By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Enough delay, say the independent ISPs.
TekSavvy, Distributel and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada on Friday filed applications with the CRTC demanding the incumbent telco and cable carriers file new tariffs as ordered by the Commission in its August 2019 decision setting new wholesale internet rates (CRTC 2019-288).
The decision gave the network owners until September 14, 2019 to do so, but only Telus filed. Later, SaskTel filed its tariff pages after a CRTC reminder. The other incumbents declined to do so, pending the three appeals of the decision filed shortly after the August 2019 rates…
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GATINEAU – After the CRTC found Iristel and Telus in breach of the Telecommunications Act, the former for traffic simulation in the 867 area code and the latter for the actions it took against Iristel, the Commission started a process to determine whether an Administrative Monetary Penalty should be imposed.
Without surprise, Iristel immediately asked the Commission to review and vary and to stay the decision.
CNOC supported the stay request, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre asked the deadline be postponed and Telus asked for the process to be suspended (it may well have an R&V of its own…
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OTTAWA – The Federal Court of Appeal has sided with the third party internet service providers in their defence of the August 2019 CRTC decision which lowered wholesale rates they pay to the incumbent telcos and cablecos – and established retroactive payments dating back several years.
It was a unanimous 3-0 decision and grants the respondents (the independents) their legal costs, too.
Companies like TekSavvy and Distributel and Start.ca serve tens of thousands of Canadians by leasing space on the networks of Bell, Rogers, Telus, Cogeco and the like and when the CRTC set the new rates with that decision,…
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GATINEAU — As expected, Iristel is officially asking the CRTC to review, vary, rescind and stay certain aspects of its recent decision which found the company guilty of traffic stimulation toward phone numbers in the 867 numbering plan area (NPA) area code in Canada’s far north.
The Commission’s decision (which we reported on here) was meant to end a dispute between Telus and Iristel in which the former accused the latter of traffic stimulation-related activities that caused a noticeable spike in traffic from Telus’s network to Iristel’s 867 numbers, which generated revenue for Iristel through high long-distance termination charges.
In…
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VANCOUVER — Telus CEO Darren Entwistle has been named the gold winner of the CEO Achiever – Champion of the Year Award in the eighth annual 2020 CEO World Awards, a global recognition program honouring CEOs from organizations in every industry and of every size.
The award is honouring Entwistle for his leadership in leveraging Telus’ technology, human and financial resources to support Canadians, particularly the country’s most vulnerable citizens, as they grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, says the Telus news release.
“Darren’s leadership during the public health crisis reflects his 20-year legacy of supporting his team, and the communities…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU — In October of last year, the vast majority of Canadian Internet service providers met or exceeded the maximum download and upload speeds they advertised, according to the second edition of the CRTC’s Measuring Broadband Canada report, released today.
The study was conducted by broadband testing firm SamKnows on behalf of the CRTC, and was based on measurement data collected from October 1 to 31, 2019. Using the data collected from 2,035 “whiteboxes” deployed to Canadian homes, the study examines download and upload speeds, latency, packet loss and web page loading time. Participating ISPs include Bell Aliant,…
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Shaw, Videotron say up to half of legit porting requests were denied
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – Last month, the wireless industry launched new measures to try to stem the rising tide of wireless number porting fraud. It lasted only a week.
Complaints from Videotron and Shaw Communications filed with the CRTC on August 20th said the Canadian wireless industry’s new enhanced process to identify phone numbers which criminals were attempting to steal were far too often rejecting legitimate number porting when customers were attempting to switch from Rogers to Freedom, for example.
Wireless number porting fraud, or SIM-swapping fraud, or port-out scams,…
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OTTAWA — In the third installment of its series of reports looking at network traffic volumes during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) says Canadians continued to use telecom services in June and July at higher rates than before Covid-19.
“The gradual relaxation of mobility restrictions across the country are reflected in the increase in mobile network traffic, with median wireless traffic exceeding pre-Covid-19 levels. Meanwhile, despite some businesses and public spaces reopening, wireline traffic volumes continue to show that many Canadians are still relying heavily on home internet services to stay connected to their workplaces, families,…
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Telus supports Bell’s plan to strike Matrix from the record
By Greg O’Brien
GATINEAU – Of the 11 organizations to respond to the CRTC’s request for comment on Bell Canada’s demand to strike a key economic report from the public record of the wireless policy review proceeding, only one supports the idea.
Bell has asked the Commission to remove a report from the official record of the policy review which underpins the Competition Bureau’s submission to the CRTC that a modified, but mandated, mobile virtual network operator regime must be established. The Bureau’s final comments and the report done by Matrix Economics…
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LONDON, U.K. — Winning four out of seven awards for mobile network experience, Telus has been picked as the top wireless operator in Canada by mobile analytics company Opensignal in its latest report, released this morning.
Opensignal’s bi-annual Canada Mobile Network Experience Report awarded Telus top honours in the categories of video experience, voice app experience, download speed and upload speed. Telus scored a draw with Bell for 4G coverage experience, while Rogers was chosen as the top provider in the category of 4G availability.
In the final category — games experience, which is a new category this time —…
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