By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – British Columbia’s minister of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI) has filed an application to the CRTC asking it to suspend a November decision that forces it to enter agreements with third party carriers wanting to attach equipment on poles that are being moved by the province.
The November decision was triggered by a Rogers and Shaw application, which asked that they be treated similarly to the incumbent Telus when it comes to compensation to relocate their transmission lines when the province decides to move their poles. In the decision, the CRTC said the province…
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated on March 2 with a comment from Quebecor.
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Bell is temporarily pausing its next generation 9-1-1 network until further notice, according to a Friday email from a Bell technician seen by Cartt.
“Bell Canada is advising all Originating Network Providers of a temporary embargo for NG9-1-1 Onboarding and Go-Live activities,” said Richard Little, a technical network specialist for Bell’s emergency services division said in the email to representatives of the providers. “The embargo will continue until further notice.
“ONPs will be notified once our planned resumption of activities is known,” Little…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers has told the CRTC that there is no undue preference given to Videotron in its proposed wholesale access agreement.
The Toronto-based company was responding last week to a Part 1 application by independent internet service provider TekSavvy, which is accusing Rogers and Bell of providing to certain competitors preferable network access rates compared to others, who must follow the costs regulated by the CRTC – called off-tariff agreements (OTA).
But in response, Rogers challenged TekSavvy’s knowledge of its deal with Videotron, which has so far been hidden from public view.
“The rates in the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has put out a contract notice Thursday for a consultancy firm that will assist in analyzing the network outage at Rogers last summer and improvements the company has committed to going forward.
The July 8 network blackout brought down critical services for millions of Canadians, including government, banking and emergency services in some cases.
This week, the regulator announced the launch of the first of a number of proceedings on telecom network resiliency, the first of which will include mandatory notification requirements on all service providers when outages like these happen. As…
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By Samer Bishay, pictured above, founder, president and CEO of telecom Iristel.
On one hand, my telecom company and I have top secret security clearance from the federal government, and yet another part of the Ottawa bureaucracy is convinced we’re crooks.
It doesn’t add up.
There has been much talk lately about Canada feeling broken and our story does little to dispel such talk.
Unequivocally, we are not crooks.
And just as unequivocally, Ottawa is broken when one department – Canada Revenue Agency – accuses us of stealing from the taxman while law enforcement agencies see the value of us helping protect the treasury…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said on the company’s fourth quarter conference call Thursday that he is “not surprised” by the “little progress” the company has made on negotiating a deal to roam on the large carriers’ wireless networks, but said things may change with the new head at the CRTC.
The company’s Videotron subsidiary was denied last week an arbitration hearing with the regulator about a price for access to Bell’s wireless network, alleging Bell is stalling on negotiations. The CRTC, which asked about the status of those negotiations…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – There have been “dozens” of agreements since 2012 that deviated from the CRTC’s established rate regime for wholesale access to the networks of the larger telecommunications companies, and they are all in-line with the Telecommunications Act, Shaw argued in a submission to the CRTC on Tuesday.
Shaw was responding to a Part 1 application by independent internet service provider TekSavvy, which asked the CRTC last month to examine the legality of these off-tariff agreements (OTA) that provided a competitor with favourable wholesale access rates not available to other providers. TekSavvy alleged that Rogers…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has formally launched Wednesday its proceeding on a network outage notification framework, and in the meantime has put in place a temporary order for all Canadian carriers to report major service outages within two hours of them becoming aware of it.
The new order, which takes effect March 8, also requires that the carriers file a “comprehensive” report to the regulator within 14 days following the outage.
The interim order narrowly defines an outage as ones that affect the 9-1-1 network, critical infrastructure, major transport facilities, a carrier with more than 100,000 subscribers affected for…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC is asking Rogers if it would like to withdraw or amend an application related to a years-long dispute involving its access to New Brunswick poles, following the commission’s decision establishing concrete timelines for access to those support structures.
In the summer of 2020, the cable company filed a Part 1 application asking the CRTC to intervene in a dispute in which it alleged that Bell was delaying providing access to parts of the pole it co-owns with the utility, NB Power. Rogers alleged Bell was playing a “gatekeeper role” over access, which it…
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TORONTO – Rogers, Shaw and Quebecor have once again agreed Friday to delay the date of their respective transactions, as the previous deadline has come and after the innovation minister said this week he isn’t close to making a decision on the transfers.
The outside closing date has been pushed back several times for the deals involving the transfer of Freedom to Videotron and then Shaw to Rogers. It was previously January 31, then it was pushed to February 17, and now the parties are hoping that the minister makes a decision by March 31, which is the date…
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