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 readingTag: Action Plan
The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: Rohingya Muslims in Burma Face Humanitarian Crisis: Human Rights Watch
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Human Rights Watch says the Burmese government’s discriminatory policies are creating a humanitarian crisis that will ultimately result in long-term segregation and statelessness for the Rohingya and Kaman Muslim minorities. The respected New York-based NGO says “an ethnic Arakanese campaign of violence and abuses since June 2012 facilitated by
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: A consumer battle guide to cell phone mistreatment.
Canadians sent us their cell phone horror stories, and with them, we’ve created a road map to fix our cell phone market and helped to create a tool kit to fix your individual cell phone horror stories. We’ve seen stories where Canadians have been price-gouged with incredibly high roaming and
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Big Telecom continues to say the Canadian cell phone market is just fine – experts disagree.
There are things wrong in Canada’s cell phone market, and our report—using your lived experiences and the most recent and available data—is our effort to show what exactly is wrong in order to push decision-makers to create change that benefits Canadians. Big Telecom, knowing some of those things threaten their
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Canadians’ top 3 complaints about the cell phone market are … [drum roll, please]
The top 3 grievances Canadians have with the cell phone market are: price-gouging, restrictive contracts, and disrespectful customer service. Clearly it’s time to fix our broken telecom market, and we have an action plan to do it. read more
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Peter Nowak once more takes on myths of the wireless market.
Big Telecom continues to insist that the market is fine and Canadians are not paying some of the highest cell phone prices. Peter Nowak once again took on these claims and found more data showing that “Canadians are indeed paying high prices”. Our cell phone market is a lemon and
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: It’s time to fix our broken telecom market.
Despite what Big Telecom says, it is not myth that Canadians pay some of the highest wireless prices in the industrialized world. With our cell phone report, created from your stories, we’re working to fix our broken telecom market. read more
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: OpenMedia.ca confronts Telus with cell phone horror stories
Our Steve Anderson faces off with Telus and brings your cell phone horror stories and concerns into the spotlight. read more
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: Your voices shaped the digital policy platform of Liberal leadership candidate Joyce Murray
A few weeks ago I got an email from Liberal MP Joyce Murray’s office, asking the OpenMedia.ca Team to give input into the digital policy part of her platform, as she runs for party leadership. As part of our work making Canadian voices heard, we’re always more than happy to
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Oxford: UK study shows Internet access improves education
There are many reasons why we fight for an open and affordable Internet: for innovation, for freedom of expression, for your right to have a voice, and, as reinforced in this article, for education. Article from the University of Oxford: A major in-depth study examining how teenagers in the UK
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: How Canada’s online costs stack up worldwide
It’s no secret that when it comes to the Internet, Canadians pay higher prices for worse services than most countries in the industrialized world. This is largely because a handful of Big Telecom companies control upwards of 94% of the Internet service market in Canada, meaning that Canadians don’t have
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: You told us, we told them: A report-back from our meeting with Telus
When several senior representatives from Telus asked us to meet with them we knew immediately what we wanted the meeting to include: direct citizen stories about disrespectful and expensive cell…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Nowak: Is the CRTC really citizen-friendly?
Canadians have been speaking out and decision-makers at the CRTC have been listening. We’ve been heard in gathering feedback for a new wireless code, stopping the initial takeover bid from Big T…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: The Globe and Mail: The high costs of Arctic broadband
Canadians in the north are on the brink of a digital divide as aging networks, service outages and prohibitive costs all continue to affect everyday communications services. It’s a struggle that…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: CBC News: Superstorm shows value of endangered pay phones
In the midst of our push for Canadians to share their CellPhoneHorrorStory.ca to enact a new wireless code, we are reminded of the importance to have basic and affordable communications services…
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Canadians moved the CRTC
The beginning It started with Stop The Meter. The CRTC’s 2011 decision to allow Big Telecom to impose punitive extra fees across the entire Internet service market was the breaking point for hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have been price-gouged and bullied by their ISPs. In a short time,
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: The Georgia Straight: CRTC eyes new wireless rules, asks Canadians to help
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced they will hold a public hearing and consultation to create measures that will protect cell phone users. We’re making headway in fixing our broken telecom market thanks to your support of our StopTheSqueeze.ca campaign and our crowdsourced Action Plan. Read more
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Open positions at the CRTC
The CRTC announced yesterday that two positions will soon be opening up: Vice-Chairperson, Telecommunications (replacing outgoing vice-chair Len Katz) and Regional Member. In addition to those vacancies, five (out of thirteen) CRTC Commissioners’ terms will expire this coming spring/summer: Marc Patrone on March 18, Stephen Simpson on June 22, Suzanne
Continue readingOpenMedia.ca: Government takes small step in support of rural broadband access
The StarPhoenix yesterday called out phone company SaskTel for its sudden announcement of a cancellation of Internet services to rural areas in Saskatchewan. This will leave 8,000 customers without Internet access, at a time when “farmers are relying on the Internet more than ever before for such things as timely
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