CBC/Radio-Canada is asking the federal government for an increase in its funding so that it can eliminate advertising on its platforms. In a submission made as part of a government review of Canadian content in a digital age, CBC asked for an increase of $12 per person in funding, to $46. “This would enable CBC/Radio-Canada to remove advertising from its services, complete its transformation, and strengthen Canada's creative economy,” the public broadcaster said in a press release Monday, noting that figure is “still well below comparable public...
Rogers Communications Inc. is proposing a tax credit-based federal program to support Canadian content of all types and on all platforms. In a submission to the Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly as part of her review of Canadian content, Rogers chief corporate affairs officer Jacob Glick suggested that the government program be impartial to content, producers and platforms, meaning content such news, video games and virtual reality, would be able to get a piece of the pie. The tax...
Ontario is launching a pilot project to test self-driving cars, the provincial government said Monday. It noted in a press release that the province was the first in Canada to launch a regulatory framework allowing...
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is asking the government to rescind the digital media exemption order (DMEO) as part of its review of Canadian content in a digital age. The DMEO,...
Robert Ghiz, the former premier of Prince Edward Island, has been named president and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), the organization announced Monday. Ghiz will officially take the helm Jan. 1. He has nearly 20 years of experience in government...
BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron are asking a federal court judge to dismiss an appeal of an injunction banning sales of “pre-loaded”...
Former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan is alleging that Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly and the governor-in-council (GIC) have effectively participated in a “witch hunt” against him by removing him from his appointment this summer, according to new court documents. In a memorandum of fact and law filed with the Federal Court Monday in his application to overturn his firing, Shoan said he wasn’t provided procedural fairness in the process that led to him...
The move this week by BCE Inc. flanker brand Virgin Mobile Canada to expand its home Internet into Quebec could put pressure on Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron, Desjardins analyst Maher Yaghi said in a...
Rogers Communications Inc. is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to turn down Voltage Pictures LLC’s case to have the Internet service provider (ISP) pay for its own costs associated with retrieving subscriber...
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) is asking the federal government to “modernize” and require both over-the-top (OTT) services and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to contribute to the CanCon system....
OTTAWA — The CRTC has transformed over the past few years to become less binary — with outcomes that were strictly either pro-business or pro-consumer — in its decision making and more into an organization that finds the balance that best serves the public interest, according to chairman...
The number of complaints about telecom services has declined for the third straight year, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said, adding it expects complaints arising from confusion about the...
Telus Corp. is expanding a pilot project, Internet for Good, that provides Internet service for $9.95 per month to low-income, single-parent families. The company said in a press release that early next year, around 15,000...
Conservative Party leadership candidate and Ontario MP Kellie Leitch said she has put CBC/Radio-Canada “on notice” and that if selected to lead her party and form government, she...
Anglophone viewers of Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top (OTT) service now spend 67 per cent of their time on the platform watching TV shows and 33 per cent watching movies and other content, MTM,...
Cogeco Inc. is now offering gigabit Internet, starting with Oakville and Burlington, Ont., with the launch of its UltraFibre 1Gig service, it announced in a Wednesday press release. It is the company’s first venture into residential gigabit service, a Cogeco spokeperson said in an email. The company said that it has made infrastructure upgrades over the past months and it will “continue expanding its ultra-high speed offering in successive phases in the Ontario and Quebec markets where it provides services,” with Quebec slated for next spring. In...
OTTAWA — Conservative MP Maxime Bernier said Wednesday that if he is selected as the next leader of the federal Conservative Party and the next Canadian prime minister, he would move...
Telus Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., who have been collaborating to help develop 5G technology, said they have achieved another step toward its deployment. Calling it “one of the key building blocks...
Virgin Mobile Canada is expanding its home Internet into Quebec and the company will donate money for every subscriber toward a charitable initiative, it said in a Wednesday news release. The BCE Inc. flanker...
