THIS SHOULD BE EMBARASSING. For all of us. The announcement Stateside that the Federal Communications Commission is teaming up with the cable industry and many others down south to offer low-income households access to computers, training and cheaper broadband ($9.95 a month), shows the Americans have it right.
The digital divide is not a rural-urban gap but a cost/knowledge/education chasm, regardless of where you live.
Many Americans can’t afford the $40-or-more per month it costs to get broadband at home, can’t afford a computer in the first place, and without broadband – as we all have come to realize – those families…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada should avoid prescriptive and burdensome licensing of high-capacity spectrum in the 70 GHz, 80 GHz and 90 GHz ranges, according to comments filed in response to Gazette Notice SMSE-010-11, the ministry’s request for comments on the spectrum utilization.
Companies submitting comments to the public notice suggest the department take a more light-handed approach to licensing the bandwidth and point to the “light licensing” method adopted in the U.K. and the U.S. as preferable. The comments come as Industry Canada continues to consider the best way to license spectrum in the 71-76 GHz,…
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OTTAWA – With more Canadians than ever connected to all manner of devices in so many ways, complaints about wireless services, Internet access and VoIP providers more than doubled in the past year, according to the 2010-2011 annual report for the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS).
The CCTS said that it received 8,007 complaints, up 114% over last year, which Commissioner Howard Maker noted was the largest year-over-year increase in complaints in the organization’s four year history.
Wireless complaints accounted for 62.3% of all complaints, up from 51.7% last year, which Maker said reflected the increasing availability of…
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GATINEAU – The chairmanship of the CRTC is often said to be a thankless job, so, many of the leading regulatory folks in Canadian telecom set about to change that this week, getting together to thank outgoing CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein for his yeoman’s work these past five years.
When he came on board as chair in 2007, von Finckenstein promised an open, accountable and transparent Commission. With dozens of public proceedings and many new ways to include the public in the debate launched under his watch, we got that in spades under von Finckenstein, who oversaw his final…
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TORONTO – The future of the TV business is near impossible to predict, no matter how many studies are done and consultants are paid to help guide media companies as they march into that future. That was a piece of the message delivered Tuesday at the Broadcast Executives Society luncheon by its featured speaker, Kirstine Stewart, the CBC’s executive vice-president of English services.
We all want to be able to predict the future, to accurately see where the media business is headed in the short and long term. “Consultants trade on their ability to tell us where we’re going next,…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s television broadcasting sector saw 2010 operating revenues top $7.1 billion, up 8% from 2009, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
The figures show that 2010 industry-wide advertising revenues grew by 9.2% to $3.4 billion, nearly the same level as in 2008 before the economic slowdown, though results differed from one segment of the industry to another.
While private conventional television operating revenues rose 8.8% to $2.2 billion in 2010, they remained below the peak observed in 2007. This sector posted a profit margin of 0.2% for profits before interest and taxes of $5.4 million.
Pay and…
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GATINEAU – Some consensus around a Rogers Communications proposal for IP to IP connection emerged during the first day of rebuttals Monday at the CRTC’s interconnection hearing.
Rogers decided that it would be easier to live with the status quo in IP interconnection and pay for the costs of converting IP traffic to TDM (time-division multiplexing) to terminate voice calls on ILECs network as long as ILECs would negotiate IP interconnection where they offer it to either a subsidiary, a division or an unaffiliated carrier. Last week, Rogers requested the commission require the ILECs to pay…
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WINNIPEG – Residents of Manitoba are encouraged to begin using 10-digit dialing for all wireline and wireless calls starting December 1st, in preparation for the mandatory switch over which begins on July 29, 2012.
The Telecommunications Alliance, whose members in Manitoba include MTS, Rogers, Telus, Bell and Westman Communications Group, said Tuesday that the province’s telecommunications service providers will all be able to support 10-digit dialed calls starting early next month.
"10-digit local dialing and the addition of a new area code are forward-looking measures that will help the entire communications industry meet the continually growing demand for new services. A…
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TORONTO – Members of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) have ratified the new national commercial agreement (NCA) by 98.5%, the organization said Monday.
The NCA, negotiated between ACTRA and the Association of Canadian Advertisers and the Institute of Communication Agencies, is the industry standard collective agreement that governs performers in English-language commercials in Canada. The groups reached a tentative agreement in September, as Cartt.ca reported.
“We’re proud of this new agreement – we worked hard to improve wages and working conditions for performers while reflecting the realities of the industry,” said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's…
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OTTAWA – Heritage Minister James Moore, CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, and CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein are among the big name speakers confirmed for the 2011 International Institute of Communications (IIC) Canada conference.
Scheduled for November 28 – 29 at the Ottawa Convention Centre in Ottawa, the event is themed ‘Competition, Innovation and Applications: Towards a Digital Economy for Canada’. Cartt.ca is a media partner.
This year's conference will also feature a pre-conference on public broadcasting, presented in conjunction with CBC/Radio-Canada, on the morning of November 28. Plenary panels will include ‘Copyright and the digital economy’; ‘Over-the-top services: reframing the content…
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