Disruption

VW v. TESLA

VW v. TESLA

Ford v. Ferrari is yesterday’s story. Today, it’s Volkswagen v. Tesla. The two battles are not entirely uncommon. As it was in the 1960’s confrontation, the current competition wants to seize superior engineering to capture a market. But the next winner won’t be...

Landslide Reveals Modern Life Vulnerability

Landslide Reveals Modern Life Vulnerability

On February 2, 2020, thousands of Canadians lost by a landslide—and most weren’t even in politics! Ordinary citizens found normal life interrupted for days after a landslide near North Bend, B.C. cut fiber optic cables. Phone and internet customers had service...

Featured News

Wireless Ad Battles

The prospect of Verizon moving into the Canadian wireless market has resulted in an unprecedented ad campaign from the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).  Not since the days of the proposed “cable tax” that would have required cable, satellite...

Trip-Sharing is Giving Cabs a Rough Ride

Canada’s taxi industry enriches a tiny minority, exploits drivers and provides expensive and spotty services for many people highly dependent on cabs, such as women and the poor. It increases the rate of car ownership, as people who might otherwise rely on cabs find poor availability and high fares work against them. Finally, it prevents us getting full value from the millions of privately owned cars on the road. Fortunately, help is on the way.

BCE Acquisition of Astral Media Approved

The CRTC finally approved BCE’s acquisition of Astra Media, the second time that BCE presented a deal for approval.  In this version of the deal BCE has sold interests and will divest itself of several other properties to fall under the thresholds for media...

The Wireless Industry Code

The CRTC released the Wireless Industry Code on Monday.  The Code itself has 8 pages of rules and 2 pages of definitions and is accompanied by a 1-pager entitled “Your Rights as a Consumer” which has a handy checklist that anyone can use to see if their supplier is...

Drones Hit New Turf: U.S. Farmland: Agricultural Groups Experiment With Unmanned Vehicles to Monitor Crops and Spray Pesticides

Farmers are starting to investigate the use of drones for a decidedly nonmilitary purpose: monitoring crops and spraying pesticides. As the spring growing season unfolds, universities already are working with agricultural groups to experiment with different types of unmanned aircraft outfitted with sensors and other technologies to measure and protect crop health.