By Denis Carmel
JULY 15 WAS THE DEADLINE for intervenors to provide the CRTC with their final submissions in the Wireless Policy Review proceeding.
It has been a long process and it is far from over. Technically, it started with an announcement on February 28, 2019.
However, back in 2015, the CRTC was saying: “When the Commission established the current wholesale mobile wireless service regulatory framework in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-177, it determined that the framework would remain in place for a minimum of five years, to allow for the development of sustainable competition and to encourage continued innovation and investment…
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TORONTO – Telus today was named the fastest internet service provider (ISP) in Canada by PCMag.
The publication recognized Telus as the fastest among the major ISPs. Rogers placed second and Bell, third, among the six large ISPs PCMag recognizes in Canada. The magazine used results from 33,782 tests in Canada taken between June 1, 2019, and June 2, 2020.
“We take 80 percent of the download speed, 20 percent of the upload speed, and add those numbers to generate a PCMag Speed Index (PSI). That number makes it easy to perform an at-a-glance determination of exactly which ISP is the…
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Iristel is sticking with Huawei partnership, but moving slowly on deployment
By Ahmad Hathout
MARKHAM – Independent network operator Iristel will await a decision by the federal government on whether Huawei will be allowed to participate in the country’s 5G networks and is, in the meantime, not moving off its decision to partner with the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer. However, the company said it’s handling roll-out of the equipment cautiously.
On Wednesday, the United Kingdom announced that it will ban the use of Huawei from its 5G network and carriers must remove the company’s equipment from their 5G apparatuses by 2027,…
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“Scare tactic,” says CNOC
By Linda Stuart
OTTAWA — If the CRTC mandates mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) access to wireless incumbents’ networks, Canada’s gross domestic product would be reduced by an estimated $10 billion within five years, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study released today by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).
In addition, other negative impacts on the Canadian economy would include an estimated $2.5 billion reduction in government tax revenue, approximately 94,000 jobs lost across the supply chain, and a widened digital divide between rural and urban communities in Canada, says the PwC report, which was commissioned by…
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MONTREAL — A team from Montreal’s INRS (Institut national de la recherche scientifique) has been using its unique simulator to participate in the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) evaluation of new proposed standards for 5G.
INRS presented the results of its evaluations of various candidates’ Radio Interface Technology (RIT) specifications at an ITU meeting in Geneva in February 2020. To be approved by the ITU, 5G technology standards must meet a set of criteria known as IMT-2020 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2020), and several countries and consortiums of companies are proposing RIT as a new standard for 5G.
For the past two years,…
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LONDON, U.K. — After saying in January it would allow some Huawei telecom equipment to be used in the non-core parts of the U.K.’s 5G networks, the U.K. government has announced purchases of the Chinese company’s 5G gear will be banned after December 31, says this BBC report today.
In addition, all Huawei equipment must be removed from U.K. operators’ 5G networks by 2027.
According to the BBC report, the U.K.’s Digital Secretary, Oliver Dowden, said the decision would delay the country’s 5G rollout by a year.
Meanwhile, Canadian network operators continue to wait for our federal government’s decision on whether…
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TORONTO — Rogers Communications has been ranked as the number one wireless carrier overall in Canada in a new study released today by umlaut, a global mobile network testing and benchmarking company.
This is the second year in a row Rogers has won umlaut’s proprietary “Best in Test” mobile benchmark award, this year achieving a total score of 920 points out of a maximum of 1,000 points. Bell and Telus were close behind with scores of 908 and 887, respectively. Umlaut also said Rogers provides the best network in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, says the news…
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KIBBUTZ SHEFAYIM, Israel and VANCOUVER – Deep-learning medical imaging analytics company Zebra Medical Vision announced today it has entered a strategic collaboration with Telus Ventures to grow Zebra-Med’s presence in North America.
With FDA clearances and Health Canada approvals in hand, the company’s technology “provides a fully automated analysis of images generated in the imaging system using clinically proven AI solutions trained on hundreds of millions of patient scans to identify acute medical findings and chronic diseases,” reads the press release. The company’s AI solution has also been deployed for Covid-19 detection and disease progression tracking.
“Zebra-Med is deeply committed…
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VANCOUVER and RIMOUSKI, Que. — Telus announced Tuesday it is expanding its Internet for Good program to support people living with disabilities who receive financial disability assistance from the provincial governments in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.
The Internet for Good program (known as the Internet for the Future program in Quebec) currently provides high-speed broadband Internet at home for only $9.95 per month ($10/month in Quebec) to families receiving the Canada Child Benefit from the federal government.
In order to help more Canadians, Telus has expanded the program’s eligibility to also include more than 110,000 British Columbians and…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced Tuesday it’s extending the deadline for interventions to its review of the rate-setting methodology for wholesale telecom services.
When the wholesale rate-setting review proceeding was announced in April, the intervention deadline was set as July 23, with replies to interventions due August 24.
In an updated notice of consultation today, the Commission has revised the intervention deadline to August 13 and is suspending the deadline for replies.
This comes after Rogers and TekSavvy separately asked for extensions to the deadlines. Rogers made its request for various reasons, including competing priorities related to other regulatory proceedings,…
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