We're "well positioned" to do it
OTTAWA – During this time of major upheaval in broadcasting, which has seen the ascension of Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, and The Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of FOX in March, Canadian content producers and distributors need to accelerate a move outside the box rather than feel overwhelmed by the rapid and consequential changes to programming, according to the head of Canada’s national LGBTQ television network, which is doing just that.
Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv told the Policy 3.0 communications law conference at the University of Ottawa on May 10, about the network’s…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC is once again seeking volunteers to help it measure the performance of home wireline broadband Internet services provided by the country’s major Internet service providers.
Under the Measuring Broadband Canada program, the Commission will work in collaboration with ISPs and broadband testing firm SamKnows to measure broadband performance and test parameters associated with the broadband Internet connection, including download and upload speeds.
While some providers offer advertised speeds of 1Gbps or faster, services above 940Mbps cannot be measured with a conventional speed test, meaning that speed tiers of 1Gbps or faster are excluded from the 2019 Measuring…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – The data of about 15,000 Freedom Mobile customers was exposed by a security breach from late March to late April, the Shaw-owned carrier confirmed Wednesday.
A CBC report says that Freedom Mobile was apparently warned of the breach by an outside research firm on April 17, 18 and 23, but did not respond to that firm until April 24.
Freedom said its investigation determined that the breach began on March 25 and affected data processed by a new external third-party vendor that had been hired to streamline its retail customer support. The problem was fixed by April 23, continued the carrier, adding that…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Canadian mobile repair service Mobile Klinik is set to open new locations inside select Walmart Supercentres across the country.
The store-in-store program will begin with Mobile Klinik's 50th location, scheduled to open mid-May inside the Scarborough West Walmart in Toronto. Future locations include Airdrie, AB; London, ON; Oshawa, ON; and Fredericton, NB.
The stores will offer the same services offered at other Mobile Klinik Professional Smartphone Repair locations, including while-you-wait smartphone and tablet repair and care of almost all makes and models of devices; a range of certified pre-owned phones; and accessories such as chargers, cases, screen protectors and headphones.
"We're…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – After hearing from a range of Canadians via Facebook in February and March (some who had cogent complaints and arguments, some who, um, did not…), the CRTC this week gathered up final written submissions on its new proposed Internet code of conduct for providers of retail fixed internet services.
Canadian carriers generally support such a code, or at least the idea of one, which would “enhance the transparency of Internet contracts, help consumers, regardless of who their Internet provider is, to better understand their rights and responsibilities under these contracts and enable them to…
Continue Reading
MISSISSAUGA – “Years ago we would have thought, as smaller operators, there's no way in hell we can keep up with them . But times have changed. We can actually surpass them,” according to Stephen Sacks, president, MDL Communications.
“Delivering broadband is now the main killer app” and advances in streaming technologies has levelled the playing field so that even operators with no traditional video experience now sell video. Sacks presented his findings at Commtech East in Mississauga on how streaming is helping operators of all sizes compete.
Comcast now has 38 million Xfinity subscribers (broadband plus video and…
Continue Reading
Canadians still want loads of video, and are getting it from many sources
WHILE CANADIANS CONTINUE to pull back on their traditional subscription TV services, their interest in video overall shows no signs of shrinkage as they add tens of thousands of subscriptions to various over-the-top providers (but yah, mainly Netflix).
According to new research from Victoria, B.C.’s Convergence Research, cord-cutting in Canada is proceeding at about a 2% rate per year right now. “We estimate 2018 saw a decline of 204,000 Canadian TV subscribers, 2017 a decline of 210,000 TV subscribers, and we forecast a decline of 253,000 for 2019,”…
Continue Reading
CALGARY – Shaw Communications has expanded its broadband network to B.C.’s Bowen Island, one of the 23 local authorities that comprise Metro Vancouver.
Working with the Bowen Island Municipality, Shaw began expanding its broadband network to the island in September 2017 with the installation of a high-capacity submarine fibre optic cable from West Vancouver. Shaw teams completed network installation earlier this month and are now ready to roll out the company’s residential products and services across the entire island.
“Connectivity is the fuel that powers our daily lives, and as a trailblazer of broadband in Western Canada, we understand how important…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Former CRTC chair and Astral Media president André Bureau succumbed to cancer on Friday, April 12. He was 83.
A lawyer and communications business executive, Bureau was the illustration of a generation of smart, ambitious and well-connected young French-Canadian men that emerged after the “Révolution Tranquille”.
Born in 1935, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, he studied Law at Université Laval in Québec City and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1959. He also received a doctorate in comparative law at the Sorbonne, in France, in 1960.
In private practice from 1960, he practiced in his home town, where Le Nouvelliste (the…
Continue Reading
Industry, others, provide feedback
OTTAWA – On February 26th, the Government of Canada proposed new CRTC Policy direction to put Canadians at the forefront of future telecommunications decisions, as Cartt.ca reported.
By law, this proposed Order must be put for comments for a period of 30 days after being published in the Canada Gazette. April 8th was the deadline for intervenors to make their comments known to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
(Ed note: By law, the federal government doesn’t have to listen to any of the recommendations, if it has already made up its mind,…
Continue Reading