Iristel Inc. said Tuesday it has acquired two small telecoms, Toronto’s Trutel Inc. and Montreal’s Exelia Inc. "Our culture is not one filled with 'old phone guys' and neither is Trutel's or...
Iristel Inc. has filed a complaint with the CRTC over what it says is a “refusal” of Bragg Communication Inc.’s Eastlink to “implement local competition” in an eastern Ontario community. In a Part 1 application posted to the CRTC’s website Tuesday, Iristel said the complaint was being brought about following a dispute beginning in December 2015 and that “for completely unjustifiable reasons, Eastlink still refuses to implement local competition in Aylmer, despite having received a bona fide request from Iristel,...
The Quebec Superior Court has dismissed a case against Shaw Communications Inc.’s satellite business in the province related to the termination of a third-party contract for call centre services. The...
Rogers Communications Inc. is turning to the CRTC in another dispute with Iristel Inc., which it’s accusing of deliberately driving up the volume of phone calls to the Northwest Territories in order to benefit from...
VMedia Inc. is permanently prohibited from broadcasting BCE Inc.’s CTV channels on its over-the-top skinny basic service, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Frederick...
Customers of Téliphone Navigata Westel Communications Inc. (TNW) will not have their service affected due to a dispute with Telus Corp., the small telecom provider said in...
Jeffrey Eisenach has been named to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s “landing team,” with responsibility for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to a Monday press release. Mark Jamison,...
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...
Shaw Communications Inc.’s Wind Mobile will be rebranded as Freedom Mobile and its LTE roll-out will come sooner than expected in two cities, the company’s CEO said Monday. The move comes despite some analyst...
Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. are near the top of this year’s list of the 100 companies in Canada that spend the most on research and development. The...
OTTAWA — The Canadian government should review its mandate for CBC/Radio-Canada in light of the national broadcaster and foreign digital competitors taking away ad dollars from local newspapers, individuals representing the latter told the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian Heritage Thursday. The committee heard from four different local newspapers and groups, including the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta, the Neepawa Banner, Northern...
The CRTC announced Thursday a new memorandum of understanding with its counterpart in the United States to help combat unwanted calls. In a press release, the CRTC said the new formal agreement with the Federal...
OTTAWA — The quality of Canada’s wireless and wireline networks is a “significant strength,” but the country can’t rest on its laurels while others catch up, Innovation...
OTTAWA — Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday that imposing a tax on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to fund cultural content remains a possible outcome of her sweeping review of Canadian...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. said Thursday that subscribers of its infiNET maxTV set-top box will now have access to Netflix Inc.’s over-the-top service (OTT). “SaskTel is...
OTTAWA — Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada still has work to do when it comes to filling in gaps in the country’s broadband coverage, a Senate standing committee heard Wednesday evening, beginning with a December call for applications to its new rural broadband program. The new program is intended to address indigenous and rural communities that are “particularly isolated without any support,” John Knubley, ISED deputy minister...
OTTAWA — With more than six months left in his term as CRTC chairman, Jean-Pierre Blais isn’t ready to start using the word “legacy” in relation to his term as head of the Canadian regulator, but in a...
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. refused to make Alphabet Inc.’s new phone because the phone wouldn’t have featured Huawei’s own brand, according to a Monday Forbes report. Colin Giles,...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. is upgrading Internet speeds in some communities and will begin offering higher-speed service to another in Saskatchewan. In one of two press releases Wednesday, the...
An Ericsson AB report is projecting that more than 550 million subscribers will be on 5G networks by 2022. The latest Ericsson Mobility Report, released Tuesday, said that...
OTTAWA — Creating the oft-asked-for level playing field by making foreign digital services subject to Canadian sales tax would hurt smaller companies trying to break into the country’s market, a House of Commons...
Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron said it has begun implementation of Docsis 3.1, which could deliver speeds of up to 10 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload. The company said in a press release Tuesday it is deploying the...
