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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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – With less than a month remaining to get an agreement hammered before the CRTC-imposed deadline, Cogeco CEO Philippe Jette said the telecom is still working to get a deal done to roam on the large carriers’ wireless networks.
“We’re still determined to launch a mobile service in Canada and we are now in negotiations with the MNO,” Jette said on the company’s fiscal third-quarter conference call with analysts Friday. “For competitive reasons, we won’t go further on this call…it remains a critical element for our business case to enter for the long-term this market, so we…
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Bell alleges it has approached Rogers about terms and didn’t hear back
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers is accusing Bell and Telus of delaying its requests to attach wireless equipment on their poles and is asking the CRTC to make an interim order granting those requests on an expedited basis.
Rogers said in a Part 1 application filed earlier this month and published Wednesday that Telus had invited it to apply for attachment permits last year, but “abruptly changed its position” on the basis that the CRTC said it would be reviewing the wireless attachment framework in a decision on wireline…
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STOUFFVILLE – The federal government and Ontario have announced Wednesday that Rogers will get $54 million to connect 83 underserved communities in the province.
The project is expected to provide high-speed internet access to over 20,000 homes in these communities.
The communities are: Acton, Alliston, Alton, Angus, Anten Mills, Ballinafad, Ballycroy, Barrie, Baxter, Baywood Park, Beeton, Belfountain, Bolton, Bond Head, Borden, Brown Hill, Caledon East, Caledon Village, Camilla, Campbells Cross, Cedar Mills, Cedar Valley, Cheltenham, Claremont, Coldwater, Colgan, Connor, Cookstown, Craighurst, Cundles, Elba, Elmvale, Erin, Everett, Everton, Fergus Hill Estate, Ferndale, Forest Home, Garafraxa Woods, Glencairn, Goodwood, Hillsburgh, Hillsdale, Horseshoe Valley,…
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OTTAWA – Bell filed Wednesday a letter of support for the Supreme Court of Canada to review a Federal Court of Appeal decision affirming that the CRTC does not have jurisdiction over wireless attachments on municipal structures.
The one-page letter supporting Telus’s application includes a copy to Rogers, Cogeco, Quebecor, Xplornet, Ice Wireless, the province of British Columbia and opponents of the argument, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Electricity Canada.
Telus filed the appeal to the high court last month, which has yet to decide if it will hear it. The Vancouver-based telecom argued that the appeal…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The spate of acquisitions by incumbents of wholesale internet service providers in recent months is not because of a difficult market or bad wholesale access rates, Bell argued in its most recent submission to the CRTC’s wholesale internet framework proceeding, which is messaging that runs counter to what competitors have been saying.
“These acquisitions were completed for a variety of reasons, including succession planning, and the sales were made at strong valuations, not because the Resellers went bankrupt, were driven out of the market or…because of ‘the broken wholesale access model,’” Bell said, in reference to…
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