Telecoms deadlocked ahead of 5G rollout: analyst

telecom | 01/10/2020 5:32 pm EST

No major wireless provider stands out as most likely to benefit from Canada’s looming 5G network rollout, despite two players’ extensive combined wireline footline placing them on the “front foot”, RBC Capital Markets...

CloudWifi says other small ISPs need access to in-building fibre

telecom | 01/09/2020 1:49 pm EST

CloudWifi Inc. has gone to bat for other small internet service providers...

Court docs detail expansion of Canadian website-blocking order

Media | 01/08/2020 4:58 pm EST

Fresh documents are shedding light on how Canada’s first piracy case...

$1.7B broadband fund to launch in 2020, no formal consultation: ISED

telecom | 01/07/2020 6:33 pm EST

The federal government won’t hold a formal consultation on the...

Home internet speeds nearly doubled year-over-year: CRTC

telecom | 01/06/2020 5:27 pm EST

The average Canadian home internet speed soared to 126 Mbps in 2018, a 88.9 per cent increase on 2017’s average speed of 66.7 Mbps, according to the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report. The rise in home internet speeds comes as more households connect to the...

Bell says CRTC used bad costing process in wholesale rate decision

telecom | 01/03/2020 5:28 pm EST

In yet another appeal of the CRTC’s decision lowering wholesale internet rates, BCE Inc. filed a fresh review-and-vary application to the regulator the week before Christmas, arguing that that the...

Delete wireless price commitment in Broadband Fund: Bell

telecom | 01/03/2020 2:58 pm EST

BCE Inc. is asking the CRTC to remove some of the pricing stipulations on...

CRTC eyeing occasional-use plans ahead of wireless review

telecom | 01/03/2020 2:30 pm EST

The CRTC has asked telecoms to provide information about wireless plans aimed at Canadians who only need service occasionally or on an emergency basis, as part of its upcoming wireless policy review....

Videotron buys cable company in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Que.

Media | 01/02/2020 5:41 pm EST

Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron has purchased a local cable company operating...

SCC simsub ban rejection a boon for Canadian performers: ACTRA

Media | 12/19/2019 10:15 am EST

The nation’s highest court has quashed a 2016 decision by the CRTC to ban...

CloudWifi decision stands, but other ISPs must wait for access

telecom | 12/17/2019 1:54 pm EST

In an ongoing dispute between BCE Inc. and CloudWifi Inc. over whether...

Cogeco Connexion president leaving

telecom | 12/17/2019 12:31 pm EST

Ken Smithard, the president of Cogeco Inc.’s Canadian telecom division, is leaving the company after 20...

Wireless revenues, ARPU up industry-wide, CRTC report says

telecom | 12/16/2019 8:48 pm EST

The latest portion of the CRTC’s Communications Monitoring Report, focused on the mobile retail market and released Monday, shows that wireless industry revenues have gone up, and while smaller...

Bell subsidiary must provide TPIA service to Videotron: CRTC

telecom | 12/16/2019 4:37 pm EST

The CRTC has denied an application by BCE Inc. subsidiary Cablevision du Nord de Québec to eliminate its wholesale internet service, and ordered the company to sell that service to Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. On Monday, the CRTC said in two decisions that Cablevision must keep offering the third-party Internet access (TPIA) service and must revise its tariffs. In 2018, Videotron told Cablevision, which operates in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Que. region, that it was interested in its TPIA service. “Despite negotiations between the parties from January to May 2019, on 15 May 2019,...

Telecom in the spotlight in new Bains mandate letter

Media | 12/13/2019 9:25 pm EST

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has delivered a greatly expanded set of telecom and internet-related...

Comp. Bureau, telecoms, have until Dec. 18 to defend report confidentiality

telecom | 12/13/2019 2:01 pm EST

The CRTC has responded to requests to divulge the methodology and confidential data in the Competition Bureau’s report on mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), giving the bureau and telecoms who...

