By Ahmad Hathout
The Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) has been approved Monday for a three-cent increase in the price broadcasters must pay to carry the service, despite the CRTC suspending that application months earlier until after it implemented changes to the regulatory system.
Broadcasters will now pay 16 cents per subscriber, per month to carry the channel, which is required of them under the Broadcasting Act’s 9.1(1)(h) rule. The new rate, which is what the not-for-profit asked for, will take effect on September 1, which is the start of the new broadcasting year.
“The Commission is of the…
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Telus announced Monday the rollout of its new SmartEnergy for Good program, which is designed to help low-income households reduce energy use and lower their utility bills, while also contributing to Canada’s climate targets.
The first phase of the program has launched in Ontario, with additional provinces to be added later this year, Telus said in a press release.
Calling it a “first-of-its-kind initiative in Canada,” Telus said SmartEnergy for Good is open to qualifying low-income Ontario residents, including seniors, families and youth aging out of government care. Qualifying customers…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has rejected an application requesting that it say subsidized builds in southwestern Ontario must be open for bundled fibre access.
Ontario-based consulting firm Broadlytics had requested last summer that the regulator find that all builds subsidized by public dollars through the not-for-profit Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology (SWIFT) project be made to comply with the regulator’s new wholesale internet framework, which currently requires that telcos – Bell, Telus and SaskTel – provide access to their combined middle and last-mile fibre networks.
But the CRTC on Friday said Bell, the only provider subject to the bundled…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is mandating that all service providers report the origin of nuisance or spam calls, rejecting a request by some smaller service providers to be spared from the new condition of service.
“The Commission considers that excluding specific types of TSPs could leave a loophole for nuisance calls to enter Canada through TSPs excluded from the traceback process,” the CRTC said in a decision Friday.
“Requiring all TSPs that provide voice telecommunications services to participate in the traceback process would enable Commission staff to respond to complaints from customers of any TSP” and “prevent a TSP from ignoring…
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Telus originals, which supports documentary filmmaking in British Columbia and Alberta, announced Wednesday a new slate of greenlit documentary projects exploring themes including aging with dignity, mental wellbeing, biodiversity and belonging.
“We’re proud to support a slate of films that reflects the depth of documentary talent in British Columbia and Alberta and brings forward stories grounded in the lived experiences of the communities we serve,” Teresa Polonio, managing production executive at Telus, said in a company press release. “We believe storytelling can be a powerful force for good, and this newly greenlit slate reflects…
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Telus and Santa Clara, Calif.-based Fortanix announced Monday a new Confidential AI solution — built on NVIDIA infrastructure — that enables Canadian organizations in regulated industries to train and deploy AI on their most sensitive data with cryptographic proof that it remains securely within Canadian jurisdiction.
“Confidential AI applies advanced encryption technology — called Confidential Computing — specifically to protect AI workloads, maintaining encryption of sensitive data even while being actively processed by the AI system,” explained a Monday press release from Telus.
Developed jointly by Telus and Fortanix, leveraging NVIDIA infrastructure at…
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Telus and Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a Toronto-based quantum computing company, announced Monday they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore the development of a quantum data centre integrated with Telus’s secure, Canadian-controlled sovereign infrastructure.
Under the MOU, the two companies will explore how quantum processors can be combined with high-performance computing systems to create sovereign hybrid quantum–classical computing infrastructure in Canada, which they say will be one of the first of its kind in the world.
The collaboration will bring together Xanadu’s expertise in photonic quantum computing and Telus’s sovereign…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Thursday it is eliminating fees that it believes are keeping customers stuck in internet and wireless service plans.
The regulator said it is targeting fees on activation, changing and canceling of those plans – with some exceptions. The fees will continue to apply where a subsidized device is provided by the wireless service provider – which represents a real cost to the business – and in a situation where the internet service provider is doing an installation at the customer’s home.
“If you were to buy or purchase a cellphone through a service provider, we already…
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Bell has withdrawn its April 2025 undue preference complaint against Telus after the two companies recently reached an agreement regarding the distribution of Bell Media’s discretionary services Oxygen True Crime, USA Network, CTV Nature, CTV Speed and CTV Wild.
Bell had previously alleged Telus was unduly disadvantaging Bell Media’s new channels — rebranded as a result of Rogers’s blockbuster deal with Warner Bros. Discovery in June 2024 — alleging Telus had given undue preference to Rogers’s newly launched channels in some of its TV packages.
The resolution of Bell’s channel distribution…
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Vancouver-based Magnify Digital on Wednesday announced New Zealand’s national Māori screen content funder, Te Māngai Pāho, has signed an agreement to deploy Magnify Digital’s audience intelligence platform, ScreenMiner, across funded Māori productions.
The agreement will make ScreenMiner available to 150 projects annually, giving producers access to consolidated quantitative metrics and structured qualitative audience feedback to inform strategy and strengthen audience growth, Magnify Digital said in a press release. Te Māngai Pāho will receive standardized reporting and portfolio-level insight across participating titles, it added.
“We invest in stories that promote Māori language and culture, but we…
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