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TAGGED AS COVID-19

CRTC rejects Stingray COVID relief request, orders broadcaster to pay $9M in tangible benefits

telecom | 08/16/2022 5:05 pm EDT

The CRTC has denied an application from Stingray Group Inc. for relief from payments the company owes to the broadcasting sector known as "tangible benefits payments," to the...

Government, Telefilm, extend support for uninsured Canadian productions 

Media | 02/11/2022 1:06 pm EST

The Government of Canada has extended its temporary emergency fund addressing the lack of insurance coverage in the Canadian film and television production industry....

CRTC sides with creative sector in broadcasters’ CanCon relief proposal

Media | 08/12/2021 5:23 pm EDT

The CRTC has denied a request made by the Canadian Association of...

CRTC reports drop in broadcast revenue for 2020

Media | 07/16/2021 5:38 pm EDT

With advertising revenues battered by the pandemic -- particularly the second half of the year -- the...

PIAC calls for $50 internet subsidy for lower-income Canadians during pandemic

telecom | 01/14/2021 4:12 pm EST

Canada should follow the lead of the United States and put in place a $50 “broadband benefit” throughout the rest of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says. The...

Corus revenues down 10 per cent

Media | 01/12/2021 6:58 pm EST

Corus Entertainment Inc. reported Tuesday its first-quarter revenues were $420.3 million, down 10 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Profits, meanwhile, were down three per cent to $178.6 million in the three-month...

Citing COVID-19, government waives broadcasters’ Part II license fees

telecom | 12/15/2020 5:25 pm EST

The federal government will waive Part II licensing fees for Canadian broadcasters that have seen advertising downturns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Tuesday afternoon press release from Canadian Heritage announced that the CRTC will not collect Part II licensing fees from some radio and television stations.  This is the second license fee waiver granted to Canadian broadcasters this year — in March, Heritage minister Stephen Guilbeault announced a waiver of all Part I license fees...

OPC supports PIAC call for CRTC to clarify rules for tracing apps

telecom | 12/01/2020 5:48 pm EST

While it believes the CRTC's existing definition of "customer confidential...

CanCon relief proposal ‘overly broad’, redundant: creative groups

Media | 11/02/2020 6:41 pm EST

In its reply to interventions on the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' request for a policy of "deemed compliance" in Canadian programming expenditures, the Canadian Media Producers Association...

Community radio pushes back on CAB CanCon relief request

Media | 10/30/2020 12:41 pm EDT

The National Campus and Community Radio Association, Alliance des radios communautaires du Canada and Association des radiodiffuseurs communautaires du Québec have filed a joint intervention arguing...

PIAC requests privacy review of contact tracing apps

telecom | 10/29/2020 6:24 pm EDT

Six months after the CRTC declined its request to hold an inquiry into contact tracing technologies and...

Commish ‘frustrated for Canadian citizens’ as privacy laws lag

telecom | 10/08/2020 5:53 pm EDT

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened privacy concerns around activities...

Rogers still too vague about its use of ITMPs: TekSavvy

telecom | 10/02/2020 4:02 pm EDT

In an ongoing dispute between Rogers Communications Inc. and some of its third party internet access (TPIA) wholesale customers over COVID-19-related internet traffic management practices (ITMPs),...

Videotron launches physical distancing wristband

telecom | 09/24/2020 2:34 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc. has launched a wristband that lights up and vibrates when individuals come too close to...

Throne speech reiterates rural broadband, web giant promises

Media | 09/23/2020 2:54 pm EDT

In Wednesday’s throne speech kicking off Parliament’s return, the...

Back to Parliament: your (pandemic) preview

Media | 09/22/2020 12:43 pm EDT

TrudeuCabinetRetreat2020Given the precarious situation around the now-escalating COVID-19 pandemic, what will actually be included in Wednesday’s speech from the throne, and in the government’s priorities in the following weeks, is more uncertain than ever. With a day to go, even the details of...