Videotron choses Samsung as partner for 5G

telecom | 12/13/2019 1:23 pm EST

Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron said Friday it has chosen Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. as its equipment supplier for the deployment of LTE-A and 5G networks. “This partnership is the result of an extensive selection process to...

Federal Court dismisses Otterburn Park case

telecom | 12/12/2019 6:00 pm EST

A judicial review application to the Federal Court challenging Innovation, Science and Economic...

Telesat hires new CFO

telecom | 12/12/2019 3:40 pm EST

Satellite service provider Telesat Holdings Inc. has named Andrew Browne as its new chief financial officer on Thursday, following the retirement of Michel Cayouette.  Browne has financial experience in the satellite industry going as far back as at least 1995, according to a press release. That includes executive positions at SES most recently, as well as previously-held positions at O3b Networks, Intelsat, and New Skies Satellites, where he worked alongside Telesat’s current CEO, Dan Goldberg.  “His vast...

Amos, Dabrusin, van Koesverden in as new parlsecs

Media | 12/12/2019 3:23 pm EST

As the new Parliament gets up and running following the election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to a minority government, there are also some changes to the ranks of parliamentary secretaries as well.  The Prime Minister’s...

Telus wants Competition Bureau methodology in MVNO review

telecom | 12/11/2019 5:29 pm EST

After a November Competition Bureau report endorsed a limited version of...

Quebecor’s court appeal over Bell’s G7 gov’t contract dismissed

telecom | 12/11/2019 4:35 pm EST

The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a case brought forward by...

CRTC consulting on barriers to internet access in remote areas

telecom | 12/11/2019 4:19 pm EST

The CRTC is asking all telecoms about what barriers exist that would hinder their ability to deliver the basic service objective for internet access established three years ago. A consultation...

Canadian law should codify privacy as a human right: OPC

Media | 12/10/2019 6:05 pm EST

OTTAWA — Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien told reporters...

CIPPIC training AI to highlight patterns in regulatory, court docs

Media | 12/10/2019 4:32 pm EST

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is teaming up with an artificial intelligence platform that it hopes will produce insights, which would otherwise be missed, from a...

Voltage defendants file appeal for release of $75,000 in defense costs

Media | 12/09/2019 3:40 pm EST

Defendants in a failed reverse class action certification motion brought by Voltage Pictures LLC are filing an appeal against part of the decision by the Federal Court to withhold legal fees they say...

CRTC asks telecoms to implement new anti-spam call protocol

telecom | 12/09/2019 1:55 pm EST

The CRTC Monday announced that it will ask telecom companies to implement a...

Rempel claims Liberals lobbied most by wireless industry in first QP as industry critic

telecom | 12/06/2019 6:02 pm EST

Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative MP for Calgary Nose Hill and her party’s newly minted critic for industry, said Friday that Canada’s wireless rates are...

Rovi’s STB suit an attempt to extract royalties, Videotron says

Media | 12/06/2019 11:49 am EST

Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron will argue in Federal Court later this month...

Usual fault lines emerging ahead of 3.5 GHz auction

telecom | 12/05/2019 6:11 pm EST

A cap on the amount of 3.5 GHz spectrum any one company can hold in the upcoming auction is not, on its own, “sufficient” for smaller rural-based wireless internet service providers to compete, according to the trade group...

BTLR chair twice as busy as expected

Media | 12/05/2019 4:18 pm EST

The work of the chairwoman heading the review of the broadcasting and telecom acts turned out to be more time-consuming and complicated than the government initially planned for, according to a memo obtained through Access to...

Throne speech reiterates Liberal promise to cut wireless bills 25%

telecom | 12/05/2019 3:33 pm EST

The new Liberal minority government repeated its promise to lower wireless...

Telus International to go public after $1.3B acquisition

telecom | 12/05/2019 2:04 pm EST

Telus Corp.’s outsourcing and call centre operation Telus International is buying Competence Call Center for $1.3 billion, the company has announced. The German company has more than 8,500 employees and operates in 11 European countries, Telus said in a press release....

