TORONTO – Karrier One Inc., a decentralized wireless network company, announced its launch Wednesday with the close of its first financing round and a satellite connection to 10 4G nodes.
The company’s network will be spread out by people and businesses owning the network equipment – as opposed to a single network operator – who act as micro nodes or hotspots that extend connectivity to other areas. The company said the technology supports traditional handsets, including the iPhone and Samsung devices, and 5G connectivity.
The company, co-founded and headed by Iristel CEO Samer Bishay, said because of its…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – As Canada’s rural fixed wireless industry contends with the loss of spectrum in the 3.65 GHz band in favour of the incumbents, more than 165,000 rural customers could be soon left without wireless internet access for months, if not years, warns the executive director of the Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Service Providers (CanWISP).
Innovation Canada (ISED) “has decided that it is going to kick us out of that spectrum and auction it off to the major players for 5G mobile use,” said Jonathan Black in an interview following CanWISP’s 10th annual conference held last week…
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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 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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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Canada’s auditor general is recommending Innovation Canada come up with a specific mobile wireless connectivity target and timeline like the federal government has for high-speed internet, according to a report released Monday.
The department said in response that it will “conduct a review of the state of mobile coverage and planned investment” this year and will “seek additional resources if necessary.”
Currently, the federal government has in place goal targets of providing high-speed internet access with speeds of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload to the entire country by 2030, but no specific target for cellular…
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Bell said there was no consultation on the need for such requirements
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Some of the country’s major telecommunications companies are telling the CRTC that the interim notification requirements mandated by the regulator earlier this month for major network outages are unnecessary, citing an agreement signed last year by a dozen telecoms to notify relevant authorities in cases of such service disruptions.
The CRTC temporarily ordered the telecoms to notify the CRTC within two hours of a major network outage starting on March 8 until the regulator makes a decision on the permanency of such…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein, former chair of the CRTC, and Philip Palmer, former general counsel at the Justice Department focused on communications law
The Online News Act, Bill C-18, states as its purpose “to regulate digital news intermediaries” in order to bring fairness to the Canadian news marketplace. Digital news intermediaries are simply any online social media or search platform that carries links to or produces search results for news items.
The language of the Act is couched neutrally, but the announced intent is to regulate digital news intermediaries such as Meta (Facebook) and Alphabet (Google) so as to force them…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Doug French, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Telus, said Tuesday that the company is confident that it could weather increased wholesale-based competition in western Canada in light of a CRTC proceeding launched earlier this month that will look to lower the rates competitors pay for access to incumbent networks.
The CRTC announced it is embarking on establishing a new wholesale framework that it said would address higher broadband prices in the country. A hearing on the matter is likely to be held next year. Meanwhile, the regulator will release a…
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