STIR/SHAKEN implementation date delayed 9 months

telecom | 09/15/2020 4:27 pm EDT

The CRTC has extended its deadline for telecom providers to implement an anti-call-spoofing protocol known as STIR/SHAKEN by nine months, until June 30, 2021.  Telecoms had initially been required to launch the protocol by the...

CRA withholding wage subsidy from Iristel: court filing

telecom | 08/31/2020 5:06 pm EDT

Iristel Inc.'s ongoing fight with the Canada Revenue Agency has become yet more complicated, as the company filed a new application for judicial review Friday, alleging that the CRA improperly...

$263M in deferred spectrum fees due Tuesday: ISED

Media | 08/31/2020 3:00 pm EDT

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada won’t give any more extensions on the payment of spectrum fees, which are due Sept. 1, the department said. After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, ISED deferred the payment of...

Broadcasters asked CRTC for emergency COVID-19 relief in July

Media | 08/21/2020 4:31 pm EDT

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters asked the CRTC not to enforce...

Committee studies, reports on hold as Parliament prorogued

telecom | 08/18/2020 6:38 pm EDT

With Tuesday's prorogation of Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has put the brakes on a number of telecom-related studies underway in various House of Commons committees.  The House industry committee had been working on a pair of reports, one about how to deal...

CRTC stepped back to allow telecoms to handle COVID-19

telecom | 08/13/2020 3:37 pm EDT

The CRTC largely played a hands-off role during the COVID-19 pandemic in a...

ISED says department has ‘done well’ with working from home

telecom | 08/10/2020 5:52 pm EDT

Innovation, Science, and Economic Development says it is moving toward establishing a hybrid work-from-home model that will see increasing numbers of employees return to office work in a series of...

eHealth raises data, privacy, and clinical questions: experts 

Media | 08/05/2020 6:07 pm EDT

eHealth technologies have been widely billed as bridging divides between...

Telus profits down nearly 40 per cent

telecom | 07/31/2020 4:03 pm EDT

Telus Corp. posted a 39.4 per cent drop in profit in the second quarter of the year, the first quarter to...

UPDATED: OPC now says it supports COVID-19 tracing app 

Media | 07/31/2020 8:52 am EDT

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has cleared up uncertainty about...

Half of spectrum licencees opted to use ISED’s COVID flexibility

telecom | 07/29/2020 5:21 pm EDT

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada allowed companies to...

Blockbuster Disney production lobbying over COVID-19 protocols

Media | 07/21/2020 6:34 pm EDT

The production company creating a remake of 1940s noir film Nightmare Alley...

Alberta tracing app review could ‘inspire confidence’: privacy expert

telecom | 07/14/2020 6:20 pm EDT

In its long-awaited privacy review of ABTraceTogether, Alberta's COVID-19...

Broadcaster pushes for new multilingual channel as COVID lobbying continues

Media | 07/14/2020 3:33 pm EDT

An Ontario-based ethnic broadcaster lobbying the government for funding to create a multilingual news channel to help Canadians access health information says it’s too early...

Shaw’s subscriber additions dampened by COVID lockdowns

telecom | 07/10/2020 8:39 pm EDT

Shaw Communications Inc. president Paul McAleese said that while there has...

Phase 2 of Heritage emergency support fund to fill in ‘gaps’

Media | 07/07/2020 5:20 pm EDT

The federal government has announced further details of how the $500-million fund it announced in May will be spent, and confirmed the second phase of the COVID-19 Emergency Support Fund for Cultural,...

Pandemic has increased need for privacy rights, OPC told Guilbealt 

Media | 06/30/2020 5:08 pm EDT

COVID-19 has made privacy rights even more important, the federal privacy commissioner’s office told Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault in May. A presentation prepared by the Office of the...

