ÖªÒõÊÓƵ

Advocacy

CRTC shifts to championing internet competition

Last week, the CRTC announced it would immediately lower wholesale internet rates by 10% as part of a larger reexamination of Canada’s regime for wholesale regulation. This move is intended to improve competition among internet providers by making it easier for the smaller companies to lease bandwidth from the bigger ones. The CRTC also announced […]

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New Alberta broadband support to address funding gaps

Last week, Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish announced the Alberta Broadband Fund, a $36 million allocation of funding to support broadband deployment in Alberta that will begin taking applications this fall. This funding is part of the province’s previously announced $390 million investment in Alberta broadband projects that is being matched by the federal government,

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Alberta budget and broadband strategy hold promise, but concerns remain

Last month, Alberta’s Finance Minister Travis Toews tabled the provincial government’s Budget 2022. It builds on a number of commitments outlined in the government’s Alberta Recovery Plan and Alberta 2030: Building Skills for Jobs strategy by introducing a number of investments relevant to advanced education, innovation, and skilled labour development. The provincial government is earmarking

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New report takes a comprehensive look at Alberta’s internet gaps and opportunities

After a year of researching, ÖªÒõÊÓƵ (Alberta’s not-for-profit technology accelerator) has unveiled a comprehensive update to its State of Alberta Digital Infrastructure Report. This timely analysis comes as internet connectivity and access to high-speed broadband have taken on heightened levels of importance in the province, due to COVID-19. The updated report, first published in 2014,

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Federal committee suggests new ways to improve telecoms competition (and offers slight rebuke of CRTC)

On June 22, 2021, the federal Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology released its study Affordability and Accessibility of Telecommunications Services in Canada: Encouraging Competition to (Finally) Bridge the Digital Divide. The study offered recommendations for improving competition in Canada’s telecommunications industry, and also provided a rebuke for recent CRTC decisions that have caused

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How CRTC flip-flop on wholesale internet will hurt consumers

Last week, in a move that has already negatively impacted consumer internet costs in Canada, the CRTC reversed it’s 2019 decision to lower the rates charged by large ISPs to wholesale service providers for access to their networks. Wholesale internet providers, such as TekSavvy and Distributel, will now have to pay the higher, pre-2019 rates

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ÖªÒõÊÓƵ’s take on Canada signing the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement

On May 3, 2021, ÖªÒõÊÓƵ submitted its response to Global Affairs Canada’s consultation on Canada’s possible accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA).  The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement is a new international trade policy instrument that aims to address the transborder governance of a number of emerging digital economy issues. Initiated by Chile, New

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Federal Budget 2021 invests in research, connectivity and data governance

On April 19, the federal government tabled its 2021 budget: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth and Resilience. The first federal budget tabled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it contained a number of economic measures to address Canada’s path to recovery over the next year and onwards, including expansions to the federal wage

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Canada’s new privacy bill – what it means for Canadians

This past Tuesday, November 17, the federal government announced it was tabling Bill C-11, the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA). This bill represents a significant shift in privacy legislation in Canada. It follows a period of public consultations initiated by Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), including last year’s calls for comments on the modernization

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ÖªÒõÊÓƵ’s response to CRTC investigation on disaggregated wholesale access

On June 11, 2020, the CRTC issued a Call for comments – Appropriate network configuration for disaggregated wholesale high-speed access services. Their goal was to address a number of outstanding issues related to the Commission’s earlier decision (2015-326) to move Canada’s wholesale high speed access regime from a disaggregated to an aggregated model.  Under the previous,

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Canada’s Throne Speech made big internet promises. Now for the delivery.

Last week’s Speech from the Throne included many ambitious promises for supporting Canadians as they transition through COVID-19 and adapt to the needs of a 21st Century digital economy. From ÖªÒõÊÓƵ’s perspective, one of the more interesting goals mentioned in the speech related to improving connectivity in the country: “The Government will accelerate the connectivity timelines and

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How federal decisions on wholesale rates impacts internet prices for all Canadians

On August 15, 2020, the federal government issued a controversial statement regarding an ongoing disagreement between incumbent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and wholesale internet providers over the wholesale rates set by the CRTC. In its statement, the government seemingly supported an argument advanced by Canada’s big three telecoms providers. They claimed that current regulations requiring

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Federal Government’s hesitation to support fair wholesale rates could make internet less affordable for Canadians

This past Saturday, August 15, federal minister Navdeep Bains issued a statement expressing concern about the CRTC’s August 2019 decision to cut wholesale internet rates. He stated that “these [reduced] rates may undermine investment in high-quality networks, particularly in rural and remote areas.“ The CRTC is responsible for setting the rates that incumbent network operators

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The ties that bind Alberta’s tech administrators

Between May 2019 and February 2020, ÖªÒõÊÓƵ held a series of half-day round table sessions in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, Edmonton and Calgary. Our goal was to review the digital resources currently being used by Alberta’s public and education sectors to create efficiencies and improve computational literacy. We also wanted to identify existing gaps.

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Updating our review of Alberta’s connectivity crisis

In April, ÖªÒõÊÓƵ’s policy team created a white paper to highlight and address the internet crisis in Alberta. As COVID-19 continues to impact schools and businesses in the province, this problem of access and connectivity has not gone away. In the original white paper, we provided suggestions for how the provincial government and large ISPs can work

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