An undue-preference complaint against a music streaming service offered by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron has Rogers Communications Inc. arguing that zero-rating the service is a net-neutrality violation, while Telus Corp. is supporting Videotron and saying the service does not harm consumers. Rogers argued the pricing structure of the service amounts to an undue preference under the Telecommunications Act, and is contrary to the CRTC’s net-neutrality rules and regulations on overage charges in the commission’s wireless code. “The decision to favour certain types of audio...
The CRTC has moved back the deadline for interventions in an undue preference complaint against a music service offered by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. The previous deadline in the case against the Unlimited Music service was Oct. 5. That has now been extended to Oct. 14. The CRTC said in a letter dated Oct. 2 and posted on its website that it made the change following a request by the Canadian Network Operators’ Consortium (CNOC)....
The CRTC has merged two complaints against a service by Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron that exempts some music streaming services from counting against mobile customers’ data caps. Videotron...
Ajit Pai, a commissioner with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has blamed his own organization's new net-neutrality rules for a decline in capital spending among Internet service...
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is asking the CRTC to direct Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron to change the price structure of its new music service, which exempts data consumed through some...
MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron is giving itself an undue preference with a new service that allows its mobile customers to listen to music streaming without it counting against their...
CTIA-The Wireless Association is among a number of U.S. industry groups making court challenges to net-neutrality rules the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put in place earlier this year. The U.S. regulator approved a set of rules in February that, among other stipulations, prevent Internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or giving priority to content from an affiliate or any company that's willing to pay to secure "fast lanes" for its content. CTIA said in a press release Tuesday that the lawsuit, filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of...
Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) had a small-scale launch in Canada recently, with Rogers Communications Inc. making the service that allows carriers to transmit voice calls on the same networks as data available to a portion of its...
The Federal Court on Thursday granted BCE Inc. leave to appeal in its challenge of a CRTC ruling regarding its mobile-TV service. Bell applied for leave to appeal in February, seeking to overturn a January CRTC ruling that...
The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) filed papers with the Federal Court of Appeal Monday asking that BCE Inc.'s appeal of a CRTC decision banning the way it bills for mobile-TV...
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved a set of rules that, among other things, prevents Internet service providers from blocking or throttling traffic, or giving priority to content from an affiliate or...
U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler said on Wednesday that he will propose new rules this week to enshrine net neutrality in law and ban paid prioritization and...
BlackBerry Ltd. CEO John Chen said the battle for net neutrality in the United States should not only focus on service providers' traffic management practices, but should also include companies,...
Most Americans say mobile communications should be treated differently than wireline connections when it comes to enforcing net neutrality principles, according to recently released survey. A poll...
In the past six months, Canadians’ usage of streaming music services seems to have jumped, in a trend that’s not only good news for streaming services, but wireless companies as well. Nielsen Co. only began...
U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler could be hinting toward a net-neutrality policy along the lines of what President Barack Obama has suggested, categorizing broadband Internet as a public utility, reports indicated. "We're going to propose rules that say that no blocking (is allowed), no throttling, no paid prioritization," Wheeler said Wednesday at the International Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, according to Reuters. Bloomberg reported...
U.S. President Barack Obama put out a statement in favour of net neutrality Monday, and asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to implement a plan that would “safeguard competition and user choice.” In the...
Tom Wheeler, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, said Friday that his organization is looking into whether Internet service providers are purposely diminishing, for their own benefit, the flow of content from...
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has backtracked on its proposal for new open Internet rules that critics said would have harmed principles of net neutrality and created a two-speed Internet, reports indicated. On...
Almost 150 U.S. technology companies, such as Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp., have written a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission calling its proposed net-neutrality rules a...
Canada’s net neutrality rules could provide a “competitive advantage for Internet companies seeking a market without paid prioritization,” Michael Geist, Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said in a blog post. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed new net-neutrality rules that would allow Internet service providers to charge content providers for faster and more reliable connections to end users. In a...
The CRTC said it received fewer complaints about Internet traffic management practices, otherwise known as throttling, in the first three months of 2014 than the three months before that. The commission said on its website...
The European Union voted on Thursday to end roaming charges by December 2015 and enshrine net neutrality in all 28 member nations as part of its efforts to build a “connected continent,”...
GATINEAU, Que. — The reviews the CRTC will be holding over the coming year, which include proceedings covering wholesale access to wireless and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, the future of...
Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings said in a blog post on the company’s website Thursday that a stronger sense of net neutrality is needed to prevent situations like the one that has his company...
A question posed by the CRTC in its review of television services, focusing on exempting over-the-top (OTT) services from Internet data caps, could have implications on net neutrality, according to some industry experts. In an...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday struck down Federal Communications Commission rules that require Internet service providers to treat similar traffic equally in its transmission. The decision also...
The CRTC has requested a meeting with Rogers Communications Inc. after discovering another potential breach of the net neutrality rules in the company’s Internet throttling practices. In a...
The CRTC has informed Rogers Communications Inc. that, based on preliminary evidence, it believes the company's Internet throttling practices violate Canada’s net neutrality rules and has given the company two weeks to...
OTTAWA—Outgoing CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein offered up two key pieces of advice to his yet-to-be-declared successor at a conference Tuesday: stick to the commission’s principles and question everything. In what may be his last public address as chairman before his term expires Jan. 25, von Finckenstein reflected on the past five years, during which he’s led the commission. In a 25-minute interview with Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association CEO Bernard Lord...