CRTC surveying Canadians on wireless service

telecom | 12/04/2019 4:53 pm EST

As part of its review of Canada’s wireless market, the CRTC has launched a survey to find out how Canadians feel about their service providers. “The survey results will help determine whether further action is needed to...

V buy would give Bell too much market share: PIAC, Quebecor

Media | 12/03/2019 5:44 pm EST

BCE Inc.’s proposed acquisition of French-language Groupe V Media...

Conservatives name Michelle Rempel industry critic 

telecom | 11/29/2019 4:12 pm EST

The Conservative Party has announced its shadow cabinet ahead of the Dec. 5 return of the House of...

Masse stays as NDP telecom critic; Boulerice to take on Heritage

telecom | 11/28/2019 4:28 pm EST

OTTAWA — Brian Masse, the New Democratic Party MP for Windsor, is staying...

Telecoms find silver lining in unprecedented number of CCTS complaints

telecom | 11/28/2019 6:00 am EST

Despite improvements in customer service that have lowered customer...

Rogers seeks extension for select provisions of the Internet Code

telecom | 11/27/2019 5:27 pm EST

Rogers Communications Inc. is asking the CRTC if it can delay the implementation of several sections of the newly minted Internet Code, scheduled to come into effect in January of 2020. The company...

Videotron ‘diving’ like a soccer player over gigabit internet: TekSavvy

telecom | 11/27/2019 4:15 pm EST

Quebecor Inc.’s cancellation of its gigabit internet service is akin to a soccer player diving, or feigning injury to draw a penalty, TekSavvy Solutions Inc. is arguing in an intervention to the...

AIQ investigation shows need for strong privacy laws, OPC says

Media | 11/26/2019 6:22 pm EST

At a Vancouver press conference Tuesday, the federal and British Columbia...

Consumer groups push mandated low-cost data plans in wireless review

telecom | 11/26/2019 6:03 pm EST

Consumer advocacy groups are urging the CRTC to require incumbent wireless providers to make low-cost data plans a condition of operation in the latest round of submissions to the regulator’s review of the mobile wireless industry.  The Coalition for Cheaper Wireless Services (CCWS), the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and OpenMedia filed additional comments in a second round of interventions preceding the regulator’s wireless review hearing early next year,...

TekSavvy files appeal against site-blocking order

telecom | 11/25/2019 4:19 pm EST

Internet service provider TekSavvy Solutions Inc. has appealed a Federal Court order requiring ISPs to...

Competition Bureau endorses limited MVNO model

telecom | 11/25/2019 10:12 am EST

The Competition Bureau is officially endorsing a policy that would temporarily mandate access to the incumbents’ network infrastructure by mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), the watchdog said Monday. The recommendation...

Voltage drops appeal in disclosure cost case

Media | 11/22/2019 5:09 pm EST

Voltage Pictures LLC and Rogers Communications Inc. have both agreed to drop their appeal and cross-appeal, respectively, against a decision by the Federal Court to award the telecom costs to dig up personal information of alleged...

Federal Court grants leave to appeal, stay in wholesale rate cases

telecom | 11/22/2019 5:08 pm EST

The CRTC’s decision to lower wholesale rates for its aggregated regime...

Blair says ‘no timeline’ on Huawei ban; Bains promises ‘more’ on prices

Media | 11/20/2019 1:51 pm EST

OTTAWA — New Public Safety Minister Bill Blair indicated Wednesday he is open to talking to telecoms about whether to ban Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd equipment from 5G...

Court orders Canadian ISPs to block pirate website for the first time

Media | 11/15/2019 6:35 pm EST

In a precedent-setting decision, a Federal Court judge has ordered internet...

U.S. trade organizations upset over proposed digital tax

Media | 11/15/2019 4:09 pm EST

In a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic and foreign affairs teams, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 14 other organizations have told the American government that they are concerned...

