In defending their practice of charging rates separate from regular data charges for mobile-TV service, both Rogers Communications Ltd. and Quebecor Inc., in written submissions to the CRTC, talked about being in the early stages of trying to develop a market for this kind of service. BCE Inc., meanwhile, said its mobile-video service should be treated more along the lines of a television-broadcast service as opposed to an Internet service. Bell, Rogers and Quebecor’s Videotron are all subject to a complaint before the CRTC from telecom blogger Ben Klass and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC). They claim that charging a basic $5 monthly rate for mobile-TV service, separately from regular charges for data usage, amounts to giving “undue preference” to their own...
Conservative consultant Geoff Norquay has registered to lobby the government on behalf of VimpelCom Ltd. Norquay, a principal consultant with Earnscliffe Strategy Group, registered on Oct. 24 to lobby the Prime Minister’s Office and Industry Canada officials “regarding Government of Canada foreign investment policy under the Investment Canada Act with respect to telecommunications.” He also registered to lobby on the government’s wireless policy “in light of the recent transfer of spectrum from Public Mobile to Telus, and the disapproval of the sale of Allstream to Accelero, and their possible implications for our client.” Amsterdam-based VimpelCom has a 65 per cent equity stake in Wind Mobile. Its subsidiary, Orascom Telecom Holdings S.A.E., in June withdrew a request to Industry Canada to acquire...