Thursday turned out to be a nightmarish day for internet junkies across Canada, as the CRTC ruled that both Bell can proceed with plans to charge broadband customers per gigabyte of data consumed. Known as usage-based billing, the CRTC granted Bell permission to go ahead with the changes on the condition that it does not charge usage-based rates to wholesalers until all of its retail customers are switched over to usage-based plans. Bell did away with uncapped data allotments in 2006 and the vast majority of ...

While Canadian carrier hopeful WIND might not be launching any time soon thanks to its foreign ownership structure, outsiders are already drooling at the prospect of buying up all of WIND’s spectrum in the event that it doesn’t launch. WIND CEO Ken Campbell dismissed such things as “media speculation” during our interview with him and repeated ad nauseam that WIND is currently weighing its options, but now more of its would be competitors are speaking up on what might be. Said Rogers C...

Canadians have long craved for a new wireless carrier to bust onto the scene and break up what is often described as the anti-competitive practices of incumbents Bell, Rogers and TELUS (aka “The Big Three”). Following Industry Canada’s 2008 auction of Advanced Wireless Services, the majority of hope was placed in a swaggering upstart which recently announced it would operate under the WIND brand name. But this Thursday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission informed...

Back in August, Globalive, a big winner in Canada’s AWS auction, announced that it was going to launch its network under the WIND brand and shake up the Canadian wireless industry. Now it looks as if this will not be happening — at least in the immediate future — as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled yesterday that WIND does not meet the Canadian ownership rules. The rules, which are set out in the Telecommunications Act, stipulate that wireless carr...