Breakfast Television in Vancouver and Calgary cancelled
TORONTO — Without providing specific numbers, Rogers Sports and Media confirmed to Cartt.ca this afternoon a “small percentage” of employees across the country are being laid off and the local Breakfast Television morning shows in Vancouver and Calgary, in their current form, have been cancelled.
“In early 2021, we will be expanding the Breakfast Television brand and a new BT will air on Citytv in 6 markets across the country: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal. In addition, there are some programming changes at select radio stations across the country; listeners will continue to…
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GATINEAU — Having already extended the deadline once for submissions to its proceeding regarding the appropriate network and service configurations for disaggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services, the CRTC says it won’t delay the proceeding further by agreeing to add procedural steps requested by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC).
The Commission launched the proceeding in June, and then revised the deadlines in July, making interventions due by October 5 and replies due by December 7, 2020.
However, on November 2, CNOC sent a letter to the CRTC asking for a Commission order to address alleged instances of…
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TORONTO and WATERLOO — Rogers Communications, Sportsnet and the University of Waterloo today announced the launch of the Sportsnet Hockey Hack, a virtual hackathon in which students will design applications to enhance the fan experience for Sportsnet viewers, using Rogers’ 5G technology and data from the NHL’s Puck and Player Tracking system used during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The student teams participating in the hackathon will also use Intel technology, software tools and expertise, including Intel Smart Edge and OpenVINO, to build applications designed to create fun, immersive viewing experiences for Sportsnet and NHL fans. Some of the potential…
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Report due by February
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The federal government’s pledge to have wireless prices drop by 25% is expected to be studied during House of Commons hearings into accessibility and affordability of telecommunications services, starting next week.
The committee on industry will begin the proceedings on Tuesday with witnesses Telesat and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). Both satellite companies made news over the past two weeks as they push low earth orbit satellites to colve rural broadband coverage. The former this week formalized a $600-million agreement for the federal government to purchase satellite capacity to serve…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – To no one’s surprise, Bell Canada and the large cable companies have sought leave to appeal the Federal Court of Appeal decision of September 10, 2020, over CRTC Decision 2019-288 (about the fees third party internet access ISPs pay to the incumbents) to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Bell adopted the reasoning put forward by the large cable carriers (Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Cogeco, and Eastlink) and let them argue more at depth the issues at hand.
Their argument seems to focus on, besides the basic issues they contended before when they went to the Federal Court…
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By Ahmad Hathout
CANADA’S LARGEST INTERNET service providers say they are pleased with the federal government’s infusion of cash with the $1.75 billion Universal Broadband Fund, but some are concerned about the speed objectives.
On Monday, the federal government announced the program was open for applications with an additional $750 million in new money and $150 million of it dedicated to a faster stream for projects that can deploy by November 2021. All projects must meet the speed threshold of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.
Rogers, Bell and Telus praised the announcement as one that will help connect those economically-challenging…
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Bell takes top speed spot
NEW YORK — Bell is the fastest wireless carrier in Canada, according to PCMag’s annual Fastest Mobile Networks Canada 2020 report, released today.
Bell is regaining the fastest mobile network title this year, after Telus topped the list for the last three years.
To test the country’s mobile networks, PCMag’s Canada-wide testers drove through 20 cities, some as large as the Greater Toronto Area and as small as Sudbury, Ont., and Drummondville, Que., as well as rural areas in parts of Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. The tests were conducted from September 14 to October 15.
Overall, PCMag awarded…
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GATINEAU — As the CRTC continues to assess an accusation by Iristel that Rogers has been manipulating caller ID information for some of its mobile customers in order to give itself an undue advantage, the Commission has asked both companies to provide more information for the file.
In July, Iristel alleged Rogers has manipulated caller ID info to make it appear as though mobile calls are originating from the U.S., in order to circumvent routing restrictions and benefit from “more advantageous” termination rates. Most of the phone calls in question appeared to come from a single 212-475-#### phone number…
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By Ahmad Hathout
VANCOUVER – Telus CEO Darren Entwistle said Friday the company’s roll-out of 5G technology, which now has 150,000 subscribers, isn’t based on necessity because its current generation of wireless technology is presently the best available.
“It’s not a situation where we’re deploying 5G out of necessity when we’re already leading the world on wireless speeds, coverage and reliability with our 4G networks,” Entwistle said during a third quarter conference call. “Our 4G technology is beating 5G technology in other jurisdictions as it relates to speed, coverage and reliability, which is an exceedingly good position to be winning on…
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And why we must address the real challenges facing Canadian broadcasting
By Kevin Goldstein
IN A RECENT CARTT.CA opinion piece, OUTtv CEO Brad Danks claims Canadian broadcasting policy is biased in favour of vertically integrated (VI) companies and has failed because it has not resulted in the exportable Canadian services that he suggests the CRTC intended with its 2015 Let’s Talk TV policy. Both these claims are at odds with reality.
First, it’s clear the international success intended by the CRTC was for Canadian programming, not Canadian programming services. And a large measure of that success has been achieved. Bell Media,…
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