Q3 ‘very tough’ for Corus as ad revenues plummet

Media | 06/26/2020 3:27 pm EDT

The financial impacts of COVID-19 induced lockdowns led to a “very tough quarter” for Corus...

Assess privacy before launching contact tracing apps, advocacy groups say

telecom | 06/24/2020 5:09 pm EDT

Contact tracing apps aimed at assisting public health authorities in tracking the spread of COVID-19 shouldn't be launched before privacy commissioners across the country have...

Privacy commissioner hasn’t approved new gov’t contact tracing app

telecom | 06/18/2020 3:48 pm EDT

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that in developing the federal...

TekSavvy argues Rogers unfairly applying ITMP

telecom | 06/10/2020 4:12 pm EDT

TekSavvy Solutions Inc. has asked the CRTC to force Rogers Communications Inc. to stop applying an...

Monsef tight-lipped on rural broadband funding announcement

telecom | 06/05/2020 5:01 pm EDT

Rural Economic Development Minister Maryam Monsef says “precise...

ISED delays 3500 MHz auction by six months

telecom | 06/05/2020 1:45 pm EDT

The 3500 MHz spectrum auction, originally scheduled for December of this year, will now take place in...

Competition Bureau, telecoms MVNO stance unchanged by COVID-19

telecom | 06/03/2020 6:00 pm EDT

The Competition Bureau says its advocacy for a temporary hybrid mobile...

Outdated privacy laws may hamper COVID-19 tracing: Therrien

telecom | 05/29/2020 7:00 pm EDT

The outdated state of Canadian privacy laws may harm efforts to launch a...

SaskTel to resume charging overage fees on June 9

telecom | 05/29/2020 2:13 pm EDT

Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. will become the second Canadian telecom to resume charging overage fees to home internet customers who go over their data caps, with the company announcing it will end the COVID-19...

Network performance supports light regulatory touch: Bibic

telecom | 05/27/2020 6:58 pm EDT

The performance of networks in other countries during the COVID-19 crisis...

Advertising market in ‘modest recovery’: Corus

Media | 05/27/2020 6:34 pm EDT

Canada’s television advertising market has moved to a stage of “modest recovery” after chapters of COVID-19 pandemic induced “shock and awe,” followed by a stabilisation period, Corus Entertainment Inc. CEO Doug Murphy told Wednesday’s TD Securities Telecom and...

Roam Mobility shutting down

telecom | 05/27/2020 5:25 pm EDT

Otono Networks Inc.’s Roam Mobility will cease operations on June 30, the company said Wednesday. Roam Mobility previously provided prepaid SIM cards for visitors to the United States and Canada. It shut down the Canadian service in January, though it continued to provide SIM cards and service...

Google exec outlines privacy measures in new contact-tracing API

telecom | 05/22/2020 2:54 pm EDT

Colin McKay, head of public policy and government relations for Canada for...

Incumbents ask court for delay of wholesale rate appeal 

telecom | 05/21/2020 6:01 pm EDT

Incumbent cable companies have asked a Federal Court of Appeal judge to delay their appeal of the CRTC's wholesale rates decision until the proceeding can be conducted in person.  In a letter...

Fraudsters cashing in on pandemic, committee told

telecom | 05/20/2020 8:05 pm EDT

The Canadian Anti Fraud Centre has received almost 1000 complaints about fraud attempts related to...

Telus to share aggregate location data with government researchers

telecom | 05/20/2020 6:09 pm EDT

Telus Corp. said it will begin providing de-identified, aggregate location data to the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to help combat COVID-19. It said in a press release that Telus will “share insights with NSERC researchers free of charge and provide supervised and guided access to strongly de-identified and aggregated network mobility data.” Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, provincial and federal governments have indicated their...

2025 offered as connectivity target as pressure to fast track rises

telecom | 05/19/2020 2:01 pm EDT

Universal connectivity at the CRTC’s universal service objective speeds...

