TORONTO – Following Telus’ lead, Rogers is offering DRM-free (digital rights management) song downloads through its music service.
Visitors to Rogers’ full-track over-the-air music downloads store urMusic can now purchase and download DRM-free (also known as MP3) music tracks to their wireless device or computer, and then transfer them to their other digital music-capable electronic devices, free of charge. Rogers is also offering customers the ability to pre-order albums in advance of their release date.
DRM-free music tracks are priced at $0.69, $0.99 and up to $1.29 per track. Full album purchases generally cost less than $10, plus applicable download…
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OTTAWA – CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein said Friday the regulator had “made a mistake” in eliminating Canadian content spending requirements for over-the-air broadcasters back in 1999.
Speaking in conversation with broadcast veteran Trina McQueen during the CFTPA Prime Time in Ottawa conference, von Finckenstein added, “It doesn’t make sense.”
However, the chair noted that the system “can’t turn back.” While failing to confirm expenditures would be revived in upcoming regulation, it looks like the CRTC is heading that way.
McQueen noted that the CRTC should not want “to make the same mistake over again” (by not changing the rules).
Can’t the amount…
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OTTAWA – Comments filed on the CRTC’s reconsideration of speed matching strike a familiar refrain: Would-be competitors say Canadians will suffer if the CRTC doesn’t mandate speed matching and access to higher-speed local access facilities for them, while incumbent telcos tell the Commission that doing so will threaten future network investments.
Telcos were already required under CRTC regulations to provide speed matching (also referred to as service parity) to competitors over both legacy copper facilities as well as their faster fibre, or next-generation networks (NGNs). But the implementation of the rule was put on hold following appeals to the…
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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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