TORONTO – The regulatory experts from competitors Bell Canada, Telus, Rogers Communications and MTS Allstream pulled no punches in their criticism of each other’s positions on the hot-button issue of "essential” facilities yesterday at the Canadian Telecom Summit.
Ken Engelhart, vice-president of regulatory affairs for Rogers Communications, quipped early in the discussion that members on the panel may find themselves out of work sooner than they expected.
“Once local telephone is deregulated, telecom is sort of done,” Engelhart said. “Essential facilities could be an ongoing source of work. But we don’t realize it yet – telecom regulation is 70…
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TORONTO – Putting six fierce competitors – armed with their own facts and relative truths about the current state of the wireless industry in Canada and abroad for a discussion on next year’s advanced wireless spectrum auction – onto a stage together is likely to result in something akin to a wireless “cage match”.
And that’s exactly what happened Wednesday on the last day of the Canadian Telecom Summit.
To kick off a special panel discussion about competition in the mobile wireless services space, moderator Terence Corcoran, Financial Post editor, introduced himself to the audience as Terry Springer, setting…
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TORONTO – Recommendations by the Telecommunications Policy Review (TPR) panel, published in its March 2006 report, may have taken a step closer to implementation today with the release of a “Model Telecommunications Act”, co-authored by a former TPR panel member, Hank Intven, partner of the law firm McCarthy Tétrault LLP.
Attendees of the Canadian Telecom Summit received copies of the 456-page “Model Act” this afternoon during a special presentation by Intven and his co-author, Mary Dawson, a former associate deputy minister of justice and independent advisor to McCarthy Tétrault.
The TPR report released last year called for a more…
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TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS ARE enabling new competitive options for cable companies to consider – however, these same technologies can be used by competitors to win customers away from cable.
Last year the CommTech Trade Show in Kelowna had the first major introduction of Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology to Canadian audiences. I remember 10 years ago looking at the costs of delivering fibre services that far and figuring that there wasn’t enough money in the world to afford it. Now we find that a critical mass of technology in the FTTH space has been reached. Numerous vendors have working systems and standards…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Citing the "questionable business practices" of independent cable co-op Campbell River TV Association, Shaw Communications declined earlier this year to renew the contract of its Shaw Pay-Per-View service with the small cable company.
When Shaw made it known to CRTV that the contract would not be renewed, the co-op filed a complaint with the CRTC under section 6.1(1) of the Pay Television Regulations, 1990, which prohibits a licensee from giving an undue preference to any person, including itself, or subjecting any person to an undue disadvantage.
While CRTV said the PPV or VOD options available to it…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Canada’s incumbent telcos won’t be allowed to boost everyone’s rates in order to cover off and eliminate reconnection fees for customers who move, the CRTC announced today.
As we reported last summer, Bell Canada, Bell Aliant and Telus applied to the Commission to make changes to the local telephone rates for residential customers. "The companies had proposed to eliminate the connection charges for new customers and existing customers who move in exchange for approval to increase rates for all residential customers, explains the release.
In their submissions, Bell Canada and Bell Aliant proposed to increase the monthly…
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KELOWNA – CommTech Trade Show and Seminars host Janice Lee could be spotted touring the hotel property over the past couple of days, examining every spot at the Coast Capri Hotel for the expansion of next year’s conference.
A success on just about every measure (every vendor and delegate we talked to was very pleased with the show), CommTech will likely be expanding next year. This year, vendor table space sold out months in advance and the waiting list from this year means the trade show floor will be larger in 2008.
There were 42 exhibitors this year, 20…
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VANCOUVER – Higher speeds have been added to the 3-G wireless, high-speed EVDO network throughout southern Ontario, Montreal and Winnipeg, TELUS Corp. announced Thursday. The telco added faster speeds would be extended to EVDO’s other existing coverage areas, which now reach more than two-thirds of Canadians, later this year.
Speeds that are seven times faster than the existing network are possible because TELUS has upgraded in these areas to EVDO Rev A. Typical upload speeds since the upgrade are 300 to 400 kilobits per second with maximum possible upload speeds of 1.8 megabits per second. The service also offers…
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OTTAWA – Quebecor and MTS Allstream are not alone among telecom and cable firms in their desire for a wireless spectrum auction that would shackle the "big three" mobile phone companies in Canada.
Among those aligned with the Quebec and Manitoba companies that have been leading the charge to have spectrum in the auction set aside for new entrants – and who have also proposed other rules like mandated roaming and tower sharing – include: Cogeco Cable, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, Shaw Communications, EastLink, the Assembly of First Nations and Toronto Hydro Telecom, among others.
The list…
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KELOWNA – The CommTech trade show and seminars, which will begin tomorrow in Kelowna at the Coast Capri Hotel is bigger and better than last year.
Forty-three companies have pre-registered to attend, a 30% increase in companies over 2006, says organizer Janice Lee of JLL & Associates. Exhibitor space has been sold out since the winter – and that’s with 35% more vendors than last year. "We are also offering 25% more seminars this year," said Lee.
Telus, Connect Telecommunications Solutions and Power & Tel are the top sponsors of the event.
Look for reports this week from the…
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