimited data. Today, he said more than 22,000 northern homes — over 80% of households — not only have…
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CRTC chair reflects on proceedings and developments as he prepares exit
TORONTO – CRTC Chairman Ian Scott said today that the $750-million Broadband Fund will open a new, third round of applications in the coming weeks.
The chairman said in a speech on the opening day of the Canadian Telecom Summit that despite improvements to internet access in rural and First Nations communities, there is still a lot of work to do.
“That’s why the CRTC is preparing to launch a third call for applications to the Broadband Fund in the coming weeks,” Scott said Monday, adding the call will “highlight the…
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OTTAWA — Former CRTC commissioner and columnist Andrew Cardozo has been appointed senator today by the Governor General, one of three independents to fill vacancies in the upper house from Ontario.
A CRTC commissioner from 1997 to 2003 and an adjunct professor of journalism and communications at Carleton University, Cardozo has written columns on the CRTC, including one this summer in The Hill Times about the regulator taking on increasing important role. He wrote regularly for The Hill Times and was previously a columnist for the Toronto Star and Broadcast Dialogue, Cartt’s sister publication.
Cardozo has also been the president…
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Company believes they will capture those customers with their own offering
OTTAWA — The Competition Tribunal heard evidence today that while Quebecor subsidiary Videotron had the opportunity to purchase Shaw Mobile along with Freedom Mobile, they turned it down because they believe they will be able to capture those customers on their own.
Jean-François Lescadres, Videotron’s vice-president of finances answered questions today before the tribunal, which is currently hearing evidence on an application made by the Commissioner of Competition to block the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications.
Because of concerns about the impact of the deal…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC today released a new report on its enforcement of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation, which shows it received 159,101 complaints to the Spam Reporting Centre from April 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2022.
The report indicated around 5,066 of the complaints were submitted through the online form, while the remainder were submitted by email.
The sources of spam reported through the online form include email (57%), text message (32%) and instant message (2%). The rest (9%) were unspecified. (Please see chart above).
Among the reasons for complaint are lack of consent (47%), identification of sender (21%), deceptive…
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OTTAWA — The Telecommunications Alliance announced today the southwestern Ontario region currently served by the area codes 226, 519 and 548 will get a new area code (382) starting gradually on June 17, 2023.
“The introduction of the new area code 382 is the result of a decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and is intended to meet the continuously growing demand for new telephone numbers,” a press release says.
“The introduction of a new area code creates millions of additional telephone numbers without affecting the existing numbers,” said Kelly T. Walsh, program manager of the…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA — This evening, the Transport and Communications Committee of the Senate (TRCM) heard from CRTC chairman Ian Scott (above) who took the opportunity to clarify some concepts and asked to remove amendments passed by the House of Commons Heritage Committee to Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act.
The chair started by stating again that the Commission has no intention of regulating the user-generated content (UGC). “Bill C-11 draws a distinction between the users of social media on one hand, and the platforms themselves on the other. Its intent is to exclude individual users from regulation. I want…
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Or is it?
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Another meeting of the Transport and Communications Senate Committee brought an Aboriginal perspective on C-11, the Online Streaming Act, from the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO, represented by its co-executive director, Jesse Wente; above), the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta, an assistant professor in Indigenous Communication Arts at the First Nations University of Canada and an Aboriginal digital content creator. To complete the picture, we heard from the Music Publishers Canada.
Beyond the expected message on the need for better reflection of Aboriginal languages they spoke about the importance of telling Aboriginal stories in English…
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By Monica Auer
IN JUNE 2022, the House of Commons passed Bill C-11-3, the Online Streaming Act, to amend Canada’s 1991 Broadcasting Act. The bill was then sent to the Senate for study and debate. The Senate’s Transport and Communications Committee (TRCM) began its pre-study of C-11 in early June, and has so far heard nearly 130 separate witnesses. It is unclear precisely when TRCM will submit its report and recommendations about Bill C-11 to the Senate, but the latter is expected to sit from now until Dec. 22, 2022, and to resume sitting in early 2023, perhaps as early as…
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CEO accuses Bell of refusing to negotiate MVNO rates in good faith
MONTREAL – Quebecor announced today its third quarter 2022 financial results, which show the company’s revenues were $1.1 billion – a slight decrease from Q3 2021.
Adjusted EBITDA was also slightly down at $518 million.
In Quebecor’s telecommunications segment specifically, the company reported $942.2 million in revenue, which is an increase from $939.5 million in the same quarter the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA in the segment was $489.5 million, up from $476.8 million.
In the media segment, the company reported revenue of $170.1 million – down from $190.6 million in the…
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