In win for customers, Federal Court of Appeal denies Bell Mobility’s request to continue controversial Mobile TV service until court case is resolved

Court rules that Bell must stop discriminating against competing apps and services as per CRTC order, allowing other content providers to operate on a level playing field.

In response, OpenMedia Campaigns Manager Josh Tabish had this to say: “This is good news for Canadians. There’s no doubt Bell was hoping to maintain the power to pick and choose what we see online in the years it could potentially take to resolve this case. Today, they lost that power.”

Tabish continued: “When the CRTC first investigated complaints that telecom giants were making competing content more expensive, other providers like Rogers dropped their own Mobile TV services. In contrast, Bell hung on to their service until the bitter end – but the court took note of this, and today made it very clear that they must stop their discriminatory practices and enable all content to travel across their networks equally.”

Today’s decision comes on the heels of an announcement that Rogers’ subsidiary, Fido, has similar plans to make competing apps and services more expensive over their networks, creating unfair incentives to privilege certain services over others. OpenMedia will be watching this issue closely as more details on the mobile packages emerge.

Canadians can tell the CRTC and Industry Canada that Canada’s mobile phone and Internet providers giants should have to treat all apps and services equally, and not be allowed to unfairly push people to use content and services they own at https://UnblockCanada.ca

About OpenMedia

OpenMedia is an award-winning community-based organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy by engaging hundreds of thousands of people in protecting our online rights.

Through campaigns such as StopTheMeter.ca and StopSpying.ca, OpenMedia has engaged over half-a-million Canadians, and has influenced public policy and federal law.

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Contact

Josh Tabish

Campaigns Manager, OpenMedia.ca

1-778-990-1218

[email protected]