Voltage’s choice of defendant made ‘difference’ in class action failure: expert

Media | 11/14/2019 9:05 pm EST

The movie studio that has for years sought to sue...

Hydro pole rates a problem for rural connectivity: CCSA vice-chair

telecom | 11/14/2019 5:26 pm EST

NORTH BAY, Ont. — Higher rates telecom providers must pay to connect to hydro poles in Ontario are especially onerous in rural areas, Angela Lawrence, vice-chair at Canadian Communication Systems...

Not enough money for rural broadband, conference hears

telecom | 11/13/2019 9:50 pm EST

NORTH BAY Ont. — The CRTC announced on Wednesday that it is now accepting...

Fibre company Beanfield acquired

telecom | 11/13/2019 3:55 pm EST

U.S.-based investment company Digital Colony has made another major purchase of Canadian telecom-owned assets this year, announcing on Wednesday the acquisition of fibre internet provider Beanfield Technologies Inc. ...

Cablecos, Telus join Bell in petition to government on wholesale rate cut

telecom | 11/13/2019 1:03 pm EST

Wednesday saw a flurry of legal moves to overturn a CRTC decision that cut...

CRTC has sole jurisdiction over in-building wire: Ontario court

telecom | 11/12/2019 8:31 pm EST

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled against BCE Inc. in favour...

BDUs appeal new distant signal tariffs

Media | 11/12/2019 12:00 pm EST

The country’s largest TV service providers are appealing an increase in the over-the-air distant signal retransmission tariff imposed by the Copyright Board in December, in part because they argue the decision doesn’t take into consideration the new realities of modern...

Internet code will make it too hard to cut off non-payers: Xplornet 

telecom | 11/12/2019 11:36 am EST

The forthcoming Internet code from the CRTC would make it far too hard for Xplornet Communications Inc. to disconnect customers that haven’t paid, the company argues in a filing to the regulator...

Privacy commissioners call for updated privacy law

telecom | 11/11/2019 5:58 pm EST

In a joint resolution, passed in Prince Edward Island last month and announced in Gatineau last week, federal, provincial and territorial information and privacy commissioners are calling on their respective governments to...

Large telecoms say small ISPs should be subject to Internet Code too

telecom | 11/08/2019 5:20 pm EST

A few months ahead of the introduction of the CRTC’s Internet Code, scheduled for Jan. 31,, a grouping of the largest telecom companies in the country are asking the regulator to make the code apply...

Telus subscriber adds offset slight ARPU pressure

telecom | 11/07/2019 5:39 pm EST

Despite the summer’s volatility in the wireless market, with a rush of new offerings in “unlimited”...

Quebecor says it cut gig speeds due to new wholesale rates

telecom | 11/07/2019 5:12 pm EST

Quebecor Inc. executives confirmed on Thursday that its previously unexplained move to withdraw its gigabit internet offering was due to the CRTC’s decision to slash the wholesale rate at which resellers purchase bandwidth from incumbents.  “With the new regime, we...

Incumbent reaction to wholesale rates warning shot for fibre, conference hears

telecom | 11/06/2019 9:13 pm EST

TORONTO — The aggressive way incumbent telecom companies reacted to the...

Rogers and UBC turn on 5G research campus

telecom | 11/05/2019 5:01 pm EST

Rogers Communications Inc. and the University of British Columbia said they have powered the first fully-functional 5G “smart campus” to test applications for the next-generation network.  The campus includes 5G towers and...

Wholesale-based ISPs at a ‘critical’ crossroads: CNOC’s Stein

telecom | 11/05/2019 3:22 pm EST

TORONTO — Smaller, wholesale-based internet service providers may be...

Cell data tracking company continues lobby push, despite tough reception

telecom | 11/05/2019 11:44 am EST

A company that says its privacy-focused software app can tell employers...

Rogers further defends 36-month financing

telecom | 11/01/2019 5:19 pm EDT

The objection to the new phone financing plans from the likes of the Competition Bureau is based on an incorrect understanding of device financing arrangements, according to Rogers Communications Inc.’s reply in the CRTC’s...