Spectrum funds could achieve broadband targets before 2030: telecoms

telecom | 05/14/2020 9:35 pm EDT

An NDP plan for the federal government to add money raised from past and...

Rovi’s STB suit against Quebecor will proceed via Zoom

Media | 05/13/2020 4:14 pm EDT

A Federal Court proceeding between Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron and Rovi Guides Inc. that was halted in early March as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns began, will resume via Zoom, over the objections of...

CRTC rejects request to hold contact-tracing inquiry

telecom | 05/13/2020 4:09 pm EDT

The CRTC has rejected a Public Interest Advocacy Centre request that it look into the involvement of...

COVID-19 accelerating rural/urban connectivity divide: CIRA

telecom | 05/08/2020 5:49 pm EDT

Rural home internet speeds during the first full month where Canadians shifted to working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic were almost 12 times slower than the median speed for urban Canadians,...

Canadians broadly supportive of COVID-19 tracing apps: survey

telecom | 05/08/2020 5:41 pm EDT

Some eight in 10 Canadians support the use of wireless data to track the spread of COVID-19, and 65 per cent of Canadians think it should be mandatory, according to a survey released by three federal...

Guilbeault details $500M relief for arts and culture

telecom | 05/08/2020 5:02 pm EDT

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault Friday released more details on how a  previously-announced...

Telus withdraws guidance, records 19 per cent net income reduction

telecom | 05/07/2020 6:00 pm EDT

Telus Corp.’s net income for the first quarter of 2020 dropped 19 per...

Bell calls for delayed payments in 3.5 GHz spectrum auction

telecom | 05/07/2020 5:59 pm EDT

While BCE Inc.'s first quarter results showed a decline in profits and essentially flat revenue -- and the expected withdrawal of fiscal year 2020 guidance -- the company will continue to pay out dividends to shareholders, CEO Mirko Bibic told analysts on a first quarterly...

5G monitoring same as for all wireless tech: Health Canada

telecom | 05/06/2020 3:16 pm EDT

Health Canada has responded to an MPs’ query about what steps it is...

Conservatives and NDP united for enforcement of wholesale rates

telecom | 05/05/2020 5:27 pm EDT

Opposition parties that normally hold differing views on any given issue...

PIAC calls for providers to detail COVID-19 tracing involvement

telecom | 05/04/2020 6:14 pm EDT

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is asking for all Canadian...

Shaw to lay off about 100 British Columbia field technicians

telecom | 05/01/2020 3:35 pm EDT

Shaw Communications Inc. plans to permanently lay off about 100 field technicians in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, stating the COVID-19 pandemic had “only accelerated” the company’s...

Provinces also looking at speeding up rural broadband rollouts

telecom | 05/01/2020 1:10 pm EDT

As the federal government and individual companies work on accelerating funding for and deployments of rural broadband in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of provinces are trying to do the same with their own programs. “I don’t think there is a province or...

Cogeco to bring back overage fees as of May 1

telecom | 04/30/2020 2:10 pm EDT

Cogeco  Inc. will again start charging overage fees to its home internet customers who exceed their data limits as of Friday, with the company instead focusing on other measures it considers to “be more essential” to its...

Federal government to accelerate rural broadband funds: Monsef

telecom | 04/29/2020 3:49 pm EDT

The federal government will speed up its rural broadband funding in...

CRTC to review wholesale rate setting approach

Media | 04/24/2020 3:16 pm EDT

The CRTC has launched a public consultation into whether the approach it uses to set wholesale rates should be changed, stating it’s seeking to establish a “more transparent and efficient process” while ensuring rates remain...

Bell speeding up rural broadband rollout

telecom | 04/23/2020 3:30 pm EDT

BCE Inc. will be delivering its fixed wireless internet to some 137,000 more homes than it had planned to...

Rogers revenue drops 5%, withdraws guidance due to COVID-19

Media | 04/22/2020 3:44 pm EDT

Rogers Communications Inc. recorded a five per cent drop in revenue in the...

