In a case of extremely bad timing, The Star’s Moneyville site is reporting that Bell has been overestimating the data usage of some customers and charging them with data overage fees. This has forced Bell to take the data tracker offline for the time being.
Read MoreIt’s been a busy week for the Federal government and the CRTC. The latest is that Federal Court judge Roger Hughes has struck down 2009 Tory decision to overrule the CRTC when it comes to Globalive, best known as new mobile carrier Wind Mobile. The appeal to Federal Court was launched by new entrant rival Public Mobile, which claimed that the government had overstepped its bounds in allowing Wind to launch even though it didn’t meet CRTC Canadian ownership regulations. The judge has instituted a 45 day stay, which lets…
Read More[Ed Note: this article was updated with new information] The Canadian government has once again promised to overturn a CRTC decision if the CRTC doesn’t do so itself. This time around, it’s the the contentious Usage Based Billing ruling that would have crippled 3rd party ISPs from differentiating themselves in the marketplace. It’s rare for the government to step into CRTC affairs, but with the UBB issue growing in public awareness and a deadline looming less than a month away, they’ve pulled out the big guns. After all, it was…
Read MoreTired of having nothing to be politically passionate about like your Egyptian and Tunisian friends? Tired of worrying about Seasonal Affective Disorder during the height of Seasonal Affective Disorder season? Tired of being pushed around by Big Telco Money and Small Minded Lapdog Bureaucrats at the CRTC? Tired of rhetorical questions starting with the word “Tired” and using caps to make Tired Cliches look like Big Concepts? Of course you are and so am I. Together we can go to the next paragraph.
Read MoreIt was only two months ago that the CRTC made a surprisingly positive ruling in helping innovation in the Canadian internet marketplace, though I was somewhat skeptical. In August they announced that incumbent DSL and cable providers, aka the big guys (Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron), had to provide 3rd party ISPs with access to their networks, at a price level of 10% above cost. Part of this reasoning was in the ruling itself… Agreed that a duopoly of telephone and cable retail Internet access services is insufficient, and that…
Read MoreBack in 2008, the CRTC ruled that internet wholesalers should have fair access to higher speed data networks controlled by incumbents such as Bell and Telus. Partly due to growth in high speed cable internet, the incumbent telcos haves have been resisting providing the high speed access to 3rd party wholesalers, to maintain a competitive edge with their cable counterparts. The original 2008 ruling was challenged and sent to federal cabinet, which sent it back to the CRTC. On Monday, the CRTC reaffirmed its position, which with means independents will…
Read MoreLast Friday, the CRTC launched a new public consultation to get feedback from Canadians on their telephone and internet services. Being cynical about the impact of such a public consultation, especially one with the title Obligation to Serve, would be the easy approach, given some of the CRTC’s past decisions regarding internet services. I’ll try not to be though, and suggest that everyone visit the public page and speak their mind. You can catch the full announcement after the break…
Read MoreThe CRTC has unsurprisingly sided with Bell, and is allowing the big blue telco to go ahead with it’s usage-based billing scheme, and yes, scheme is the most appropriate word here. Not only does it mean that Bell gets to charge it’s own customers, who are already paying through the nose for parltry data caps, but now big blue can hit 3rd party suppliers, like TekSavvy and Acanac with fees that look downright preposterous. Bell has complained about traffic congestion, caused mostly by heavy file sharing, but as their own…
Read MoreIt’s been a while coming, especially if you’re a Wind Mobile employee, but Industry Canada has overruled a CRTC decision that prevented the new wireless carrier from launching in the country. After spending millions on spectrum, you’d think that they’d be in the clear, but due to CRTC foreign ownership rules, Globalive’s actual launch was postponed. “The decision to vary the CRTC Globalive decision, let me emphasize, was based on the legal facts and not on the government’s position that there needs to be more competition in the marketplace,” Mr….
Read MoreLate last week, Minister of Industry Tony Clement made some comments that could be considered disconcerting to the incumbent wireless carriers in Canada, regarding the CRTC’s recent decision to block Globalive’s Wind Mobile wireless from launching in Canada… “We do have the power through an order of council in cabinet to amend or vary the decision of the CRTC… The government’s policy is designed to increase competitiveness in the wireless space, and that is important for Canadian consumers because it increases choice, it increases quality and it reduces cost. [from…
Read MoreThe world needs more Jim Shaws. The outspoken CEO of Shaw Communications was quoted in Marketing Magazine today as being “sick of the debate” regarding fee for carriage. “It is time to stop this debate and move forward,” he said. Shaw not only opposes the concept of Fee for Carriage, but also calls the CRTC out on its seeming inability to stick to its guns. “I thought you guys made the decision and you should stick to it,” said Shaw of the CRTC’s earlier decisions to oppose fee for carriage….
Read MoreLast week, the CRTC released it’s initial net neutrality decision, which was quickly followed by a wide range of opinions, from pie-in-the-sky to “The sky is falling“. More reasonable responses suggested that the ruling wasn’t bad, and the head of a 3rd party ISP or two even said it was pretty good overall, with some problems. That being said, one of the major issues was bandwidth throttling, and there were guidelines put in place that would restrict how and when ISPs could do so. Less than a week after the…
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