GATINEAU – Without indemnifying broadcasters and distributors and limiting their legal liability, ongoing development of a national emergency alerting system may be at risk, the CRTC’s hearing on Pelmorex Communications Inc.’s licence renewal heard this week.
But Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein (a former judge) suggested that the whole liability issue may in fact be a red herring.
David Townsend, a professor in the Faulty of Law at the University of New Brunswick, who was appearing with the Canadian Association for Public Alerting and Notification (CAPAN), agreed.
“It’s overblown, but when parties are refusing to participate and really help the…
Continue Reading
NOT LONG AGO I ASKED A CRTC senior policy advisor I know how work was going. It was one of those just-making-conversation questions we all ask, but I was a little surprised at his response:
“Livin’ the dream,” he excitedly told me. Now, I’m not sure my facial expression betrayed my wonder at that statement and I don’t remember what I said next, but he continued to add that he found it exciting, interesting and fun to debate and then help craft what would become the “law of the land.”
Upon reflection, it shouldn’t have come as such a shock –…
Continue Reading
EXTON, PA – Tony Werner, EVP and CTO of Comcast, will deliver the keynote address at SCTE Canadian Summit 2011 next month in Toronto.
Werner, one of the global cable industry’s most respected technologists and a former Rogers’ exec, will speak on the topic of ‘Broadband Video: Challenge or Opportunity’ at the conference which is scheduled for March 8 – 9 at the Toronto Congress Centre.
“Such topics as the evolution of next-generation video architectures, the transition to IPv6 and support for business services all are truly global in scope,” said Werner, in a statement. “Forums like SCTE Canadian Summit are…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The winds of criticism were blowing Pelmorex Communications’ way during the first day of its licence renewal hearing in Gatineau on Tuesday as CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and Pelmorex senior VP of regulatory and strategic affairs Paul Temple sparred over aspects of the company’s licence renewal application.
In addition to asking for a seven-year licence renewal, Pelmorex is requesting an extension to the 2009 mandatory order on 9(1)(h) that would keep the Weather Network and MétéoMédia on basic carriage until 2018. The company says that it needs the extension to help offset the costs of operating…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – After a week of vitriol, legitimate consumer anger and utter political silliness, the CRTC today officially opened up a new review into wholesale broadband usage based billing
“The great concern expressed by Canadians over this issue is telling of how much the Internet has become an integral part of their lives,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in a press release.
“Our approach is based on two fundamental principles: as a general rule, ordinary consumers served by Small ISPs should not have to fund the bandwidth used by the heaviest residential Internet consumers; and it is in…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications said today that thanks to the national backlash over the concept of usage-based billing, it is asking customers to participate in consultation sessions to share their thoughts on how the big ISP should handle Internet usage allowances and billing.
That’s despite the fact the whole UBB furor has little to do with Shaw as it has just a single third party ISPs riding on its network and hadn’t yet begun charging retail customers for exceeding the gigabit download thresholds the company had set (“High Speed” has a 60 GB file transfer limit, “Extreme” has a 100…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Telus has joined Rogers in unlocking its customers’ cell phones. In an announcement on Monday, the telco said that it would introduce the policy on February 15.
"Wireless devices are far more sophisticated and powerful than they were even five years ago and our customers are asking us now to give them the freedom and flexibility to use these devices as they wish”, said chief marketing officer, David Fuller, in a statement. “We are listening and responding to their needs, through services like device unlocking. It’s all part of our commitment to continue to drive flexibility, simplicity and…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – While CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said Thursday he’d have the Commission take another look at the wholesale usage-based billing decision, he did not back down at all from the concept itself as an acceptable way for ISPs to do business.
The chair was called in Thursday to appear before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to explain the Regulator’s rationale behind its decision that caused so much ill-informed uproar. The January 25 decision confirmed that major ISPs could apply the same UBB parameters to wholesalers using its networks, and that it had to be offered…
Continue Reading
HOW DID A CRTC DECISION on usage-based billing that affects so few total Canadians become a national story and potentially an election issue?
It’s your fault, big ISPs.
According to recent research, most customers of the large Canadian ISPs were not even aware their Internet packages were subject to bandwidth caps and extra billing if they went over those limits. They didn’t know they were capped and sure didn’t know how much extra it could cost.
In short, the big ISPs were and are doing a poor job letting their customers know their limits and what they mean. People aren’t…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The way the dance works in these CRTC proceedings is the applicant draws a few lines in the sand in its application and presentation, a few in granite, listens to a few days of appearances by intervenors, gauges the reaction of the commissioners to various ideas presented – and then re-draws those sandy lines for their final public follow up appearances.
BCE was no different Friday morning during its appearance on the closing day of the CRTC hearing into its acquisition of CTV.
Right off the bat, its executives told the CRTC it is ready to endorse the Commission’s…
Continue Reading
