An Innovation Canada consultation asking for comment about whether it should begin adjusting spectrum licence fees to keep up with the consumer price index has drawn opposition from BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. Bell told ISED in its written comments that the industry pays $185 million annually in spectrum licence fees, “an amount far in excess of the cost of administering spectrum licences.” In comparison, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States only collects half of that, it said. The company argued that increasing spectrum licence...
BCE Inc. has hit Quebecor Inc. with a $150-million lawsuit over Quebecor’s decision to cut the signal for its TVA Sports channel from Bell customers earlier this month. Quebecor pulled the TVA Sports signal at the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs in a dispute with Bell over carriage fees. The CRTC has since issued a mandatory order to keep the channel available. The suit, filed in Quebec’s Superior Court last week, accuses Quebecor of launching a misleading, defamatory campaign against Bell. That included Quebecor’s messages broadcast on TVA implying that Bell would pull the TVA Sports signal and encouraging customers to get in touch with other TV providers, when it was actually Quebecor who cut the channel’s feed. Among other claims, Bell said in the French-language...
The CRTC has denied an application by SouthWestern Integrated Fibre...
Before a second wireless emergency alert test went out in November, a group...
BCE Inc.’s Northwestel wasn’t able to convince the CRTC that its basic...
OTTAWA — The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Thursday it is...
The Ontario Superior Court has put a lawsuit launched by Iristel Inc. against Telus Corp. on hold while the CRTC settles a related dispute. The court granted a temporary stay in a decision Monday, stating that “the court has no jurisdiction over, or is not the appropriate forum, for the subject matter of this action,” which should be settled by the CRTC. Telus had requested the stay in the lawsuit brought forward by Iristel, asking for $135 million in withheld payments it said is owed to the company for terminating Telus’ customer calls. The CRTC is currently in the process of...
The tech giant Microsoft Corp. last week added “elections” to its lobbying files. The move comes as the government rolls out a new regime governing the selling of political ads on tech platforms ahead of this fall’s...
The country’s largest telecoms are telling the Federal Court that the City of Calgary shouldn’t be allowed to appeal a CRTC decision on whether the city’s new bylaw binds the carriers on...
Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Joe Natale emphasized the $1.7 billion the...
The CRTC has told the Competition Bureau it won’t be compelling telecoms to turn over a slew of detailed information the bureau was asking for — though the telecoms will effectively have to...
Telus Corp. is going to court over the CRTC’s decision last month to grant smaller internet providers a...
The CRTC will register a mandatory order with the Federal Court forbidding Quebecor Inc. from withholding the signal for TVA Sports from BCE Inc. subscribers — meaning that if Quebecor chooses to...
Gatineau, Que. — Quebecor Inc. CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau was unrepentant...
The CRTC’s new, consumer-focused policy direction doesn’t go far...
The City of Calgary says the government should develop a “modernized” national digital strategy that addresses open access infrastructure policies, municipal rights-of-way, smart city urban design and new 5G funding structures that could “address gaps and deficiencies during roll out.” “A clear, comprehensive and coherent digital strategy that aligns with federal, provincial and municipal mandates would lay a strong foundation in supporting the deployment of resources to enable 5G...
Twitter Inc. has added a timely subject matter to its lobby files: educating federal officials on social media use during elections. The social media company updated its files last week to include...
Canada’s four largest wireless providers are asking the government to...
The House public accounts committee is ordering Innovation Canada to...
BCE Inc. walking away from the 600 MHz spectrum auction with no licences,...
OTTAWA — A Federal Court judge has granted an application by the Competition Bureau to compel the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-Television Services (CCTS) to provide it with specific complaints it received related to BCE Inc. for its inquiry into the telecom’s...
BCE Inc. was among three prospective applicants who didn’t grab licenses for the coveted 600 MHz spectrum, widely considered to be the last chance to get valuable low-band frequencies. The...
Cogeco Inc. has long been a vocal proponent of mandated mobile virtual operators in Canada, so it’s no...
The Competition Bureau is going to court to compel the Commission for...
An ad launched over the weekend depicting a fictitious version of the big...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said Tuesday that it has concluded its investigation into the...
OTTAWA — It is now “very likely” that Canadians will face some form...
The Competition Bureau is mostly standing firm on its request to the CRTC...