The CRTC’s order to BCE Inc. subsidiary Northwestel Inc. to file new cost studies last week “might finally bring effective telecoms competition to...
Telus Corp. has named Stephen Hampton its new senior project manager of government relations. Hampton told The Lobby Monitor in an interview the role would combine government relations and strategic affairs work “with a big focus on Telus Health.” Hampton worked as a consultant at...
Ericsson AB and Rogers Communications Inc. are participating in a project to help monitor water quality in Ottawa, the companies said in a press release Tuesday. The pilot project will “leverage a combination of Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and LTE mobile broadband technologies to gather real-time data that City staff can use to better predict, prevent and respond to potential issues related to water quality, including cleanliness and abnormal temperatures.” The Connected Water service uses sensors that are capable of collecting data over a wide area of...
An organization representing four-dozen major online-based companies has reached out to president-elect Donald Trump, congratulating him on his victory while proposing digital policy planks for his administration to consider....
Momentum that Canadian telecoms saw in their wireless divisions over the previous two quarters is expected to continue into 2017, according to an analyst note by RBC Capital Markets. The high levels of overall activations reported by wireless operators that began in the second quarter and exceeded analyst expectations were driven by lower churn and...
Rogers Communications Inc. has introduced a new feature that will give customers a better idea of what time technicians are expected to arrive at their homes. Customers will be able to use their phones to track when a...
The CRTC has named Judith LaRocque its new vice-chairwoman of broadcasting, a year after the position was left open following the departure of Tom Pentefountas. According to an email sent to...
Canadian anglophones between the ages of 35 and 49 are, more than other generations, drawn to tablets and TV-enhancing technologies, according to a Media Technology Monitor (MTM) report released Tuesday. In its second report in a series on technology adoption by generation, MTM, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada, found that nearly two-thirds of “Generation X” own tablets. Two in five own Apple Inc.’s iPads specifically, “far more than other generations in either case,” partly due to higher incomes. In contrast, tablets are less popular among Gen Z (18-26 year olds), while three-fifths of Gen Y (27-34 year olds) own a tablet, according to the first report in the series. “Generation X” is also more likely to adopt technologies such as HDTVs, HD receivers and smart TVs...
Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp.’s LTE download speeds are among the fastest in the world, according to a new OpenSignal Inc. report. “In the fourth quarter, Singapore had...
CRTC commissioner Christopher MacDonald said radio stations must build on their strengths in order to deal with increasing competition in a speech to the Ontario Association of Broadcasters (OAB)...
TORONTO — The heritage ministry and the CRTC should engage in a more balanced discussion on what to do about taxes in support of cultural content, as both seem to be moving in...
The CRTC has told Rogers Communications Inc. it has to keep providing wholesale service for new customers of TekSavvy Solutions Inc. in a building with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP)...
TORONTO — Trying to build fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) in very competitive markets makes little economic sense for Internet service providers (ISPs), meaning markets with more competition could...
Industry watchers said last week’s announcement by the federal government that it was loosening foreign ownership rules for Canadian airlines probably isn’t indicative of a coming shift...
The CRTC has ordered BCE Inc. subsidiary Northwestel Inc. to file new cost studies for all speeds offered through its Wholesale Connect service. The regulator said in a...
Small Quebec telecom Télécommunications de l’Est says it is launching a first-of-its kind wireless service in remote regions of Quebec and New Brunswick that aren’t...
A class-action lawsuit regarding Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone has been filed in Canada. Samsung stopped production of the phone last month after reports the batteries were catching fire. “The claim alleges that the Defendants were negligent as they knew or ought to have known that the way they produced, marketed, and sold their Note7 devices could result in harm to consumers,” McKenzie Lake Lawyers, the firm that filed the suit, said in a Monday press release. The release said approximately 39,000 of the...
TORONTO — For there to be wider adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) devices for the connected home, simpler value propositions must be presented to consumers, a conference heard Monday....
Telecom companies will soon be required to put in place measures to block “unwanted nuisance calls” on both wireless and wireline networks, the CRTC announced Monday. The regulator...