Telecoms, broadcasters lobbying on COVID-19 effects

Media | 04/21/2020 5:28 pm EDT

Telecom and media companies, including Quebecor Inc. and Corus Entertainment Inc., have begun adding COVID-19-related registrations to their lobby files in recent weeks. On April 15, Corus added “discussions of...

Lockdown extending to July could put $2.5B of production work at risk: report

Media | 04/21/2020 5:11 pm EDT

A COVID-19 induced lockdown of the country will put $2.5 billion of film and television production work at risk of disruption or permanent loss if it lasts until the end of June, a new report prepared...

2020 a ‘lost year’ for telecom growth: analyst

telecom | 04/20/2020 5:35 pm EDT

The telecommunications sector will have an "irrelevant" first quarter and will "write off" the second...

Quebecor hits out at Bell’s ‘unfounded’ IBW extension request

telecom | 04/20/2020 4:36 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc. has urged the CRTC to deny a BCE Inc. request to indefinitely postpone its consultation on access to fibre in-building wire in multi-dwelling units, labelling...

Gov’t in ‘early stages’ of using cellphone data for COVID-19 tracking: Bains

telecom | 04/20/2020 3:40 pm EDT

The federal government is looking at what other jurisdictions are doing...

Bell donating 1.5 million masks to provinces, federal gov’t

Media | 04/17/2020 2:01 pm EDT

BCE Inc. announced Friday that it has acquired 1.5 million N95 and KN95...

Bell calls for new in-building wire tariff to be put on ice

telecom | 04/16/2020 5:47 pm EDT

A process to create a tariff for access to in-building wire in...

Wholesale appeal is on shaky legal footing, TekSavvy argues

telecom | 04/16/2020 5:39 pm EDT

The ongoing appeal by incumbent telecoms of the CRTC's wholesale internet rates decision from August should be dismissed because the appeal argues that the regulator made errors in fact, rather than...

CRTC approves Bell’s ‘urgent’ Wangiri-blocking request

telecom | 04/16/2020 5:17 pm EDT

After BCE Inc. asked it to grant an "urgent" approval to block the one-ring phone scam calls known as Wangiri calls at the end of March, on account of the increased call...

Pump the brakes on COVID data tracking, advocacy groups warn

telecom | 04/15/2020 5:35 pm EDT

Despite the extraordinary desire to stop the spread of COVID-19, there is still no justification for mass unwarranted surveillance of identifiable people, according to a joint statement of principles...

Shaw lays off ten per cent of workforce due to COVID-19

telecom | 04/14/2020 6:04 pm EDT

Shaw Communications Inc. will temporarily lay off about ten per cent of its...

38% of Canadians say COVID-19 slowed internet service: CIRA survey

telecom | 04/14/2020 5:15 pm EDT

Almost four in ten Canadians say their home internet speeds are slower than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority...

Provinces collaborating on cellphone tracking: Tam

telecom | 04/14/2020 2:19 pm EDT

Canadian authorities are “pulling together a group amongst the provinces and territories to gauge interest” in using cellphone data to track the spread of COVID-19, Canada’s chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, said...

Incumbents using COVID-19 to tamper with procedures, CNOC, TekSavvy claim

telecom | 04/09/2020 8:07 pm EDT

The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) and TekSavvy Solutions Inc. are alleging that the incumbent telecoms from whom they purchase wholesale high-speed internet access are making changes to...

CRTC delays launch of new proceedings due to COVID-19 

Media | 04/09/2020 6:47 pm EDT

The CRTC has delayed the launch of new proceedings due to COVID-19, stating it’s aware the telecommunications industry’s primary focus is on delivering services to Canadians.  In a statement...

Rempel Garner calls on Bains, CRTC to enforce wholesale rates

telecom | 04/09/2020 5:15 pm EDT

Conservative industry critic Michelle Rempel Garner has called on...

