THERE IS SO MUCH on the docket for lawyers working the telecom file in Canada these days, it’s almost hard to keep track.
The CRTC begins its hearings into forbearance from regulating the local phone market on September 26th (same week as Cable Week) while at the same time Industry Canada is deep into its Telecom Policy Review. Then there’s the Federal Court appeal of the CRTC’s telecom win-back rules and the ILECs’ VOIP decision appeal to cabinet, among other things.
So how will a coherent national telecom policy be developed from this muddle of related…
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WE HOPE READERS HAVE ENJOYED the four-month free preview of www.cartt.ca. We do our best to cover the vital issues that affect executives, managers and employees of companies of all sizes in the cable, radio, television and telecom trade.
Since our May 2nd launch, we’ve delivered original journalism – breaking news, feature stories, interviews and viewpoints – important to the domestic industry. In fact, since launch, www.cartt.ca has published almost 800 stories which have appeared in our twice-weekly newsletters that hit in-boxes promptly at 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That’s more than nine per business day, and includes many…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has turned down a request from a non-profit group in British Columbia to get relief from TELUS Communications Inc. with its phone rates.
The Royal Canadian Air Cadets 828 Hurricane Squadron wanted the telco to allow qualifying non-profit organizations to have two individual phone lines at residential rates instead of business rates. TELUS does so in Alberta, but its General Tariff for B.C. does not.
The cadets wanted TELUS to define customers given rate relief to include churches, youth groups, veterans’ associations, associations for the elderly or infirm, and community centres. It argued that residential…
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OTTAWA – A number of Canada’s leading information technology companies (Rogers and Bell, for example) have united to urge the government to modernize the Telecommunications Act in order to promote the government’s entire agenda of competition, investment and commercialization.
The urging comes in a submission to the federal government’s Telecom Policy Review (TRP) delivered by the CATA-CAIP TelecomACT Working Group, a high-level panel drawn from the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP), and its parent organization, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA). Industry members included: MTS Allstream, Bell, Ericsson, MCI, Nakina Systems, Rogers, Telesat, Telus, Eagle.ca, AOL, Orbit.com, NetIdea.,…
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HAMILTON, ON – The leading news source for the Canadian cable, radio, television and telecom industry is growing again.
While other industry publications cut back, www.cartt.ca is adding to its editorial team. Besides editor and publisher Greg O’Brien, www.cartt.ca now has a total of four other editors now covering the Canadian industry.
Glenn Wanamaker will be our Quebec Editor. He is a freelance broadcaster and journalist, with 25 years experience in the broadcast industry, including 15 in Quebec. Based in Quebec City, the bi-lingual Wanamaker will keep his finger on the pulse of the industry in the province where…
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AT LAST COUNT, THERE WERE 103 submissions to the three-person panel in charge of Industry Canada’s Telecom Policy Review.
Boy, do they have some summer/fall reading in front of them.
Not counting appendices, Telus’ submission is 266 pages. Bell’s submission is on a CD ROM and is over a thousand. I wish Dr. Gerri Sinclair, Hank Intven, and André Tremblay the best of luck wading through this sea of advice, recommendations – and in some cases, outright silliness. They’re all telecom talents and will come up with something good, we hope.
Players have until September 15th to respond to…
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LIVING IN THE BIG CITIES, it’s easy to forget – or to never think about – what it’s like in smaller, more remote communities.
A few months ago, I mentioned to a small operator how a far larger MSO still had some substantial 330 MHz and 450 MHz cable systems remaining to rebuild (with just a little mocking disdain in my voice). His response was a little bit sarcastic, wondering what’s wrong with systems like that, since much of his programming and data was still being delivered over such plant to presumably happy customers.
It cleared my head and…
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OTTAWA – Monday was deadline day for submissions to Industry Canada’s Telecom Policy Review Panel.
Not surprisingly, all stakeholders are calling for massive changes, with each pointing towards different ways to change telecommunications policy in Canada. Featured here are snippets from the Bell Canada, Telus and CCTA submissions. Look for more on this from www.cartt.ca as we wade through the submissions –everything from the large stakeholders in this story to the angry Telus workers complaining that the company is blocking their web access.
Bell Canada – change everything, promote ICT and R&D The country’s largest telco says that the…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC Thursday asked the industry how it should – or if it should – regulate TV on the mobile phone handset.
As reported last month by www.cartt.ca, this issue has been emerging from behind the scenes throughout 2005 as both Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Look Communications announced plans to offer television channels to its mobile customers.
When those announcements happened earlier this year, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters sent a letter to the Commission asking it to make a determination as to how TV to the handset should be regulated under the Broadcast Act.
“In…
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TORONTO – A survey released today done on behalf of Bell Canada, Aliant, Sasktel, Télébec and Telus says that Canadians want their incumbent telephone companies to be free of regulation when it comes to offering voice over Internet protocol telephony.
“Ninety-four percent agree that all VOIP service providers, including established telephone companies like Bell Canada, Aliant, SaskTel, Télébec, and Telus, should be subject to the same regulatory rules (38% believe this strongly),” says Wednesday’s press release on the survey done by Ipsos-Reid.
Furthermore: • Three-quarters believe traditional telephone companies should be allowed to compete and offer lower prices for…
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