The introduction of skinny-basic TV package offerings doesn’t seem to have slowed down the trend toward cord-cutting in Canada, according to subscriber number data reported by Canada’s...
Telus Corp. announced Monday that is making Netflix Inc.’s app available on its Optik 4K set-top box, allowing subscribers to stream Netflix in 4K resolution. “4K is the ultimate way to immerse yourself...
GATINEAU, Que. — Those who innovate shouldn’t be penalized because their competitors can’t keep up, the CRTC heard Friday from representatives of the telecom company partially responsible for this week’s public hearing on differential pricing practices. Quebecor Inc. appeared in front of the five-commissioner panel on the final day of the week-long hearing on net neutrality issues, including zero-rating and sponsoring data. For the majority of its nearly three-hour appearance, chairman Jean-Pierre Blais grilled the company’s reps over...
Telus Corp. reported strong wireless revenues and subscriber additions Friday, as data helped propel overall revenues up to $3.23 billion. For the three months ended September...
GATINEAU, Que. — The question of whether differential pricing practices (DPPs) can be used for socially beneficial purposes came up on the fourth day of the CRTC’s hearing on DPPs...
Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. will cut about 80 jobs to save about $7 million following a voluntary workforce reduction program “for certain employees who are not in customer-facing roles,” the company announced...
The CRTC is looking for feedback on whether the Ottawa-Gatineau radio market can support additional radio stations. In a notice of consultation posted to its website Thursday, the commission said it received an application...
Cogeco Inc. saw a 3.2-per-cent increase in revenue to hit $572 million for the final quarter of fiscal 2016, the company reported Wednesday. In a press release, Cogeco said the growth was driven by its communications...
BCE Inc. reported Thursday that its over-the-top (OTT) product Crave TV has surpassed one million subscribers, as it announced its Internet protocol TV (IPTV) service Fibe TV is getting distribution...
Quebecor Inc.’s telecommunications services boosted its third quarter, as it posted an $8.3-million loss, the company said in its quarterly financial report Thursday. The loss from the three months ended Sept. 30,...
The CRTC has granted a group testing alternative methods of closed captioning English-language television a reprieve in having to hit accuracy targets. In a notice on its website Wednesday, the commission said it would...
GATINEAU, Que. — While Rogers Communications Inc. said it generally does not support differential pricing practices (DPP), it suggested Wednesday that the regulator should stay flexible in its approach given potential developments in Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The statement came during the third day of the week-long hearing into differential pricing practices by wireless and Internet service providers (ISP), including zero-rating, or not counting usage of some services against a consumer's data cap. Rogers was the only major company to come out opposed to the...
Shaw Communications Inc. reported revenues of $1.31 billion for the three months ended Aug. 31, an increase from $1.13 billion from the same quarter a year earlier, due to the addition of...
The CRTC has issued a “working document” to guide discussion in the upcoming public hearing on the renewal of television licences by large ownership groups. “The inclusion of specific proposals in the working...
A Canadian investment group has announced its intention to purchase the majority share in a United States-based telecommunications company, Trilogy International Partners, which has services in New Zealand and Bolivia. According...
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...
In five years, the worldwide number of connected home appliance shipments will reach 202 million, compared to 17 million this year, according to Juniper Research Ltd. The study found that “with the additional cost of including basic connectivity now less than $10, hardware manufacturers would increasingly introduce the functionality into many mass market as well as high-end items including fridges, ovens and washing machines,” the U.K.-based company said in a Tuesday press release. It ranked Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., General Electric...
The CRTC is giving VOIS Inc. an opportunity to defend itself after its membership in the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) was terminated this summer....
The federal government is providing interested parties additional opportunity to comment on its repurposing of 600 MHz spectrum. The department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) posted a notice on its website Monday, asking for input on its “Proposed TV Transition Objectives and...
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,...
