OTTAWA – All Canadian telecom service providers must join the CRTC’s Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) for a period of five years, the Regulator ruled on Wednesday.
After a hearing this week to review the independence and effectiveness of the CCTS, whose existing membership decision is set to expire later this month, the CRTC issued a rare bench ruling immediately after the hearing ended which dictated that “all residential and small business consumers that obtain forborne telecom services in Canada, including those that receive services from TSPs that do not have more than $10 million in revenues, should benefit from the services provided by the CCTS”.
Previously, membership with the telecom consumer agency was mandatory only for telecom companies with revenues greater than $10 million, and optional for smaller operators.
“A period of 5 years, rather than a shorter period as proposed by some parties, is appropriate to ensure sufficient certainty for the effective planning and operation of the Agency”, the CRTC’s decision continued.
The ruling comes in to effect on December 20 for current members of the CCTS and will apply to current non-member TSPs at a future date, which will be issued in January along with the Commission’s reasons for its decision.
The CCTS is an independent organization designed to resolve complaints between consumers and their telecommunications service provider. When the CRTC created the industry-funded agency in December 2007, it promised a three-year review. Led by Commissioner Howard Maker, its board of directors is made up of industry and consumer representatives.
