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 ordering Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to stop offering its Unlimited Music service — Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais suggested the move levels the playing field between small and large telecoms and content providers and their customers. While noting that though there were Unlimited Music subscribers who...
GATINEAU — On the first day of the CRTC’s hearing on differential pricing practices, a consortium representing small telecoms asked the CRTC to allow but regulate the practice of zero-rating, though CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais questioned how zero-rated categories would be determined under such a regime. The exchange occurred on the first day of the week-long hearing into differential pricing practices, including the practice of exempting various services from data caps, called zero-rating. Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron’s Unlimited Music Service, which exempts various music...