Rogers Communications Inc. is funding a new digital literacy program offered by ABC Life Literacy Canada in Toronto. The non-profit said in a press release Monday that the pilot program will offer a series of...
CenturyLink Inc. said Monday it is buying Level 3 Communications Inc. in a deal valued at approximately $34 billion US. “The combined company will have the ability to offer CenturyLink's larger...
A BCE Inc. application to sponsor a Spanish-language channel has been approved, the CRTC said Friday. In a notice posted to its website, the CRTC said CincoMas, described as a 24-hour general interest service,...
OTTAWA — While traditionally, government funding has been directed to boost fixed Internet service, perhaps there should be some public assistance for improving wireless coverage, a member of...
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved a proposed set of new rules Internet service providers (ISPs) must follow when handling customer information. In a Thursday press release, the United States...
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) said it has obtained the cell phone numbers of potential witnesses of a homicide through a court-processed production order. In a news release Wednesday, the OPP said wireless providers were compelled to provide the numbers so it can send texts to people who were in the vicinity of the last known location of 65-year-old Frederick Hatch, who was last seen alive in Ottawa on Dec. 16, 2015, his body discovered a day later. The text message will...
Telus Corp. is working with customers who will be affected by the cessation of dial-up Internet service as of Nov. 16, the company said, after an NDP member of Parliament said she had...
Data usage by Canadians on both wireline and wireless networks rose significantly last year, hitting 104 GB per month for residential Internet and almost 1 GB for wireless subscribers, the CRTC said...
Alphabet Inc. announced it will pause its fibre rollout to potential cities amid changes that have claimed its broadband division’s CEO. Craig Barratt, CEO of Google Access, announced on the company’s fibre...
High fibre costs and advancements in technology are among the reasons Canadian telcos are unlikely to expand their fibre-to-the-home [FTTH] footprint beyond 60 per cent coverage, according to Desjardins Capital Markets. In...
The broadcasting sector saw its first overall revenue decrease in the previous decade last year, while traditional TV viewership among youth continued to fall, according to numbers reported by the CRTC Monday. Revenues for the whole broadcasting sector in 2015 — comprising of radio, conventional TV, broadcast distribution and specialty and on-demand TV — were down 1.6 per cent from the previous year, to $17.9 billion. BCE Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., Corus...
OTTAWA — CBC/Radio-Canada has prioritized a shift to digital platforms to reach all Canadians, but ensuring they are able to access those platforms isn’t part of the public...
TORONTO — A panel of Federal Court of Appeal justices dismissed an application from former CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan challenging the authority of chairman Jean-Pierre Blais to name commissioners to panels. Following a...
The CRTC said Monday Steven Harroun is its new chief compliance and enforcement officer, effective Nov. 14. “Steven’s extensive experience at the Commission and as our representative...
A potential merger between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. highlights a move by United States-based companies toward vertical integration, just as developments in Canada...
Minister of International Trade Chrystia Freeland told reporters Monday that the decision last week to end discussions with the European Union over the Canada-European Union...
Shaw Communications Inc. is putting less emphasis on growing subscribers for Wind in Ontario in favour of boosting its wireless network in Western Canada, according to Barclays analyst...
Anglophone millennials spend more than 30 hours a week on the Internet, and about four-fifths of that generation watch TV online, according the latest report from Media Technology Monitor, a project of CBC/Radio-Canada. The...
A Friday morning denial of service (DDoS) attack has taken down or slowed the websites of some of the Internet’s biggest companies, according to reports. The attack targeted Internet...
The Ontario Court of Appeal has been ordered to reconsider a class-action lawsuit against BCE Inc. involving the expiration of prepaid account contracts. The Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday the lower court must revisit the case in light of its decision in contracts case Ledcor Construction Ltd. v. Northbridge Indemnity Insurance Co., which came after the appeal court denied the Bell Mobility suit. In 2014, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted the initial $110-million application, which was first announced in 2012. The plaintiff, Celia...
