OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied a request from wireless industry stakeholders that it conduct separate reviews of the mobile data services framework and its applicability under the recently established Internet traffic management practices (ITMP) framework.
Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, NorthernTel, Télébec société en commandite and SaskTel supported the requests made by Telus and Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, while the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Canadian Film and Television Production Association opposed the requests.
In its decision, the Commission said that it “is not persuaded that the scope of NoC 2010-43 should be modified as requested”, and…
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OTTAWA – Wireless industry stakeholders are calling on the CRTC to initiate a separate review of the mobile data services framework and its applicability under the recently established Internet traffic management practices (ITMP) framework, rather than include the matter in a broader consultation on certain legacy telecom obligations.
They say the matter is largely administrative in nature and can be best handled separately.
“It would be a lot simpler in my mind to have dealt with that in a very small paper proceeding,” Michael Hennessy, Telus’ senior VP of regulatory and government affairs said in an interview.
“I suspect…
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OTTAWA – Three of Canada’s largest telecommunications service providers agree that it’s time to review the nearly 10-year-old contribution regime and make changes to the local subsidy that better reflect the reality of today’s telephony landscape.
Their comments come after the CRTC issued a consultation on the contribution regime and other related matters last week (Telecom Notice of Consultation 2010-43).
The current contribution regime, established back in 2000 (Telecom Decision 2000-745), requires all TSPs with revenues greater than $10 million to provide a portion of their earnings to a national pool that would be made available to telecom…
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TORONTO – It was a big fake switch connected to nothing, but with the help of five of the world’s most beautiful lingerie models (dressed by Canadian designers interpreting some smart phones in their designs) Virgin Mobile Canada symbolically activated its new network (the HSPA+ net built by its parent Bell Canada and Telus).
Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group visited by pre-recorded phone call (and was pictured in his space suit). "Since our launch, Virgin Mobile has consistently challenged itself to be the leader in delivering a brilliant customer experience and today is the start of a…
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MONTREAL; WINNIPEG and OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Both Bell and MTS Allstream debuted their enhanced wireless 911 services Monday, squeaking in just under the CRTC-imposed deadline.
Wireless E911 is now available to Bell Mobility and Solo Mobile clients with compatible handsets wherever wireline 911 service exists in Canada, while MTS Allstream introduced the service across its CDMA cellular network in Manitoba. Telus launched its upgraded emergency service last week.
The enhanced 911 (E911) phase II capability is the result of a year-long effort involving Canada’s wireless carriers, local telephone companies and 911 call centres across the country. The CRTC set February…
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OTTAWA – You can’t sell what isn’t yours.
That, in a nutshell, is what some of the interveners into Mediadenovo’s application for a broadcast license have said about the company’s plans to sell the local availability advertising time on American specialty services to national Canadian advertisers. The concept will face the commissioners in a non-appearing hearing on February 22. Comments closed Wednesday. (A prior version of this story suggested this would be a traditional public hearing. At this time, that is not the plan.)
In 2009 Mediadenovo, a re-branded Only Imagine (which had a similar submission shot down by the CRTC in…
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TORONTO – The primary headline will be the $40 million raised by Canada’s broadcasters via a pair of telethons on Friday (one in Toronto and another in French in Montreal), but there are a lot of other stories out there of companies from our industry rallying their employees or their customers to the cause.
Canada For Haiti, Friday’s one-hour, commercial-free special produced collaboratively between CBC Television, CTV and Global Television and also aired on Citytv, has raised more than $13.5 million to date for relief efforts in Haiti, it was confirmed today. (Citytv also aired its own “Help for Haiti”…
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WHEN IT COMES to the billions of dollars Canadians pay for television every year, the main numbers which are poured into everyone’s spreadsheets for regulatory analysis are basically the same.
Thanks to the public documents available through the CRTC or via the companies which are publicly traded, the folks in the TV biz have a pretty good sense of how much money consumers willingly fork over (or which is pried from our bank accounts, depending on your point of view) for television, our primary form of video entertainment, and how it is divided.
But once dumped into those spread sheets, those…
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TORONTO and OTTAWA – Globalive could launch its Wind-branded mobile service as early as next week, chairman Anthony Lacavera said Friday after learning that Industry Canada had overturned the CRTC’s decision barring his company from entering the Canadian wireless market.
Amid cheers from staff, Lacavera thanked the government for its decision which he called “testament that this country needs (wireless) competition.”
Industry Canada declared Globalive a Canadian company that meets the Canadian ownership and control requirements under the Telecommunications Act early on Friday morning, contrary to the CRTC’s decision in the Fall which determined that the company was not sufficiently Canadian-owned…
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I LOVE GOING TO confabs like NextMedia. As Telus’ SVP Michael Hennessy tweeted earlier this week: “Finished 2 days at #nextMEDIA looking to future of digital media. No discussion of #FFC, #CRTC. Met real digital entrepreneurs. Awesome.”
Hennessy told me Monday at that conference that when it comes to the debate over value for signal for over the air broadcasters, he’s done. Telus won’t be appearing at next week’s hearing into the issue, the one ordered by the feds.
Indeed, two days at NextMedia (built off a backdrop of my four days in Denver at Cable Connection Week in October,…
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