By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – British Columbia’s minister of transportation and infrastructure (MOTI) has filed an application to the CRTC asking it to suspend a November decision that forces it to enter agreements with third party carriers wanting to attach equipment on poles that are being moved by the province.
The November decision was triggered by a Rogers and Shaw application, which asked that they be treated similarly to the incumbent Telus when it comes to compensation to relocate their transmission lines when the province decides to move their poles. In the decision, the CRTC said the province…
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated on March 2 with a comment from Quebecor.
By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Bell is temporarily pausing its next generation 9-1-1 network until further notice, according to a Friday email from a Bell technician seen by Cartt.
“Bell Canada is advising all Originating Network Providers of a temporary embargo for NG9-1-1 Onboarding and Go-Live activities,” said Richard Little, a technical network specialist for Bell’s emergency services division said in the email to representatives of the providers. “The embargo will continue until further notice.
“ONPs will be notified once our planned resumption of activities is known,” Little…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has put out a contract notice Thursday for a consultancy firm that will assist in analyzing the network outage at Rogers last summer and improvements the company has committed to going forward.
The July 8 network blackout brought down critical services for millions of Canadians, including government, banking and emergency services in some cases.
This week, the regulator announced the launch of the first of a number of proceedings on telecom network resiliency, the first of which will include mandatory notification requirements on all service providers when outages like these happen. As…
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By Samer Bishay, pictured above, founder, president and CEO of telecom Iristel.
On one hand, my telecom company and I have top secret security clearance from the federal government, and yet another part of the Ottawa bureaucracy is convinced we’re crooks.
It doesn’t add up.
There has been much talk lately about Canada feeling broken and our story does little to dispel such talk.
Unequivocally, we are not crooks.
And just as unequivocally, Ottawa is broken when one department – Canada Revenue Agency – accuses us of stealing from the taxman while law enforcement agencies see the value of us helping protect the treasury…
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By Ahmad Hathout
MONTREAL – Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said on the company’s fourth quarter conference call Thursday that he is “not surprised” by the “little progress” the company has made on negotiating a deal to roam on the large carriers’ wireless networks, but said things may change with the new head at the CRTC.
The company’s Videotron subsidiary was denied last week an arbitration hearing with the regulator about a price for access to Bell’s wireless network, alleging Bell is stalling on negotiations. The CRTC, which asked about the status of those negotiations…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – A thorn in the side of third party cable companies told to bear the full cost of a pole replacement to attach their telecom equipment on wood structures has been addressed Wednesday by the CRTC, which ruled that attachers should not bear more than 50 percent of the cost of a replacement in most instances.
Pole owners – mainly legacy telephone companies Bell and Telus – have historically charged full price for the pole replacement if a third party wanted to put their equipment on the wood structures (the regulator said this is “often” the case)….
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Government “disagreed” with incumbent arguments about direction usefulness and legality
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Innovation Canada has kept its proposed policy direction to the CRTC largely intact, as the final version released Monday shores up language to reinforce the government’s perspective on the importance of competition and affordability in the wireline and wireless sectors of the telecommunications industry, while maintaining that the direction will encourage innovation and network investments.
The department clarified language in the final version that made clearer the importance in CRTC decisions of network reliability, fair roaming rates, and “just and reasonable” rates at which smaller internet service…
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VANCOUVER – Former deputy prime minister John Manley has been appointed chair of the Telus board of directors.
The long-time board member is succeeding Dick Auchinleck, who is retiring after 20 years, according to a press release today.
“John’s appointment as our new Board Chair is a testament to our robust succession planning process,” Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of TELUS, said in the release. “Over the course of his tenure on our Board, John has demonstrated exceptional professionalism, thought leadership and integrity, playing a key role in TELUS’ industry-leading growth strategy. We look forward to his continued contribution with his…
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Company said two recent ISP acquisitions will help deliver on its home security business
By Ahmad Hathout
VANCOUVER – Telus executives said today they are “bullish” on the revenue generation that connected devices will deliver, especially as 5G wireless connectivity becomes more of a mainstay.
The company reported a 16% increase in its connected device base – and year-over-year growth of 30.9% — as it added 106,000 new devices in the fourth quarter of 2022 for a total of 2.5 million.
Despite the growth, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle told investors on the company’s quarterly conference call that “it still has not yet scaled…
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BURNABY, B.C. – A union representing Telus workers is threatening to escalate actions in the absence of a better labour deal with the telecom giant.
Hundreds of Telus workers and members of the United Steelworkers union have been going through picket training over the past several weeks after the union and the country’s third largest telecom could not hammer out a tentative agreement on a new labour deal.
Since then, the union has said Telus has refused to resume negotiations.
“In the coming days we will commence a new phase of escalated actions across the country, which we intend…
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