The Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s new executive director credits his predecessor with inspiring him to become an “underdog champion.”
PIAC’s purpose is to put...
The CRTC defended its telecommunications mandate before a skeptical Senate panel Tuesday, telling the transport and communications committee that past practices are leading to...
If Canada is to have a viable wholesale market, high speed access needs to...
Reaction has been swift and condemnatory to the announcement Thursday by...
Gatineau, Que. – Telus Corp. asked the CRTC to...
A quartet of civil society groups appeared before the House of Commons...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) are urging the CRTC to come up with an interim plan to “stabilize the finances” of the Broadcasting Participation Fund as they anticipate a shortfall in money for...
As news of Roger’s Communications Inc.’s deal to acquire Shaw Communications Inc. sparks discussions on what it may mean for the wireless market in Canada, advocates say competition and other...
The new digital initiatives from CBC/Radio-Canada like the English-language Gem and its French counterpart ICI Tou.tv have not yet shown themselves to be good enough to fulfill the broadcaster's...
Canada should follow the lead of the United States and put in place a $50 “broadband benefit” throughout the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says. The...
The disparate broadband funding programs administered across different federal government departments...
While it believes the CRTC's existing definition of "customer confidential...
The federal government introduced sweeping private-sector privacy law...
Six months after the CRTC declined its request to hold an inquiry into contact tracing technologies and...
The CRTC largely played a hands-off role during the COVID-19 pandemic in a...
Canadians are complaining less about their wireless service and fewer consumers are receiving unexpected charges in their monthly wireless bill, according to wireless code research commissioned by the CRTC. The report, conducted by market research company Kantar and published on July 29, found 22 per cent of Canadian cell phone users experienced bill shock -- a surprisingly high bill -- in the past year, compared to 25 per cent in 2019. That dip was more modest than the decline in data...
Major Canadian telecoms have ended one of their major relief measures for Canadians who suddenly shifted...
Rural Economic Development Minister Maryam Monsef says “precise...
The CRTC has rejected a Public Interest Advocacy Centre request that it look into the involvement of...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is asking for all Canadian...
Cogeco Inc. will again start charging overage fees to its home internet customers who exceed their data limits as of Friday, with the company instead focusing on other measures it considers to “be more essential” to its customers. It’s the first internet service provider to confirm its suspension of data overage charges will end. A Cogeco spokesperson told The Wire Report that its suspension of data overage charges — introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on Mar. 20 — would end on Thursday as it prioritized other temporary measures. “We have decided to focus...
The CRTC is under criticism for saying it may not award costs to groups who participate in a public consultation on regulations under the Accessibility Canada Act, with stakeholder groups arguing such...
The federal government should guarantee internet service providers payments...
OTTAWA — The CRTC's efforts to work with telecom companies to implement a...
Analysts have provided nuanced reactions to the government’s plan to...
CloudWifi Inc.’s application for small internet service providers to be able to access fibre...
Even before the federal election campaign officially kicked off, telecom...
CRTC chairman Ian Scott said the new internet code will address many of the...
The CRTC has asked the country’s wireless providers for information about new device financing plans that have appeared on the market in the last few weeks. In a letter signed by CRTC chief of consumer, research and...
The same week that concerns were raised about new device financing plans from Rogers Communications Inc. potentially running afoul of the Wireless Code, John Lawford,...
The Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) said...
As BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. reacted to Rogers Communications Inc.’s offer of a new wireless data plan with no data overage charges, analysts and experts had difficulty predicting how the new plans...
The New Democratic Party has unveiled Monday a plan to make telecommunications services more affordable,...
The CRTC has denied a request by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) to state that CRTC policy...
The new policy direction for the CRTC announced by the federal government Tuesday is a blunt message to the regulator to make some changes, but the extent to which it will...
Canada’s telecommunications industry suffers from an “unacceptable...
An application to relax eligibility requirements for the CRTC’s...
Increases in how long the CRTC takes to pay public interest groups to...
The list of consumer groups that say they won’t take part in the CRTC’s...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre says it is boycotting the CRTC’s internet code proceedings, a move that comes after the regulator denied an application by consumer groups for a time-extension on...
OTTAWA — Consumer advocacy groups are cautioning MPs against proposals that would make site-blocking in Canada easier, after a push for those anti-piracy policies failed at the CRTC failed last...
OTTAWA — Members of the panel tasked with providing recommendations to...
GATINEAU — Consumer protection and seniors advocacy groups told the CRTC...
