Pick-and-pay, Netflix and the CRTC’s TV policy review (1)
Car detailing – Shepherd Market, Mayfair, London W1 – Aug 2013 ~~~~ Memo to the CRTC: Even if pick-and-pay were to be implemented, it will never on its own advance consumer welfare by lowering costs or...
View ArticleNetflix, YouTube traffic soar, while “pirate” transfers fade
Sandvine has just released its latest half-yearly Global Internet Phenomena Report. The reports are based on data collected by Sandvine from among its 250-plus customers spanning, well, the globe....
View ArticleBen Klass asks CRTC to stop Bell’s deliquency on Mobile TV
Detail from roof of Brighton train station (rotated) – Aug 2013 ~~~~ “Bell welcomes any competitor, but they should compete on a level playing field.” – George Cope, BCE/Bell Canada, August 2013 “I...
View ArticleIntervening in support of Ben Klass complaint on Bell Mobile TV
Last Wednesday was the deadline for followup comments on Ben’s Part 1 application, more accurately described as a complaint. In the text below you’ll find the main body of my intervention, minus the...
View ArticleCRTC demands answers from Bell on its Mobile TV shellgame
Bell’s CRTC whisperer, Mirko Bibic, got bent out of shape when he saw the CRTC’s annoying interrogatories Friday morning ~~~ Today saw another encouraging step in the CRTC’s management of the Ben Klass...
View ArticleThe CRTC tries to drag our TV “system” into the 21st century
*** The public hearing announced by the CRTC last week (Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2014-190) came with two other newsworthy documents. One is the Commission’s trial balloon on instituting...
View ArticleJust like cable-TV, broadband is still way too expensive in Canada
Point Topic releases 2014-Q1 global survey of broadband prices Research consultancy Point Topic has another set of broadband data to add to the dismal news about Canada. Using USD adjusted by the...
View ArticleKlass complaint to CRTC on Bell’s Mobile TV winds up – for now
Subject: Part 1 application by Benjamin Klass requesting the fair treatment of Internet services by Bell Mobility (Klass application) and Part 1 Applications by CAC-COSCO-PIAC regarding Rogers’...
View ArticleIt’s 2015: Cancon is the aberration, not VPNs or the Internet
WiTopia is a provider of personal VPN services ~~~ In a Globe and Mail piece last Friday, Kate Taylor starts off by asking the wrong question: Digital content may be cheap, but who will pay to create...
View ArticleCancon redux: Canada’s TV “system” battles the Internet
~~~ “Somebody called me a protectionist this week. I’ve been called far worse, but the term rankled because I had not argued that Canadian television should be protected from foreign competition.” Kate...
View ArticleBell appeals Klass decision, or why net neutrality is a dead letter in Canada...
February 20: Bell Mobility asks the Federal Court to toss out the CRTC’s Mobile TV decision, the one described by Chairman Blais as favoring “innovation and choice.” In what might be seen as an attempt...
View ArticleThe Netflix boogeyman and a 21st-century role for the CRTC
~~~ “Though some intervenors think this proceeding is all about Netflix, it’s not.” –Corie Wright of Netflix “If the Commission fails to act swiftly after this proceeding, a service such as Netflix...
View ArticleBroadband speeding up, broadcast TV slowing down?
~~~ This morning brought news that the CRTC has launched a national broadband measurement initiative using the SamKnows platform (“The global leaders in broadband measurement“). The announcement comes...
View ArticleRebooting basic telecom services: hope for policy reform?
~~~ The recent Rebooting conference in Ottawa was a terrific experience. Lots of people with lots of good ideas and the opportunity to debate them at length. Oversimplifying a little, I would divide...
View ArticleRebooting basic services: hope for policy reform? (2)
New ideas for policy reform from Bell ~~~ Update on other reactions to Turcke/Bell (1:10pm): Pete Nowak has his own biting critique in yesterday’s post – If VPN use is theft, then Bell’s CraveTV is...
View ArticleMore on the student ISP ratings: Bell’s Internet disaster (3)
A new bundle from Bell: Internet access with poutine ~~~ I have bad news for Bell. On our campus, those steaming piles of french fries and gravy didn’t help convince any of my students that Bell has...
View ArticleOh what a tangled web: Bell vs the Internet at Federal Court
Bell Mobility’s legal team conferred on a break ~~~ On Tuesday, January 19, the Federal Court of Appeal heard oral arguments from several parties about Bell’s Mobile TV service and whether it had...
View ArticleDialing for digital dollars: inside the Cancon sausage factory
~~~ A little sympathy for Mélanie Joly, please. Imagine if your job was to save the purveyors of Canadian content from the ravishes of American cultural imperialists, cord-cutters, cord-shavers,...
View ArticleEnough about Facebook. What’s your ISP done for you lately?
(4400 words) We’ve been inundated lately by a deluge of disturbing news about the Silicon Valley Five. I say time for a bracing reminder about the real gatekeepers in digital life — your ISP. You can...
View ArticleOh what a tangled web: Bell vs the Internet at Federal Court
Bell Mobility’s legal team conferred on a break ~~~ On Tuesday, January 19, the Federal Court of Appeal heard oral arguments from several parties about Bell’s Mobile TV service and whether it had...
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