COVID-19 delays next-gen 911 network roll-out

telecom | 04/09/2020 3:38 pm EDT

The CRTC has pushed back a series of deadlines around the implementation of next-generation 911 (NG911) services, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In a letter published to the CRTC’s website on Thursday, the regulator said the...

Cogeco pre-COVID Q2 revs steady, adjusts share buyback

telecom | 04/08/2020 6:57 pm EDT

Amid the financial uncertainty and upheaval of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Cogeco Inc. will adjust its share repurchasing program, the company's executives told analysts on a Wednesday morning second quarter earnings call.  While the company is making the adjustment to...

CNOC calls for gov’t funding to keep Canadians connected

telecom | 04/07/2020 5:40 pm EDT

The federal government should guarantee internet service providers payments...

Quebec City police used location data to track infected individual

telecom | 04/06/2020 5:15 pm EDT

In March, Quebec City police used cellphone location data to track and then arrest a woman infected with COVID-19 who refused to self-isolate. The Canadian Press quoted Quebec City chief Robert...

Watchdog Friends calls for emergency media fund

telecom | 04/06/2020 2:43 pm EDT

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting has urged the federal government to help prominent media outlets facing...

TVA news staff to return to Sherbrooke following positive COVID-19 tests

telecom | 04/02/2020 4:30 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc.’s TVA news team in Sherbrooke, Que. will return to the station on Friday after receiving the all clear from Quebec Public Health, the company says. In a statement in French, Quebecor said viewers from Estrie would have their local noon and 6 p.m. bulletins return on Friday, four days after the station closed following a manager testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. The local programming was replaced with TVA news network bulletins while the station was closed. The...

Calm before the COVID storm in Corus Q2

telecom | 04/01/2020 5:14 pm EDT

Corus Entertainment Inc. has deferred the declaration of its dividends in response to the uncertainty...

Canadian authorities in talks about COVID-19 tracking apps

telecom | 03/31/2020 5:54 pm EDT

Several of Canada’s cities and provinces, as well as the federal...

Telus Health ‘scaling up’ as COVID-19 spreads

telecom | 03/30/2020 5:11 pm EDT

Telus Corp.’s years-long investment in e-health and telemedicine has...

Quebecor, Cogeco lay off staff due to COVID-19

telecom | 03/27/2020 4:26 pm EDT

Quebecor Inc. and Cogeco Inc. have both announced staff layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Quebecor announced on Friday morning it would lay off 10 per cent of its workforce, which the company said amounted to about 1000...

Netflix lowers Canadian bit rate for next 30 days

telecom | 03/27/2020 12:44 pm EDT

Netflix Inc. has announced it will lower its bit rate in Canada by 25 per cent for the next 30 days, just days after three telecommunications associations publicly urged the streaming giant to lower rates to lessen network...

Teksavvy lays off staff, increases internet bills

telecom | 03/26/2020 6:39 pm EDT

Teksavvy Solutions Inc. has laid off 130 staff and will implement a flat $5 bill increase for its...

Networks coping, but future traffic impossible to predict

Media | 03/25/2020 5:48 pm EDT

Experts say Canada’s telecommunications networks are currently handling a...

Feds, 4 provinces not looking at COVID-19 phone tracking

telecom | 03/24/2020 12:39 pm EDT

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday the federal government isn’t...

Media companies face more uncertainty than telecoms: analyst

Media | 03/23/2020 3:39 pm EDT

The next period of time — no one knows just how long — will be "riddled with both demand and supply shocks," and the country's biggest media companies are in for a much bumpier financial ride than the telecom companies, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Drew McReynolds.  In a note published Friday, McReynolds wrote that the "unprecedented lack of visibility at this juncture is putting a hefty premium on balance sheet and liquidity positions and the ability to 'make it through' regardless of what economic and/or banking/financial sector outcome (if not crisis) lies ahead"...