By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A thorn in the side of third party cable companies told to bear the full cost of a pole replacement to attach their telecom equipment on wood structures has been addressed Wednesday by the CRTC, which ruled that attachers should not bear more than 50 percent of the cost of a replacement in most instances.
Pole owners – mainly legacy telephone companies Bell and Telus – have historically charged full price for the pole replacement if a third party wanted to put their equipment on the wood structures (the regulator said this is “often” the case)….
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Monday during a House industry committee hearing that he is “no near” a decision on the spectrum transfer from Shaw to Videotron that would trigger Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw.
The comments were made in a back-and-forth between Champagne and Conservative member of Parliament Ryan Williams, who was asserting that the conditions that the minister said were required on Videotron’s ownership of the Freedom assets – including spectrum ownership of at least 10 years and lower prices applied to other provinces – are not enforceable.
“That’s what you say, but trust me…you’ll be…
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Government “disagreed” with incumbent arguments about direction usefulness and legality
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada has kept its proposed policy direction to the CRTC largely intact, as the final version released Monday shores up language to reinforce the government’s perspective on the importance of competition and affordability in the wireline and wireless sectors of the telecommunications industry, while maintaining that the direction will encourage innovation and network investments.
The department clarified language in the final version that made clearer the importance in CRTC decisions of network reliability, fair roaming rates, and “just and reasonable” rates at which smaller internet service…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage and Innovation Canada are emphasizing the speed at which the CRTC makes decisions in a mandate letter to new head of the regulator, Vicky Eatrides.
“There is a perception that the CRTC is taking too long to make decisions,” the Monday letter said. “CRTC regulatory decisions are essential to creating a stable, competitive, and innovative business environment.
“Undue delays create uncertainty and potentially impact investment decisions and service offerings for Canadians,” the letter added. “As the pace of technological change continues unabated, timely decision making will only be more critical in responding to the needs…
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VANCOUVER — Telus last month completed the integration of customers of internet service provider Start.ca after acquiring the small outfit, the company confirmed.
The customer networks of the London, Ont.-based provider of internet, television and home phone services were integrated into Telus last month, “giving customer access to TELUS’ global-leading wireless network, suite of home automation and security, health and entertainment products and services,” Telus told Cartt in a statement.
Richmond, B.C.-based Altima, another ISP that Telus acquired, was integrated into Telus’s network in June 2022.
The purchases further narrow the range of service providers to choose from, as various factors have…
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Company also said it is confident it will compete against fourth player in Videotron
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers executives said the company expects network resiliency to be a more important factor than price in driving up new subscribers going forward.
The company is coming off a network outage last summer that paralyzed the country, impacting critical institutions like government and banking. The fallout of the outage put a spotlight on the importance of network resiliency and redundance and spawned a commitment from the large carrier to physically separate its mobile and wireline networks and invest $20 billion…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – An association representing independent internet service providers filed a submission to the CRTC yesterday requesting the regulator impose, at least temporarily, discounted wholesale access to incumbent fibre to the building.
The submission by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada is in support of a complaint filed by internet service provider TekSavvy, which alleges that some incumbents are giving to some providers wholesale access to their networks at favourable and unregulated (“off-tariff”) rates over other competitors.
TekSavvy brought the undue preference application in light of Rogers’s proposal to provide Videotron with access to its network…
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Rogers, Shaw, and Quebecor’s Videotron announced today that they have agreed to extend the closing date of their transactions to February 17.
The expected closing date of Rogers acquiring Shaw and Videotron acquiring Shaw’s Freedom Mobile assets was January 31, which was set before the Competition Bureau appealed a decision of the Competition Tribunal that denied its petition to block the deal. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal’s decision last week, and the bureau said it will not appeal to the Supreme Court.
The transfer of Freedom’s assets to Videotron must now be approved by Innovation…
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MPs will discuss the deal on Monday, letter says
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA — Five members of Parliament sent a letter dated today to Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne urging him not to approve the transfer of Freedom’s spectrum assets to Videotron until a “free and open” process, approved by the Competition Bureau, is held to determine the suitor of the assets.
During a House industry committee hearing Wednesday, some MPs were concerned as to how Rogers ended up getting to pick Videotron as the buyer of Freedom to complete its acquisition of Shaw (the bureau has remained steadfast in…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent a letter to the largest carriers requesting a status update on negotiations for access to their wireless networks by mobile virtual network operators.
The letter, dated yesterday, asks Bell, Rogers, Telus and SaskTel to provide the commission by February 8 a list of regional carriers that have made requests to begin negotiations for that access and when those requests were made; the current status of any negotiations and whether rates have been discussed; and a timeframe for when they expect agreements can be executed.
If the parties cannot come to an agreement on rates, they…
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