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In a recent LinkedIn post, Robert Malcolmson, Chief Legal and Regulatory Office for BCE Inc (Bell Canada) once again used the old tired "it harms investment" argument in response to the CRTCs ongoing consideration of expanding mandated access to high-speed broadband networks while wrongly calling in
Recently I was working with one of my customers to setup the Azure Files [https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/storage/files] service - a cloud based file sharing solution from Microsoft that allows you to "mount Azure Files shares from anywhere—from on premises to the cloud—giving you a truly
Today Minister Champagne announced the final Policy Direction to the CRTC [https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2023/02/minister-champagne-announces-final-direction-to-the-crtc-placing-affordability-and-consumer-rights-at-the-forefront-of-its-future-decisions.html] ,
One topic I've been meaning to write about for some time now is the increasing number of independent ISPs who have been acquired by incumbents. As we start 2023, I was saddened to learn today that another Canadian independent ISP, start.ca [https://start.ca] has been acquired by Telus [https://mobi
Recently a relative of mine moved and needed internet access. Having not shopped for residential internet service in a long time, I was shocked to see that Virgin, the Bell "flaker brand" was selling 50/10 VDSL service for $40/month with no install fees and a Wifi-enabled DSL modem included. Yes,
Earlier this week I saw a thread on Reddit [https://www.reddit.com/r/bell/comments/109lljm/sd_vs_hd_videos_as_a_selling_point_for_different/] pointing out that Bell Mobility has started limiting access to HD video streaming on its 5G plans, with access HD video being offered as a $5 upsell on selec
As you may have seen in the news recently, Canadian merchants are starting to charge processing fees for credit card transcations [https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canadian-businesses-can-charge-credit-card-fees-starting-oct-6-1.6096370] . The history of this goes back to 2018, when class action law
Late last night the CRTC posted the reply from Rogers to the request for information [__GHOST_URL__/static/Rogers-CRTC-RFI.pdf] (RFI) it sent last week. In the RFI, the CRTC asked Rogers to respond to 55 questions about the multi-day Canada-wide service outage that started early in the morning of J
On Friday July 8th around 4:45AM, the Rogers network in Canada went down hard [https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflares-view-of-the-rogers-communications-outage-in-canada/] . Cellular, internet, and cable services were disrupted for customers across the country. The NetBlocks monitoring group esti
It started with a pop-up window on an old Windows PC indicating there was a problem with the computer. The user needed to contact Microsoft support via an 800 number for assitance to resolve the error. Innocent enough, right? That single popup message kicked off a harrowing multi-hour odyssey duri
In my talk a few weeks ago [https://mgamble.ca/a-kafkaesque-nightmare-the-history-of-stir-shaken-in-canada/] at RAG New Orleans I ended by saying "Or maybe the situation is worse. Maybe the regulator fails to see that smaller players – who function without large scale facilities - are legitimate st
Earlier today I had the honour of presenting a talk at Risk and Assurance Group (RAG) conference [https://riskandassurancegroup.org/new-orleans-conference-5-6-apr-2022/] in New Orleans on the history of STIR/SHAKEN in Canada from the perspective of smaller providers. RAG doesn't webcast its confere
If you've been following by blog, you'll know that equal access for all telecommunications providers to participate in the SHAKEN/STIR call authentication framework has been one of the causes I have been most passionate about. In late August, smaller Canadian telecommunications service providers (T
Last week wasn't great for the Canadian Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Two of Canada's largest competitive carriers suffered outages - Iristel was victim of a DDoS attack that lasted over 24 hours, between November 15th and 16th. At the same time, Thinktel experienced issues related to
Almost one year ago today (357 days ago to be exact), Tim Denton [https://tmdenton.com/] and I participated in the CRTC review of mobile wireless services on behalf of the Internet Society, Canada Chapter [https://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/crtc-hearings/episodes/66153138/]. A lot has happened in the
The sky is falling, or is it?Over the weekend, the Governor in Council issued an order responding to petitions to the Governor in Council concerning Telecom Order CRTC 2019-288 [https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2020/08/order-in-council-responding-to-petitions-to-
Flying cars are technologically possible, but not technologically feasible.In a recent reply [https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/DocWebBroker/OpenDocument.aspx?DMID=3822205] to CRTC file 8638-B2-201905879 (Application by Bell Canada for Commission approval to allow the Bell Companies to temporarily blo