CRTC orders CCTS-avoiding telecoms to explain themselves

telecom | 11/01/2019 4:11 pm EDT

The CRTC has told six small telecoms who have refused to join the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) they have until Dec. 16 to explain why. It said WISP Internet...

PKP accused gov’t of ‘flagrantly’ favouring Bell over G7 contracts

telecom | 11/01/2019 1:59 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau wrote a letter taking the Liberal...

Cogeco ‘very optimistic on wireless’: CEO

telecom | 10/31/2019 5:54 pm EDT

Cogeco Inc. is looking forward to the upcoming spectrum auctions in 2020, especially since Innovation, Science, and Economic Development put in place new tier 5 spectrum licensing rules this past summer.  The new licenses,...

Bell to focus on declining mobile service prices in MVNO review

Media | 10/31/2019 5:40 pm EDT

Ahead of the CRTC’s wireless review early next year, and on the heels of a report showing Canada is among the highest-priced jurisdictions in the world for data, BCE Inc. executives on Thursday focused on the declining cost of data to push the point that regulatory...

Wireless prices down in Canada, but also everywhere else: report

telecom | 10/30/2019 6:29 pm EDT

Canadian mobile wireless data prices are falling precipitously, according...

Singh says telecom affordability among number of priorities

telecom | 10/30/2019 3:13 pm EDT

OTTAWA — NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that lowering wireless...

5G & Huawei: An explainer

telecom | 10/29/2019 6:42 pm EDT

As the Liberals head back to Parliament following the Oct. 21 federal election, they’ll be returning to...

New StatCan survey details a heavily connected Canada

telecom | 10/29/2019 4:09 pm EDT

Eighty-eight per cent Canadians have a smartphone, 45 per cent of Canadians check their smartphones at...

Bell offers to reveal AI call blocking system to critics

telecom | 10/28/2019 5:11 pm EDT

BCE Inc. says it is willing to share information with critics of its plan to combat scam phone calls using artificial intelligence — as long as they don’t tell anyone else.   In its initial application to the CRTC, Bell kept most of the details of how it plans to...

CRTC delays MVNO hearing to Feb. 18

telecom | 10/28/2019 4:10 pm EDT

The CRTC’s public hearing in its review of mobile wireless services, which was originally scheduled to be held in January, has now been pushed back to Feb. 18. The regulator said in a notice Monday that the Competition Bureau...

In an unstable week for wireless, steady Q4 for Shaw

telecom | 10/25/2019 6:02 pm EDT

In a conference call with analysts Friday, Shaw Communications Inc. executives declared that the company...

Mixed analyst response to Wednesday’s telecom stock sell-off

telecom | 10/25/2019 11:24 am EDT

Following the release of the Rogers Communications Inc. quarterly results Wednesday that were accompanied by falling stock prices, Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi asked in a research note if the impact...

CRTC clarifies rules for reseller registration

telecom | 10/24/2019 4:10 pm EDT

The CRTC said Thursday that companies and organizations which offer free WiFi on their premises and providers of some Internet of Things connections don’t need to register with the regulator. It opened a consultation in 2017...

Bell’s Martine Turcotte retiring

telecom | 10/24/2019 2:08 pm EDT

BCE Inc.’s Quebec vice-chair, Martine Turcotte, will retire in January 2020, the company announced...

ENCQOR mmWave 5G service now available at Ottawa site

telecom | 10/24/2019 11:02 am EDT

The public-private partnership known as ENCQOR 5G has now made mmWave spectrum available to participants. ENCQOR 5G was first announced in 2018 as a 5G laboratory of sorts, funded by $400 million from the federal government...

New no-data-overage plans drive down Rogers Q3

telecom | 10/23/2019 5:19 pm EDT

Wireless revenue for Rogers Communications Inc. struggled over the summer, primarily due to a...

