By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – “Our initial capital budget for this coming year… was about $220 million. We’ve cut $60 million out of that. We’ve laid off people.”
This was part of the response from Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg when asked by CRTC commissioner Christopher MacDonald of the possible impact of a mandated mobile virtual network operator regime. Bragg said the fear of such a decision – coupled with the recent third party internet access decision on the wired side where Bragg says CRTC-set rates are below-cost and which it is fighting on many fronts – pushed the family-owned company…
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TORONTO – Independent telco Iristel said today is has strengthened ties with California-based text+, a service that lets anyone text, talk and share for free or close to free, by making an investment in the company.
Iristel and text+ have a long-standing strategic supplier relationship as Iristel provides phone numbers for text+ in Canada. “The two companies are now further connected through Iristel’s undisclosed financial investment in text+. Also, now text+ is the engine that powers Iristel’s Sugar Mobile and other OTT ‘over-the-top’ initiatives for the Iristel group of companies,” reads the release.
“We support the federal government’s commitment to making…
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Renews call to remove foreign ownership restrictions
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – It’s been 18 years since Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus, has personally appeared in front of the CRTC at a formal hearing. So why come to one?
“I’m frustrated,” he said to a small group of people in the hearing room in Gatineau a few minutes before he sat down for his four-plus-hour turn in front of the Commission as it examines wireless policy in Canada.
How frustrated? Enough to reduce network investments by $1 billion with a corresponding loss of 5,000 jobs, apparently.
While the entire Telus presentation was…
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Cogeco airs its HMNO model
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – On Wednesday, CRTC commissioners tried to get Bell Canada CEO Mirko Bibic and other company executives to pick what they might think is a least-bad mandated mobile virtual network operator option from the choices of MVNO models others have brought to the proceeding.
Each time, Bell said no MVNO is the only option.
While some operators have said, if forced to choose, the only palatable proposed MVNO model is the one from the Competition Bureau, which would see MVNO access mandated for existing regional operators like Freedom and Videotron, and only for five…
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To effectively regard the whole communications field through the broadcasting lens results in a distorted view
By Konrad von Finckenstein and James Mitchell
IN AN EFFORT TO PROVIDE a critical overview of the recent report by the Broadcast and Telecommunications Review Panel (the so-called Yale Report or BTLR Report), with particular focus on its ‘machinery’ recommendations (i.e., those having to do with institutional and ministerial mandates and powers), this analysis will highlight why the new-concept CRTC should be set aside.
What the panel recommended
The BTLR was asked, as part of its mandate, to comment on the institutional framework employed for the regulation…
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OTTAWA — Women in Communications and Technology (WCT) is now accepting applications for the 2020 WCT Jeanne Sauvé Career Development Program, which offers a “backstage pass” to Canada’s broadcast and communications industry, WCT says.
The Jeanne Sauvé Career Development Program is an intensive learning experience that offers new perspectives, insights and direct access to influential policy and regulatory decision makers, and equips participants with new ways to think, work and springboard their careers, the news release says.
For women working in telecommunications or the media industry and who are interested in policy and program design, this program is a unique way…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced Wednesday it is revoking the basic international telecommunications services (BITS) licences of 28 companies that have failed to comply with their conditions of licence.
In its decision, the Commission states the 28 companies failed to meet annual reporting requirements, such as the telecommunications industry data collection process requirements set out in Telecom Circular 2003-1 and Telecom Circular 2005-4.
The licensees in question were given until December 12, 2019 to file the required information or make representations as to why they should not be required to comply with the conditions of licence.
Having failed to…
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TORONTO — To honour the memory of CTAM Canada member Eugenia “Genie” Loukian (pictured), who died in late 2019, the association has created a new event called Genie’s Breakfast in support of Look Good Feel Better, a cancer support program.
“Eugenia was someone who believed in supporting and connecting with people from all areas of our business and was a champion for her peers and colleagues within the industry. As many of us worked with her professionally, she was also an active member and supporter of CTAM Canada; and we want to ensure her legacy will live on with those…
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MANY OF THE ARGUMENTS in favour of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are not informed by facts, as evidenced by Samer Bishay’s editorial from February 16 (Wireless review is critical for Canada; MVNOs must be mandated).
Using actual data from Canada and other OECD countries, the evidence clearly demonstrates that implementing wholesale MVNO access regulation will harm Canadian consumers. MVNOs have little to no competitive impact as their business model focuses on identifying niches in the market, rather than competing in existing markets. They are generally not sustainable, as market saturation and competition yields few, if any, viable niches…
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By Samer Bishay
IT’S NO SURPRISE CANADIANS are paying some of the highest wireless prices – especially for data – in the world.
In another international audit of prices last fall, by Rewheel Research, it confirmed what Canadians already know: we pay far too much. In public surveys released by Canada’s telecom regulator earlier this month, Canadians said overwhelmingly they feel cell service in Canada is more expensive than abroad.
Affordability is the main reason the federal government ordered the CRTC to move up its review of the wireless market and start a critical public hearing February 18, a…
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