The panel in charge of reviewing Canada’s communications laws has hired...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner considers personal data of Canadians transiting through the United States and other countries a “live issue” and will “consult...
OTTAWA — Conservative New Brunswick senator Carolyn Stewart Olsen said...
The CRTC wants to know whether the Vancouver radio market can sustain another radio station, after it received an application from Rogers Communications Inc. for a new broadcasting licence. It said in the notice of consultation...
OTTAWA — Quebec NDP MP François Choquette has filed a judicial review...
The $10 fees on some customer service calls and chats that have been in the headlines in recent weeks may be against the Wireless Code, according to the CRTC. The regulator sent a letter to...
In the lead-up to a meeting with Amazon.com Inc., the government was informed that it was facing criticism for its handling of its cloud-first policy for sensitive data....
Xplornet Communications Inc. is now offering unlimited internet service plans across the country for...
A request from the Competition Bureau asking the CRTC to require telecoms...
Complaints about TV service to the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS)...
Amid security reviews of Canada’s 5G infrastructure lays an...
BCE Inc. will finish decommissioning its legacy CDMA wireless network at the end of April, the company said Friday. Customers in areas of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces that were still on the CDMA network...
There should be a mechanism in place to help resolve disputes between small ISPs and incumbents, an organization representing wireless internet service providers told the panel in charge of reviewing...
GATINEAU, Que. — Innovation Canada did not take a critical report of its...
GATINEAU, Que. — The CRTC is looking at a “late spring, early summer”...
BCE Inc.’s media division is asking the CRTC to allow it to shutter 28 of its rebroadcasting transmitters that it says “generate no incremental revenue and attract little to no viewership.”
The Part 1 application comes two years after the CRTC allowed Bell to shut...
The Liberal government should expect some amount of industry opposition...
Rogers Communications Inc.’s Fido flanker brand will begin charging...
NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is putting cell phone and internet affordability...
OTTAWA — NDP industry critic Brian Masse says the new broadband strategy...
OTTAWA — If a court determines Google’s search engine falls under the country’s private sector privacy law, then that would effectively make the internet company a media regulator, counsel to Alphabet Inc. said in Federal Court on Thursday. The court is currently in the process of determining whether search engine delisting -- the process of making certain information harder to find on the internet -- is captured under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). In that case, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC), which brought the initial...
BCE Inc. doesn’t have to implement a freeze on rates it charges Iristel Inc. while the CRTC decides how to settle a dispute between the two regarding the rates, the regulator said Thursday.
In...
The CRTC has quietly informed wholesale-based internet service providers...
Parts of Canada will see “real 5G,” as opposed to just trials, by late 2020, Telus Corp.’s chief financial officer Doug French told an investors’ conference Wednesday. That will only be possible after the conclusion...
The 2019 federal budget is boosting funding to the office of the privacy...
The CRTC has decided the Timmins, Ontario commercial radio market can’t sustain another station, rejecting an application by Vista Radio Ltd. for another broadcasting licence. Timmins has four...
An illegal radio station that allegedly kept operating despite being shut down by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) has been off the air since last August, the government said in a response tabled on...
OTTAWA — The Liberal government is announcing $1.7 billion in new rural...
As the Liberal government unveils its last budget before the upcoming...
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. has hired a new consultant lobbyist to raise awareness on Parliament Hill about internet speed caps wrought by the disaggregated regime that small providers say will hinder their ability to compete.
Kyle Larkin, a consultant at Impact Public...
Fixed ‘white space’ devices will be permitted to operate on 60-72 MHz spectrum, but they will be banned from 600 MHz commercial mobile bands, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada...
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Attorney General of Canada (AGC) have filed appeals challenging Alphabet Inc.’s application to expand the scope of a deindexing case to include questions about whether forcing it to...
The British Columbia Broadband Association (BCBA) says a new legal framework for the telecom sector should simplify regulations and facilitate more regulatory participation by small operators....
A public-private partnership has posted a call for project proposals to develop equipment that can make use of an inactive 5 GHz band for 5G technology. The notice for a whitespace project was...
Quebecor Inc.’s company brass says its Fizz flanker brand is picking up speed in acquiring new subscribers during the first few months of 2019, following some turbulence...
