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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CHATHAM, Ont. – Independent ISP TekSavvy Solutions has asked the Competition Bureau to investigate what it says is a pattern of anti-competitive activities in wholesale and retail markets for Internet services on the part of Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.
The official complaint to the Bureau says Bell and Rogers’ wholesale divisions drove up competitors’ costs, while the big incumbent operators’ retail divisions targeted those competitors with “fighting brand” retail prices below their wholesale costs – which Bell and Rogers wrongfully inflated, reads the TekSavvy press release.
The complaint says that Bell and Rogers’ “wholesale rate manipulation resulted in higher…
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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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By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – If you’re looking for drama, day one of the CRTC’s wireless policy review hearing was not for you.
That’s not to say it was boring, however. During the morning session, we got an engaged CRTC chair Ian Scott taking a deep, detailed dive into the Competition Bureau’s evidence as well as its idea for mandating a tempered vision for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in Canada.
The Bureau is not for broadly mandating an MVNO structure where any company that comes along wanting to sign up wireless subs using a CRTC-decree as the crowbar can get into…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) has filed a counter submission to the Governor-in-Council (a.k.a. federal cabinet) over petitions sent by the big incumbent carriers who are protesting the CRTC’s decision to lower wholesale prices for internet.
Last August, the CRTC lowered the final prices the incumbents – Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron, Cogeco, and Eastlink – can charge resellers, and made those rates retroactive to 2016, when interim rates were set. The incumbents protested to the Federal Court, the cabinet and the CRTC. The court granted the leave to appeal and has yet to…
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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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TORONTO – Intended to make a few waves just as the CRTC kicks off its two-week public hearing into its policies on the wireless market in Canada, Ice Wireless today said a few new plans, with one set at 99-cents per week, will launch next month.
“If we can do this in Canada’s North, where network costs are higher, there’s no reason we can’t do it in other parts of the country, if we’re allowed,” said Samer Bishay, president and CEO of Ice and its parent company Iristel.
Ice Wireless is a regional mobile network operator, where the company’s release says…
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LONDON — Mobile analytics company Opensignal today released its latest mobile network experience report for the Canadian market, and Telus came out on top across all categories, except voice apps where it scored a draw with Rogers.
In terms of wireless download speeds, Canada scored high compared to other countries, achieving an average download speed of 55.4 Mbps, ranked second behind South Korea’s average speed of 58.7 Mbps. The third-ranked country was Netherlands with an average download speed of 49.5 Mbps. The average download speed for Canada includes regional operators such as Freedom Wireless, Videotron and SaskTel, which have slower…
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Critics say that claim is misguided
VANCOUVER – Telus’s claim that it has reached, on one of its wireless plans, a 25% reduction in price, as promised to Canadians by the Liberal government, is wrong, according to critics, because the intent was always for a further reduction in prices from December 2019.
This month, Telus created a page on its website advertising that its Peace of Mind plan for a family of four, with 10 GB of data each, with an annual cost of $2,880 meets and beats the Liberal government’s annual goal of reducing wireless prices by 25% –…
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OTTAWA — Ahead of the CRTC’s public hearing next week to review its wireless policies, research firm Abacus Data released results Wednesday of a survey commissioned by Shaw Communications that found 95% of Canadians say regional wireless providers increase competition and provide better service to customers.
Furthermore, 66% of Canadians agree competition from regional wireless companies like Freedom Mobile, Eastlink and Vidéotron has resulted in reduced prices charged by the national carriers, says study.
“One reason Canadians value having strong regional wireless network options is because most see a direct connection between reduced prices charged by the national carriers and increased…
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