THE LITANY OF REGULATORY issues facing the Canadian telecom business is long and the stakes are huge. It’s why this year’s Regulatory Blockbuster session held Wednesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit yet again delivered a lively, sometimes heated, discourse among the industry’s key regulatory players.
Moderated by Cartt.ca’s editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, the panel featured senior regulatory experts from Bell Canada, Rogers Communications, Telus, MTS Allstream, Globalive Communications and PIAC (the Public Interest Advocacy Centre) and the issues ranged vertical integration, foreign ownership, usage-based billing, wireless spectrum auction rules, rural broadband initiatives, and so on.
With the CRTC’s public hearing…
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TORONTO – Robert Dépatie doesn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with Rob Bruce.
A day after Bruce, the president of the cable and wireless arm of Rogers Communications, called for no restrictions on the Canadian government’s upcoming auction of 700 MHz spectrum, Dépatie, the president and CEO of Videotron, called for definitive restrictions on the auction. Specifically, Dépatie made the case for an in-band spectrum cap for 700 MHz bidders while speaking at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday morning.
As the company has spelled out for Industry Canada as it prepares to write the rules of the 700 MHz spectrum auction,…
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Perry Hoffman
OTTAWA – Bell Canada says it’s patently wrong for Rogers Communications to suggest that the CRTC can adopt a competitive bidding process for the rights to roll out broadband networks in Bell’s deferral account communities and not experience any further delays.
In its April 18 comments, Bell highlights where the delays would come from. First, if the CRTC opted for an auction now, it would have to conduct another public consultation to determine the auction framework. “Based on prior experience, this, in and of itself, would be a very lengthy exercise which would involve many parties and competing…
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TORONTO – Astral Media’s new kids network Disney XD launched across the country on Wednesday with a mix of high definition live action and animated programming.
An advertiser-supported TV network and multi-platform brand, Disney XD’s programming targets children aged 6-14, with a focus on boys and their quest for discovery, accomplishment, adventure and humour, while still being inclusive of girl audiences.
The network is currently available through Rogers Communications, Bell Satellite TV, Bell Fibe TV, EastLink and Delta Cable, and will join Telus’ Optik TV lineup on June 20. In addition to the on-air launch, Disney XD also debuted dedicated on-demand channels with…
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TORONTO – Rob Bruce, the president of the cable and wireless arm of Rogers Communications, won’t be alone this week calling (as he did Tuesday opening the 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit) for a “fair and open auction” of the 700 MHz wireless spectrum.
We know enough of what the likes of Telus’ CFO Robert MacFarlane plans to say at lunch Wednesday and can hazard a guess that Bell CEO George Cope will follow up with a similar call on Thursday when he speaks to CTS delegates at the Toronto Congress Centre. The auction isn’t expected until 2012, but the…
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TORONTO – Despite numerous technical, operational and financial challenges, Long Term Evolution (LTE) will become a dominant wireless technology, if not the dominant wireless technology, globally by the end of the decade, according to panelists at the Canadian Telecom Summit.
Speaking in a Tuesday morning session, executives from a range of major equipment and software suppliers argued LTE will take a commanding role because of its high transmission speeds, low latency, greater capacity, more extensive coverage, and lower costs. “LTE will be the choice for all spectrum, all technologies and all networks in the next 10 years,” declared Dr. Wen…
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TORONTO – In its effort to set universal broadband Internet speeds for all of Canada, the CRTC set far too low a target when it announced in early May in its "obligation to serve" proceeding decision it expects all Canadians to have access to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds by 2015. That was the view expressed by at least two panel speakers at the Canadian Telecom Summit on Tuesday during the “Connecting Canadians” session.
“This is just my opinion, but I do think (the CRTC’s Internet speed target) is too low,” said Daniel O’Connell, president of…
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NOW WE KNOW WHAT happens when you try to combine an ideology that says big business is all-bad with sets of inaccurate data to try and make recommendations on fostering Internet “openness”.
You end up with a rambling report (honestly, we stopped counting after 10,000 words, but the 44-second video about the report is cute) chock full of conflicting messages and untenable ideas. And that’s just what Internet advocacy group OpenMedia.ca has produced with its report “Casting an Open Net.”
Instead of a concise and well-researched case against usage-based billing (UBB) that could have sparked a constructive debate between OpenMedia.ca…
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OTTAWA – With just a few weeks left to go before the CRTC’s widely anticipated hearing on vertical integration, the Commission has provided interveners with a sneak peek into what exactly it plans to focus on.
The Regulator posted its agenda and issued a letter on Monday saying that its panel intends to focus on five key areas:
1. Perceived problems and benefits with respect to the Canadian broadcasting system resulting from vertical integration;
2. Concerns with respect to exclusivity of content distribution, including distribution over mobile and broadband platforms;
3. Requirement for protection of independent broadcasters or independent distributors;
4. Adequacy of current ex…
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OTTAWA – Many wireless providers are telling Industry Canada that it should restrict Inukshuk Internet’s ability to fully participate in the 2500 MHz spectrum auction.
MTS Allstream, Quebecor Media Inc., Shaw Communications, Telus Corp., and EastLink all suggested in comments to the 2500 MHz licensing process that it would be unfair to allow Inukshuk unfettered bidding in the auction because it owns 98% of licensed 2500 MHz bandwidth and a considerable chunk of the overall band. Inukshuk is a joint venture between Bell Canada and Rogers Communications.
For MTS, it’s no longer a question of whether competition is…
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