OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied Tuesday an application requesting that the regulator increase the price of the basic television package from $25 to $28 per month and to index the price to inflation.
The application, filed by Bell, Cogeco, Eastlink and SaskTel, was denied on the basis that there was insufficient evidence provided to suggest that the $25 price was no longer economically viable for the providers, the regulator said, noting the “strength of the BDU industry.”
Ironically, the CRTC argued inflation actually provides more justification for a price cap on the cost of the mandatory carriage package because consumers…
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By Mark Goldberg, a telecommunications consultant
An opinion piece in Monday’s Globe and Mail included a line that caught my eye. “A 2022 study found that Canada’s wireless rates were the second most expensive in the world – seven times more expensive than Australia, 25 times more expensive than France and Ireland and 1,000 times more expensive than Finland.”
Canadians complain about mobile prices, but does anyone in Canada actually believe that they are paying one thousand times more than what they would pay in Finland?
In fact, we don’t.
So how did the author, a university professor and academic…
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OTTAWA – The government of Canada said Tuesday it is providing almost $1.2 million in federal funding through the Universal Broadband Fund for Rogers Communications to bring high-speed internet access to more than 1,600 homes — including over 440 Indigenous households — in 16 rural and remote communities on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
The communities to benefit from the fibre broadband project include Baddeck, Barra Head, Big Baddeck, Chapel Island (Potlotek First Nation), Grande Greve, Lynche River, Middle River, Nyanza, River Bourgeois, River Tillard, Sampsonville, Soldiers Cove, South Side of Baddeck River, St. Patricks…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC approved an application by Natyf TV forcing broadcasters in Quebec to carry its channel on basic TV packages for five years.
The regulator approved a monthly wholesale cost per subscriber to carry the channel of 12 cents for the term, which will run from September 1 this year to August 31, 2028.
The channel, owned by Melkisedek Media Inc., caters to Francophone “racialized” communities in the province, “with the aim of reflecting those communities’ interests and encouraging a new group of Francophone creators from ethnocultural communities,” the CRTC said. The programming is entirely broadcast in French and…
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OTTAWA – The Competition Tribunal has ordered the Commissioner of Competition to pay Rogers and Shaw a little more than $9.7 million and $3.2 million, respectively, to compensate for their costs associated with the Competition Bureau’s legal challenge last year of the companies’ merger.
In a decision filed Tuesday, the Tribunal says Rogers is to be paid $414,720 for counsel fees and $9,298,152.58 as reimbursement for reasonable disbursements, plus any applicable HST. Shaw is to receive $416,187 for legal costs and $2,836,920.30 to compensate for reasonable disbursements, plus applicable HST.
Quebecor’s Videotron,…
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Iristel urges PM to do something about withheld CRA funds affecting its response
By Ahmad Hathout
YELLOWKNIFE, NWT – Wildfires ravaging parts of the Northwest Territories are causing widespread devastation to homes, families and telecommunications networks, forcing operators to install backup systems and carefully enter repair territory as critical infrastructure burns.
Cartt asked some of the primary providers in the region to provide their perspectives on how they’re dealing with the wildfires that have burned many millions of hectares of land. It is Canada’s worst wildfire season ever, with more fires expected to come this fall.
Bell subsidiary Northwestel told us the company…
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OTTAWA and BRAMPTON, ON – Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) and Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) today announced the Ontario Cybersecurity Excellence Initiative (OCEI), a $10-million program “to drive Ontario’s cyber competitiveness and resilience in six key sectors: advanced manufacturing, automotive, life sciences, mining, law enforcement and smart infrastructure,” according to a press release.
This initiative is being supported by $5 million in funding from the Ontario government’s Critical Technology Initiatives program. Rogers Communications is providing $3.8 million to Brampton, Ont.-based Rogers Cybersecure…
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DUNDAS, ON – The governments of Canada and Ontario announced today combined federal and provincial funding of more than $219 million for Rogers Communications to bring high-speed internet access to more than 66,000 households in over 300 Ontario communities, including over 600 Indigenous homes.
These projects are part of an existing $1.2-billion broadband partnership between Ontario and Canada, which was announced in July 2021. That joint funding initiative is designed to support “large-scale, fibre-based projects that will provide high-speed Internet access to more than 280,000 households across the province,” explains a federal government Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Electricity Canada said in a filing to the nation’s highest court this month that Parliament’s refusal to amend “transmission line” under the Telecommunications Act is evidence of its belief that it does not foresee an obstacle for telecoms getting wireless access to municipal structures without CRTC jurisdiction.
Electricity Canada is opposing a Telus application for the Supreme Court of Canada to hear its argument that a lower court erred when it upheld the CRTC’s decision to decline to regulate wireless attachments on municipal structures on the basis it does not have jurisdiction. The…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers on Wednesday filed a challenge in the Federal Court of Appeal against the CRTC’s decision to select Quebecor’s rate for access to the cable company’s wireless infrastructure to build out its mobile virtual network operator business.
Rogers is alleging that the reasoning provided by the CRTC for selecting Quebecor’s rate in July deviates from legal precedent and runs counter to the “just and reasonable” provision under the Telecommunications Act.
Specifically, Rogers is alleging the regulator made errors in its determination that the rate it selected didn’t need to provide Rogers with an immediate-term return on investment…
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