A CRTC decision outlining how its $750 million fund for rural broadband will be administered “looks quite encouraging,” according to the president of the Canadian Network Operators’ Consortium (CNOC). Matt Stein said in a phone interview the “process they’ve laid out stands out to introduce a lot of great options for some Canadians who don’t have a lot of options today.” The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) was more critical, with executive director John Lawford saying that the “comparative selection” approach the CRTC opted for isn’t necessarily simpler than...
The CRTC has declined a request from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) to offer protection against litigation to current and former employees who offer submissions to the regulator’s...
The Quebec Superior Court has ruled against a plan by the Quebec government...
Shaw Communications Inc. has launched low-cost wireless data plans that trump offers proposed by its competitors to the CRTC, after the telecoms told the regulator that it should accept no substitutes what they proposed. The...
OTTAWA — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains said Thursday afternoon that...
TORONTO — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains announced Wednesday the timing of the next three spectrum auctions — including the much talked-about 3.5 GHz — as well as a...
GATINEAU — The CRTC is recommending the government undertake a bevy of...
An anti-internet piracy coalition did not end up meeting with CRTC...
Canada’s big three wireless carriers have responded to the CRTC’s...
The CRTC has told the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) that Canadians have other outlets for complaints about telecom sales practices in response to a request from the consumer group to open an...
A few months after the emergence of a proposal asking the CRTC to shift...
With under a month left in its donation drive and three recent cost awards,...
The CRTC has ordered VOIS Inc. to pay the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) a little over one thousand dollars for work done that eventually led to a non-compliance ruling against the Alberta-based telecom. The costs were...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is in danger of having to close...
The choice of Ian Scott as the new chairman of the CRTC was greeted positively by former colleagues who praised his experience and collegial style Tuesday, but his background...
Now that former chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has departed the CRTC after five years at the helm, he leaves...
TORONTO — Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains is directing the CRTC to reconsider a March decision in...
MONTREAL — BCE Inc. has launched a new TV product hoping to appeal to a segment of the market that’s less likely to subscribe to...
As the CRTC banned most forms of differential pricing practices Thursday — including declaring that telecoms can’t pick and chose Internet content to zero-rate and...
A trio of consumer advocacy groups are asking the CRTC to revise December’s basic telecom services decision, stating in a review-and-vary application filed Wednesday that the regulator should have included a tool by which to fund making telecom services affordable for low-income households. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), the National Pensioners Federation (NPF) and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) Canada are requesting a revised...
For all the focus on the digital economy, there was little in Wednesday’s budget for digital content creators, broadband infrastructure enthusiasts or fans of long-term planning, according to...
OTTAWA — Privacy experts raised the idea of a Canadian “right to be forgotten” in front of a House of Commons committee studying the Personal Information Protection and Electronic...
The introduction of Xplornet Communications Inc. into Manitoba’s wireless market was a “surprise twist” to the story of BCE Inc.’s $3.9-billion acquisition...
In a departure from the positions of its fellow wireless providers, Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile suggested Wednesday the CRTC should forbid carriers from charging...
GATINEAU, QUE. — The Wireless Code has been a positive development for consumers in the three years since its implementation, consumer groups said on the first day of the CRTC's hearing on...
WAKEFIELD, Que. — The federal government’s new rural broadband program will focus on making high-speed connections, as opposed to simply forging Internet connections for rural and remote...
As the CRTC’s rules requiring all TV providers to allow customers to sign up for channels individually came into effect Thursday, the regulator emphasized that consumers have to take...
The best practices for TV service providers offering skinny-basic cable packages announced by the CRTC Monday don’t amount to much more than lip service, with no real consequences for...
GATINEAU — The CRTC shouldn’t take the non-participation in this week’s hearing by content providers who might eventually benefit from zero-rating and other differential pricing practices as non-interest, a five-commissioner panel studying the issue heard Tuesday. The remarks were made by Blair Levin, an advisor to Facebook Inc., during his appearance before the panel. He was speaking in response to a comment from chairman Jean-Pierre Blais over whether the CRTC should be inferring anything from what Blais called the “non-participation or the reluctant...
TORONTO — Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Guy Laurence said Thursday the company will eliminate an “irritant” among its customers by giving them the ability to manage...
GATINEAU — On the final day of a two-day hearing, consumer groups told a CRTC panel that the regulator should set standards for how companies present information about their skinny-basic packages, while CRTC commissioner...
Canadians continue to pay among the highest prices internationally for wireless and broadband Internet services, according to a new report comparing telecom service prices released Thursday by the CRTC. The ninth annual...
