OTTAWA — On the same day that a new report was released arguing the CRTC’s role and authority should be reduced in response to technological change, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais defended the relevance of the commission in the digital age in front of a Parliamentary committee. “The Internet and its wide range of applications and opportunities has changed the landscape and yet Ottawa’s digital policy and legal framework has failed to keep up,” the Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI) report said. “Regulating how much Canadian content is shown...
In a “highly unusual” move, Raj Shoan, the CRTC commissioner representing Ontario, was removed from his post by the federal government on Friday, capping off a 14-month period of legal strife between Shoan and the telecom and broadcast regulatory body. According to an order in council posted online Friday morning, the process to remove Shoan — who was appointed to his five-year term in June 2013 — began months ago, via a letter from Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly. The Feb. 26 note informed Shoan “that certain of his actions...
GATINEAU, Que. — The ongoing basic services hearing may be the “last, best chance” for the CRTC and the stakeholders appearing before its five-person panel to formulate some...
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...
The CRTC announced Thursday that it will re-examine the definition and role of so-called basic services, paving the way for potential changes to the offerings telecom companies are mandated to make...
The CRTC on Wednesday ordered BCE Inc.’s Northwestel Inc. to lower its Internet prices for new and existing customers to address the “disparity” between the cost of Internet in the...
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...
Telus Corp.’s summer lobbying efforts will focus on the “potential economic impacts” of allowing a large foreign provider like Verizon Communications Inc. to enter Canada’s wireless market, said John Gossling, the company’s chief financial officer. “We’re...
The Conservative federal government will allow the CRTC’s decision-making panel to shrink in size and has told some sitting commissioners that their expiring terms will not be renewed, industry...
One of the top issues for the CRTC's upcoming review of Northwestel Inc. and telecom services in the North will be how to better support newer technologies like advanced mobile services, said Paul Flaherty, Northwestel’s president. “Lots of people are going to talk about the interest of having more wireless...