Opponents say spectrum leasing serves the same purpose
By Ahmad Hathout
In an effort to maximize the use of a finite resource, Innovation Canada introduced Tuesday a long-expected policy for spectrum called access licensing, which would facilitate the migration of licenses not in use by holders toward other providers who will use them in smaller remote and indigenous territories.
The hotly debated policy will impact smaller Tier 5 areas and immediately target the 800 MHz (cellular) band, the Personal Communications Services band (1850-1910 MHz and 1930-1990 MHz), and the 900 MHz Land Mobile Radio (LMR) band. ISED said it will evaluate on…
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Execulink said rate reduction would improve business case for disaggregated adoption
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell and Rogers are accusing Quebecor of trying to relitigate issues on the disaggregated regime outside of the CRTC’s existing proceeding in the matter, adding the parent company of Videotron and Freedom is flip-flopping on a regime it previously thought should have been abandoned.
Quebecor filed a Part 1 application in December asking the regulator to align the access rates to large last mile fibre networks for both disaggregated and aggregated regimes in order to remain competitive. Quebecor pointed to the costs of the disaggregated…
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By Connie Thiessen
MediaPro and Canadian Soccer Business (CSB) are headed to court with both sides alleging the other is unable to fulfil their part of their commercial broadcast rights agreement.
The dispute leaves OneSoccer, MediaPro Canada’s streaming service devoted to Canadian soccer, without its core programming, including Canadian Premier League (CPL) and Canada Soccer Men’s and Women’s National game broadcasts, which featured live studio pre-, half-time and post-game shows, anchored by talent including Andi Petrillo, Kristian Jack, Oliver Platt, Adam Jenkins, and Jordan Wilson, among others.
Barcelona-headquartered MediaPro, which has been a CSB partner since 2019, said in a statement provided…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is accusing Quebecor of refusing to discuss issues related to a standard access agreement required to lease capacity from its wireless network, flipping the script on the telecom that filed a Part 1 to the CRTC alleging an undue delay in accessing that network.
By the time of the Part 1 application filed last month, the CRTC had already selected on October 10 Bell’s price for access to its network through an arbitration process. But Quebecor alleged in the undue preference complaint that Bell has delayed that access by requiring that it sign a…
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For the first time in the 15-year history of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS), Rogers has surpassed Bell in consumer complaints about telecom and TV services, according to the CCTS’s 2022-23 annual report, released Tuesday.
Between Aug. 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023, the CCTS accepted a total of 14,617 consumer complaints, representing a 14 per cent increase over the previous year, the report says, noting these complaints included increases in issues about quality of service, roaming charges, and contract disclosure issues.
Of the total complaints accepted by the…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Members of Parliament on the industry committee said Thursday that they want a broad study on mobile wireless prices and want the heads of Canada’s major telecommunications companies in front of them after Rogers announced price hikes to service packages.
MPs said they want to invite to the committee Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell, Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri and its chief corporate affairs officer Navdeep Bains, Bell CEO Mirko Bibic, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle, and Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau.
Some members verbally agreed that they needed Champagne and Staffieri in front of them by…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Cogeco CEO Philippe Jetté doesn’t want to discuss when he expects the company will launch a wireless service.
He was pestered with questions from journalists Thursday before the company’s annual general meeting — is it a matter of weeks, months, years? — but repeatedly said that they’re working toward a launch and would announce their plans in the near future. An actual launch is unlikely in the “short term” because “some preparation work remains,” he told analysts earlier.
Jetté expressed some frustration with the length of the process, both in terms of regulatory obligations and the slow pace of…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TekSavvy has filed a Part 1 application to the CRTC asking for a review of a wind down of older coaxial network technology by Cogeco that it said will affect its ability to provide service to its customers.
The large independent telecom relies on Cogeco’s last mile coaxial facilities at two interconnection locations in Burlington and Windsor, Ontario. Cogeco allegedly told TekSavvy that it is migrating wholesale customers to fibre technologies, including to radio frequency over glass technology (RFoG) at the Burlington site as soon as last week with eventual migration at both sites to ethernet passive optical…
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Five Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs who are members of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU), including its two vice-chairs, are calling on the committee’s Liberal chair, Joël Lightbound, to initiate a hearing on the increasing prices of wireless services.
In a letter dated Jan. 8 and obtained by Cartt, INDU committee vice-chairs Rick Perkins (Conservative) and Sébastien Lemire (Bloc Québécois), along with Conservative MPs Ryan Williams, Bernard Généreux and Brad Vis, take aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government’s policy decisions that they claim “are increasing costs for Canadians across…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The federal government’s procurement website published late last month a contract on behalf of the CRTC that requests a report that delves into a comparative analysis of international mobile wireless roaming rates.
The regulator is asking for an in-depth analysis of the rates provided by Canadian carriers versus their international peers in the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
“The study must include an analysis of the factors that may explain the differences (e.g. regulatory, economic, geopolitical, structural and/or technical)” in the pricing between the Canadian and international carriers, according to a statement…
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