Commission may launch public consultation on matter
OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking the country’s largest internet service providers via letter for comment on whether it should mandate participation in a data project in collaboration with Innovation Canada to track fixed wireless internet performance.
Participation is currently voluntary and requires that the fixed wireless service providers contacting all of its subscribers on the federal objective speeds of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps and higher and providing them material asking them if they are willing to participate in the study.
But the commission said that, while there have been a number of…
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By Connie Thiessen
The deadline for interventions in Bell Media’s request for regulatory programming relief passed late last week with 19 submissions received by the CRTC, the majority making the case against the broadcaster’s proposal.
Bell is specifically seeking a reduction in Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) from 30 to 20 per cent; a reduction in minimum PNI (Programs of National Interest) expenditures from 7.5 to 5 per cent; and an expansion of the current PNI categories to include analysis and interpretation, music and dance, variety, game shows, general entertainment, human interest, and reality television. In return, it’s proposing to increase its independent production…
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Large telecoms emphasize need for mobile wireless projects
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Service providers are providing mixed responses to the CRTC’s proposal to use the Broadband Fund to subsidize the ongoing cost of operating networks it helps build, with responses ranging from not expanding its use beyond its current boundaries and allowing for its use for that purpose.
The CRTC launched a proceeding in March to broaden the scope of the $750-million fund supported by telecom revenues, from which three rounds of funding had been opened.
The commission – surveying the influx of other federal broadband programs since the emergence of…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Quebecor said Thursday it is “upgrading the telecom industry” by providing enhancements and a new plan on its newly-acquired Freedom Mobile brand intended to undercut the incumbents ahead of the promotional back-to-school and holiday seasons.
Freedom announced the launch of a new 5G uncapped data plan of 50 GB covering Canada, the United States and Mexico for $65. (Speeds are throttled after a user exceeds their monthly data allotment.)
The company also has a $45-offer for 30 GB of data with unlimited talk and text across the country and 20 GB and 3 GB 4G/LTE options starting…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said Wednesday the company is weighing its options, including possibly appealing a decision by the CRTC to pick Quebecor’s rate for access to the national carrier’s wireless network.
“We’re reviewing it,” Staffieri said about the decision. “As you would expect, we’re considering next steps, including potential appeals.”
The regulator said in its decision that while both offers for access met the policy objectives, it was Quebecor’s price that provided the regional player with an opportunity to market more data and therefore more plans.
Rogers said in its original pricing pitch that…
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OTTAWA – Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has directed his department Monday to launch a consultation to help expedite service in Toronto’s subway system.
The consultation seeks answers to questions addressing how quickly service should be deployed in the underground system, which has long suffered from a lack of service, and making those rules a condition of carriers’ spectrum licences.
ISED is asking for comments on the extent and the time to deploy the network upon reaching commercial terms for access, including providing voice, text and data services.
The department is proposing that 100 per cent of Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) stations be…
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Regulator argued Rogers’s investment capacity won’t be harmed
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has selected Quebecor’s price to access Rogers’s wireless network for the purposes of building out its mobile virtual network operator business, the regulator announced Monday afternoon.
The two parties were granted a final offer arbitration hearing in May after they couldn’t hammer out a deal on their own. The process involves the two sides presenting their own price offer for access and the regulator choosing one.
The CRTC ruled that despite its finding that both offers would have satisfied the policy objectives, it was Quebecor’s offer that…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Federal Court ordered Tuesday that internet service providers block the IP addresses associated with alleged unauthorized restreamers of live baseball games exclusively owned by Rogers and Groupe TVA.
The court also ordered the operators of the identified IP addresses to quit redistributing the signal of those games, after Rogers and Groupe TVA brought the action last month.
The decision is just the latest dynamic blocking order that builds on the precedent set by the axing of illegal National Hockey League streams and the most recent World Cup…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Quebecor has won an arbitration hearing at the CRTC to determine the cost to access Bell’s wireless network.
In a letter dated July 13, the CRTC accepted Quebecor’s June 22 application for the commission to call the final offer for that access, which the Montreal-based company said is integral for its mobile virtual network operator business and its growth as the fourth national carrier after acquiring Freedom Mobile from Shaw.
Quebecor argued that the two sides tried their best but could not hammer out a deal within the 30 days they were required to make a best-efforts…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers told the CRTC that it must act expeditiously on its request to access Bell and Telus poles because the new policy direction from Cabinet requires it.
Rogers said as much in a reply submission last week to Bell and Telus, who told the CRTC to deny Rogers’s request last Wednesday asking for interim access to attach wireless equipment on their poles.
Telus said in its submission that the expedited request is “unsubstantiated” and that Rogers allegedly failed to “demonstrate any need for the Commission to exercise its discretion to implement an expedited process…
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