This week a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development confirmed what Canadians have been saying for years: that we pay some of the highest prices in the industrialized world for some of the worst cell phone service. Despite the fact that the data supports many of
Continue readingAuthor: Catherine Hart
OpenMedia.ca: Government’s reckless attack on cloud services undermines our digital economy and throws privacy to the wind
Government spying has been a hot topic of late, thanks to the recent revelations that the U.S. National Security Agency has been spying on American and foreign citizens by vacuuming up huge amounts of communications data directly from big telecom companies. This was quickly followed by the announcement that Canada’s
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Bell-Astral takeover would give Bell millions of your dollars
Last year telecom giant Bell unleashed a new $3.4B plan to take control of Astral Media, one of Canada’s largest media companies. Canada already has one of the most highly concentrated media systems in the industrialized world, and this deal would only make this situation worse by giving Bell a
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Upgrading Europe’s cell phone market: If they can do it, why can’t we?
In a recent flurry of activity across Europe, we’ve seen cell phone service costs slashed – even in markets that have traditionally lacked choice and have been known for their high prices. As Canadians see these developments, we have to ask, if Europe can improve, why can’t we? It’s high
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Pro-privacy community rallies against CISPA & is ready for a reincarnation
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week, after a last-minute amendment that some have argued will allow for even broader application of the bill. It is now awaiting a vote in the Senate, though the Senators don’t seem to be in
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Why Your High Cell Phone Bills Have Nothing To Do With The Size of Canada
Canada’s broken cell phone market has come under a lot of public scrutiny of late, with the CRTC trying to establish a set of minimum standards for wireless providers; the release of OpenMedia.ca’s citizen-powered report, Time For An Upgrade, which demonstrated the systematic mistreatment that cell phone users suffer due
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Canadians Deserve Better: Your MP Responses to the Cell Phone Report
The government is on the defensive. After we released our community-powered report on Canada’s cell phone market1 you’ve been sending it to your MPs, calling for their support.2 While MPs from the Liberal Party and the NDP have responded in support of our plan, and Elizabeth May was quick to
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Your Cell Phone Horror Stories in the News
Yesterday saw the launch of our crowdsourced report, Time for an Upgrade: Demanding Choice in Canada’s Cell Phone Market, which amplified citizen voices in calling for an end to customer mistreatment at the hands of service providers. An incredible 2,859 Canadians visited our website to submit their “cell phone horror
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: C-55 mythbuster and privacy in the future
Is online spying dead? New threats and the case for vigilance There has been growing concern amongst many members of the pro-privacy community that the government’s new Bill C-55 has risen from the ashes of the costly, invasive, and warrantless online spying Bill C-30 that was formally withdrawn earlier this
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Governments Boycott the New Internet Rules of the ITU
It’s been a whirlwind week at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) negotiations as member states scrambled to reach some kind of consensus on the updates to the ITU’s telecom rules by the deadline. As we’ve noted before, some states are intent on using the negotiations to expand the powers of
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Your Voice at the TPP Negotiations
The secretive and restrictive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is nearing its 15th round of negotiations, which will be held from December 3-12 in Auckland, New Zealand. This will be the first ro…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: European Parliament Opposes Restrictive Measures in Both CETA and ITU
According to Internet freedom group European Digital Rights, provisions that would criminalize our Internet use may be dropped from the Canada-EU Trade Agreement (CETA)! While the battle isn’t…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: NDP Opposes ‘Pay to Pay’ Billing
Bell Canada has begun imposing new fees on customers who receive paper copies of their bills. In April Internet customers were told that they would have to switch to online billing by June, or s…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Your Voices Were Heard: ITU Makes Important Step Towards Transparency
We’ve had some major victories lately in making sure that the rules around telecommunications keep public interest at the centre. You recently spoke out against Bell’s attempted takeover of …
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Behind the Scenes of the Bell-Astral Decision: The Heroes of Stop the Takeover
The CRTC’s recent ruling against Bell’s proposed takeover of Astral Media was a great victory for the thousands of Canadians who participated in the Stop the Takeover campaign, and the coalition behind it. To help make citizens’ voices heard, the…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Update: Controversial CETA Negotiations Hurtling Towards Conclusion
We’ve been keeping you updated on the developing concerns over the Canada- EU Trade Agreement (CETA), and today is the last day of what may well be its final round of negotiations. We still know very little about what is actually in this agreement, and whether the restrictive Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: What’s the Deal? Demand Transparency for the TPP
Canada has officially joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and has done so as a second-tier partner, meaning that we have had to accept, sight-unseen, the provisions that have already been negotiated. As Ottawa law professor Michael Geist put it in an interview with the Vancouver Sun, “just by entering into
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: CRTC’s Bell-Astral Decision Signals Welcome Shift Towards Transparency
Last week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled against Bell’s proposed $3.4B takeover of Astral Media. Following a very public hearing last month, the Commission announced that Bell had not proven that this deal would benefit the broadcasting system or be in the public interest. We are awaiting
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: UN broadband report predicts future “roaming seamlessly between networks”
The first ever report from the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development, released last week, has found that Internet access has increased over the past year within households, but individual use is lagging in many countries. Jamie Beach at Telecoms.com notes that the Commission “predicts that mobile broadband could prove
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Secretive CETA could be signed by year-end
A few months ago we posted about the threat the Canada-EU Trade Agreement, or CETA poses to Internet freedom, and explained why it could be bad for Canadians—it’s a secretive and binding international agreement like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Internet freedom community loudly voiced its concern when a
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