Net neutrality advocates welcomed the CRTC’s launch of a new consultation on “differential pricing practices” for both wireline and wireless data plans Wednesday, a process that will see a public hearing kick off...
The CRTC will issue a notice of consultation on how telecom companies carried out its skinny basic TV package rules later this month. Spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said in an email Friday the commission had asked TV providers, as part of a broadcast licence review process launched last month, to answer a number of questions about skinny basic. The CRTC will launch a consultation on those responses before the end of May, she confirmed. In an appendix to a call for licence renewal applications on April 21, the CRTC asked TV providers about their offers of mandatory basic packages...
Independent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and advocacy groups said Wednesday they’re encouraged by the federal government’s rejection of BCE Inc.’s appeal of the CRTC...
BCE Inc. announced Monday morning that it will purchase Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. in a $3.9 billion transaction that, if approved, will see the number of players in Manitoba’s telecom...
More than 66,000 Canadians have signed up for a skinny-basic TV package since its rollout on March 1, according to the CRTC. In a Friday press release, the regulator said a third of those who signed up also took...
GATINEAU, Que. — CRTC commissioners drilled into what should constitute a need versus a want when it comes to access to broadband Internet Thursday, during the fourth day of a three-week hearing...
OTTAWA — Other major Internet service providers may be compelled to follow in the footsteps of Rogers Communications Inc. and offer cheap Internet packages for low-income earners, according to...
Newly released survey results show that almost 10 per cent of Canadians still do not have Internet access at home, and more people cite its relevance to their personal lives than affordability as a...
Representatives from the Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) told the CRTC Tuesday that making telecom companies' participation in the CCTS voluntary would affect the...
MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron is giving itself an undue preference with a new service that allows its mobile customers to listen to music streaming without it counting against their...
Industry Canada will repurpose the 600 MHz spectrum band for mobile use and collaborate with the United States on the move, which means at least some over-the-air (OTA) television stations will have to find new frequencies if they want to continue broadcasting. One question is how many of those stations will actually make the switch, Gregory Taylor, an assistant professor of mass communications at the University of Calgary, said in a phone interview. “One of the things we’ll have...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has re-launched an undue-preference complaint against Rogers Communications Inc.'s and Shaw Communications Inc.’s Shomi streaming service,...
The CRTC has denied an application by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia for reimbursement of about $13,500 for their participation in a complaint...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre said it will not drop a CRTC complaint against BCE Inc.’s targeted ad program, despite the company’s plans to re-launch the program according to...
Faced with a possible legal fight against another agency of the federal government, BCE Inc. on Tuesday backed down after the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said the company refused to require...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) released a report on Monday that calls on Canada to legislate the requirement that all Canadians have access to "affordable" telecommunications services. PIAC said in its report that affordability should be defined in such a way that people can afford telecommunications without having to give up other essentials, such as heat or food. The document added that any such requirements should respect "consumer control of expenses and choice of services, to the maximum extent possible." The organization said affordable...
On Wednesday Rogers Communications Inc. announced a new brand of broadband Internet, Ignite, that comes bundled with subscriptions to two of Rogers' online video-streaming services. The company...
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...
BCE Inc. is asking the CRTC to dismiss a “frivolous and vexatious” Feb. 6 complaint from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against the company’s CraveTV service, arguing that the case has no chance of...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) on Friday asked the CRTC to prohibit Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. from restricting the availability of their streaming...
The CRTC’s ruling on Thursday that BCE Inc. and Quebecor Inc.-owned Videotron can no longer exempt their mobile-TV services from data charges could have implications for the regulation of...
New legislation proposed by the federal government will expand the powers of the CRTC, giving it the ability to fine offenders, share information with the Competition Bureau and exert control over companies that operate telecom...
The CRTC this year has ordered telecommunications companies to pay more than $230,000 to various organizations participating in different telecommunications proceedings, of which BCE Inc. and its...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says up to $600 million a year is at stake as the CRTC gets set to meet with telecommunications companies to discuss the practice of charging customers to...
As the CRTC is set to reconsider what constitutes a basic telecommunications service, some voices are saying that it’s about time to include broadband Internet in that definition. Under current rules, basic service includes a telephone line “with capability to connect via low-speed data transmission to the Internet at local rates,” according to the commission’s website — a definition set in 1999 that includes services such as “Touch-Tone dialing” and “a copy of a current local telephone directory.” “We think it’s long since...
