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TAGGED AS JEAN-FRANCOIS MEZEI

Another complaint emerges against Videotron’s music service

Media | 09/08/2015 5:24 pm EDT

Another application has been submitted to the CRTC that protests an offer by Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron to not count data used by its mobile customers for certain music-streaming applications. Vaxination Informatique, a telecommunication consulting company, has launched its own undue-preference complaint about Videotron's offer, which was announced late last month. The application from Vaxination Informatique, which appeared on the CRTC's website on Friday, argued that Videotron's offer on music services, called Unlimited Music, contravenes Telecommunications Act provisions meant to "ensure fair treatment of all communications [and] also to ensure incumbents do not use...

Big carriers defend interim tariff terms

telecom | 07/29/2015 8:39 pm EDT

Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp. and BCE Inc. took issue with a complaint by small wireless carriers that their interim tariffs include “onerous” terms and conditions, arguing the Telecommunications Act requires tariffs to include detailed terms.   Telus said in its reply, dated Monday, that legislation specifies “the full terms and conditions whereby a regulated service will be made available must be set out in a tariff, meaning that the position of the [small carriers] as to what is to be included in the wireless carriers’ respective tariffs is contrary...

CRTC suspends proceeding against Shomi, CraveTV

Media | 02/20/2015 9:27 pm EST

The CRTC has suspended the proceeding initiated the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and Consumers' Association of Canada (CAC) against video-streaming services CraveTV and Shomi. CRTC dispute resolution manager Tandy...

Too early to decide on fibre-network regulation: Competition Bureau

telecom | 11/24/2014 9:30 pm EST

GATINEAU, Que. — CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said during the first day of the CRTC’s hearing into its wholesale wireline regulations that his commission needs to be a...

Blais threatens to revoke Netflix’ exemption order

Media | 09/19/2014 7:48 pm EDT

GATINEAU, Que. — During the sometimes-contentious appearance by Netflix Inc. on the last day the CRTC’s two-week hearings on the future of television, CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais repeatedly ordered the U.S....

Conspicuous by its absence in TV review: OTT services

Media | 08/28/2014 9:24 pm EDT

In a little more than a week, the people who make and produce, broadcast and distribute, analyze and report on the Canadian television industry will gather in Gatineau, Que., to spend two weeks talking about its future. The...

Devicescape helps carriers tap into public WiFi resources

telecom | 08/15/2014 8:49 pm EDT

Devicescape Software Inc. is a California-based company that is trying to sell wireless carriers on the potential of using the multitude of free WiFi hotspots in existence to their benefit. The company's product causes smartphones to automatically link to freely offered WiFi networks, without the user having to perform the manual tasks that are typically required to connect to hotspots. "We're taking advantage of the public WiFi that has already been deployed, and there's actually tens of millions of locations in our network already, and it's composed of everything...

Experts disagree on stringency of AWS-3 build-out rules

telecom | 08/14/2014 10:56 pm EDT

While some observers are saying the deployment requirements for the upcoming AWS-3 spectrum auction are the strictest the industry’s ever seen, others say they’re pretty much in line...

CRTC asking new questions on mobile-TV and wireless data throttling

telecom | 08/06/2014 9:23 pm EDT

The CRTC has issued new interrogatories in its proceeding looking at an undue preference complaint about mobile-TV services, asking BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s...

One year later, could the wireless wars re-ignite?

telecom | 07/30/2014 9:03 pm EDT

Last summer, a conflict between the federal government and Canada’s three biggest wireless carriers, centering over rules around the 700 MHz spectrum auction and the prospect of a large U.S. carrier entering the Canadian...

Rogers changes privacy policy due to customer ‘concern’

telecom | 07/16/2014 9:10 pm EDT

Rogers Communications Inc.’s decision to change its privacy policy to require law enforcement agencies to provide a warrant or court order to obtain subscriber information was made partly due to...

Quebecor says it needs regulated roaming to become fourth carrier

telecom | 06/18/2014 9:14 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc. said explicitly Wednesday that it intends to become Canada's "fourth wireless competitor," though it needs "a fair and competitive federally regulated roaming...

Spotlight on Quebecor after Telus reportedly ends Mobilicity bid

telecom | 05/21/2014 8:52 pm EDT

Analysts speculated Wednesday about the possibility of Quebecor Inc. stepping up to purchase Mobilicity following a report that Telus Corp. has withdrawn its offer. An article, which appeared on the...

Telus-Mobilicity deal to test government powers: expert

telecom | 04/22/2014 8:35 pm EDT

The $350-million bid by Telus Corp. for Mobilicity could set up a test of Industry Canada’s regulatory power over the sale of wireless spectrum and competition within the wireless industry,...

Mobile TV not undue preference, promotes Canadian content: Rogers

Media | 03/06/2014 9:38 pm EST

Rogers Communications Inc.’s mobile-TV service upholds the Broadcasting Act by making Canadian content available and is not an undue preference, the company told the CRTC Wednesday. Rogers made...

‘We are not the same,’ Telus exec says on leaving CWTA

telecom | 02/28/2014 9:04 pm EST

Telus Corp. has pulled out of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), the main trade association and lobbying group for companies associated with the mobile-communications industry. Ted Woodhead, vice-president of regulatory affairs at Telus, said his company helped found the CWTA in the 1980s to promote the wireless industry and that goal has been reached. “You don’t really need to promote wireless anymore,” he said in a phone interview. “It promotes itself. It’s part of the terra firma of everybody’s life.” Woodhead said the...

Roaming arrangements like Survivor alliances, consultant tells CRTC

telecom | 01/30/2014 9:30 pm EST

Comments made to the CRTC as part of its review of domestic roaming rates paint a picture of different alliances made among Canadian wireless carriers — reminiscent of the TV show Survivor...

Quebec’s consumer watchdog fines Bell $3.28m, other telcos warned

telecom | 11/25/2013 9:43 pm EST

Quebec’s consumer protection office (OPC), an agency of the provincial government, fined BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Mobility $3.28 million for breaching the provincial Consumer Protection Act, and warned other telecommunications companies they could be next. The OPC said in a release Friday it was fining...

CRTC says consumers can cancel wireless contracts after two years, no fees

telecom | 06/03/2013 2:08 pm EDT

Canadian wireless consumers can cancel long-term wireless contracts with mobile phone providers after two years without any cancellation fees, the CRTC said in new wireless code of conduct...