All Canadians whose earnings fall below the government’s low-income measure should have access to internet service for $10, an advocacy group is telling the panel reviewing the broadcasting and telecom acts. ACORN Canada also...
Canada’s publicly traded telecom companies added more than one million...
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) took aim at mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in its submission to the ongoing review of Canada’s communications legislation....
The panel in charge of reviewing the broadcasting and telecom acts received...
Shaw Communications Inc.’s mobile division is expanding to some Eastern Ontario markets as it continues...
The CRTC said it has improved the timely release of data it siphons through its communications monitoring report (CMR) and will continue to pursue shortening those timelines, according to a letter addressed to TekSavvy Solutions...
Canada’s broadcasting and telecommunications legislation should be...
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is suing the U.S. federal government in a bid to overturn a federal ban...
The government of Northwest Territories says the Telecommunications Act should aim to ensure telecom services of the same quality and at the same prices are available across the country. In its submission to the panel reviewing Canada’s communications legislation, the NWT government said a new objective should be added to the act “to ensure that all Canadians in all regions of the country have access to Telecommunications services of similar quality and at similar rates.” It also wants section 7(b), which says that one of the objectives of Canadian telecom policy is to “to render...
The CRTC misunderstood the scope of the issues when it denied an application by Calgary to formally...
Bart Yabsley has been appointed as the new president of Sportsnet, filling a role left vacant when Scott Moore stepped down from that position last fall. Yabsley was most recently senior vice-president of sports and...
Alphabet Inc.’s search giant Google plans to ban political advertising from its platforms during the next federal election campaign in Canada, following the introduction of tougher political advertising transparency rules by...
A new app launched by Telus Corp.’s health division will enable users to...
The Liberal government has appointed Matthew Boswell on a full five-year term as Competition Bureau commissioner, according to an administrative order by cabinet.
Boswell, a former assistant crown attorney, replaced outgoing commissioner John Pecman at the end of May last...
The Federal Court has denied the CBC/Radio-Canada’s and the Media Coalition’s application to intervene in a case that will determine whether the privacy commissioner can order search engines to delist certain content -- at...
As the CRTC signals it’s ready to make an about-face on its approach to...
The Shaw Rocket Fund wants CBC/Radio-Canada to expand its focus on children’s content to reflect a broader age range and is asking for new communications legislation to ensure it has the funding...
The CRTC has reversed its long-held position that mobile virtual network...
There is “general interest” at Innovation Canada in releasing more...
Internet-based video services generated enough revenue in Canada in 2017 to rival the total revenues of private and CBC conventional television stations combined, according to the CRTC’s...
The new policy direction for the CRTC announced by the federal government...
Cogeco Communications Inc. says it’s inked a deal to sell its Cogeco Peer 1 cloud services business for $720 million. The data centre business is being sold to affiliates of the Los Angeles-based investment firm Digital...
OTTAWA -- Democratic institutions minister Karina Gould said the government is angling closer to mandating internet companies remove illegal content from their platforms....
BCE Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., and Quebecor Inc. are warning against a...
The Liberal government is proposing a significant departure...
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc.’s head of public policy in Canada said the...
OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says compensation to...
Rural broadband funding programs in Canada suffer from “significant” design flaws that have in some cases put investments by small providers on hold, a regional broadband group is warning -- one of a number of submissions to the ongoing review of Canada’s...
Key evidence relied upon by movie studios in a substantial chunk of copyright infringement cases that have yielded vast sums of money from settlements has been ruled insufficient by a Federal Court...
A group representing the Canadian community TV sector is asking the panel reviewing the broadcasting and...
Parliamentarians who stuck around the House of Commons for a Wednesday evening debate on a Liberal motion to take a hard look at Canada’s rural broadband gap said spending on underserved areas must...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is embarking this year on a massive...
The day after it released its report on misleading sales practices, the CRTC is asking for Canadians to...
CRTC Chairman Ian Scott defended the eligibility speeds for the...
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. held a rare press conference in Toronto Thursday to promote new...
Canada’s telecommunications industry suffers from an “unacceptable...
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has updated its lobby files to include discussions on 5G deployment following a reported push to grow its network equipment business this year, a move that comes ahead of a government decision on a potential ban of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd....