CRTC orders Videotron to keep offering gigabit internet

telecom | 10/23/2019 11:51 am EDT

The CRTC has told Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron it can’t withdraw its gigabit internet offering from the market, after the company did exactly that earlier this month. Videotron told the CRTC on...

Don’t let Bell use AI to block calls, CRTC hears

telecom | 10/21/2019 5:56 pm EDT

Some groups are calling for the CRTC to put the brakes on a request by BCE Inc. to test out an artificial intelligence system for blocking nuisance calls, saying not enough is known about the way the program would collect data from users and that it raises privacy concerns.  In July, Bell asked the CRTC if it could conduct a 90-day test of a system for blocking “certain known, verified, fraudulent scam voice telephony calls” on its networks. The CRTC had initially ordered the telecom companies in December 2018 to set up call blocking system for numbers that don’t conform to...

Bureau says three-year device financing will harm competition

telecom | 10/18/2019 12:20 pm EDT

In its intervention to the CRTC’s consultation on the emergence of...

Internet Society lobbies on project to get ahead of IoT vulnerabilities

telecom | 10/17/2019 5:33 pm EDT

The Canadian chapter of the Internet Society (ISCC) is looking to embark on...

CPC plans for Netflix, rural broadband still unclear days ahead of vote

Media | 10/17/2019 12:54 pm EDT

Despite Conservative leader Andrew Scheer indicating throughout this...

Federal Court rejects Quebecor’s leave to appeal on STB data

telecom | 10/16/2019 1:19 pm EDT

The Federal Court of Appeal has decided it will not hear a case brought by Quebecor Inc. on handing over set-top-box (STB) data to the CRTC. In the latest in a months-long dispute between...

Videotron eliminates gigabit internet service

telecom | 10/15/2019 5:29 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron has shut down its 1 Gbps internet service, effective Oct. 11. The move affects both Videotron customers and customers of other internet service providers who buy wholesale service from Videotron, the company outlined in an Oct. 11 letter to the...

Conservatives propose three-per-cent tax on tech giant revenue

Media | 10/11/2019 11:29 pm EDT

The Conservative Party has now specified its plan to make web giants “pay...

Consensus on ‘digital giants,’ data breaches in French debate

Media | 10/10/2019 11:57 pm EDT

Federal party leaders agreed Thursday evening in the last debate of the...

OECD seeks unified tax regime for web giants

telecom | 10/10/2019 5:49 pm EDT

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will host a public consultation next month on its proposed “unified approach” to the taxation of the world’s biggest tech companies. A document released by the...

CNOC challenging Telus appeal in speed cap case

telecom | 10/08/2019 6:07 pm EDT

The Canadian Network Operators Consortium has filed its arguments in Federal Court against Telus Corp.’s appeal of a CRTC decision that would temporarily suspend a speed cap affecting wholesale-based service providers. The...

Two arrested in Bell data breach affecting 97k

telecom | 10/08/2019 5:41 pm EDT

The RCMP Tuesday announced the arrest and charge of two people in connection with a 2018 data...

Political parties’ use of Facebook Pixel violates CASL, CDR says

telecom | 10/08/2019 2:23 pm EDT

The Centre for Digital Rights, the non-profit founded by former BlackBerry Ltd. co-CEO Jim Balsillie, is asking the CRTC to agree that political parties engage in what is effectively commercial...

Scheer refuses to specify if he’ll take action on wireless prices

telecom | 10/07/2019 11:20 pm EDT

GATINEAU — Conservative leader Andrew Scheer refused to say whether he...

No telecom, affordability talk in English debate

telecom | 10/07/2019 9:06 pm EDT

GATINEAU — Federal party leaders faced off in the only English-language debate to feature all six...

Telus goes to SCC over early cancellation fees

telecom | 10/04/2019 4:41 pm EDT

Telus Corp. is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to review a decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal that determined the early cancellation fees it charged its customers years ago were “abusive.” The June decision by Quebec’s highest court found, under the...