OTTAWA – The CRTC has loosened the restrictions around customer/carrier services groups after receiving industry feedback on their roles and regulations.
A customer/carrier services group (CSG) is a distinct, functionally separate group within a telecommunications or broadcasting company whose role is to liaise and coordinate with competing service providers when conducting a variety of inter-carrier activities, primarily with respect to customer transfers.
Historically, the main purpose of a CSG has been to isolate and safeguard competitively sensitive information pertaining to retail customers and competing companies from other internal groups, such as sales and marketing. The reason for this practice is to prevent those groups from using such sensitive information to attempt to reacquire a customer who is lost to a competitor, while the transfer of facilities and/or services for that customer is taking place.
The Commission said Friday that it is eliminating the requirement for a CSG or CSG function not to disclose end-user information to the internal sales and marketing group when there is a third-party cancellation. It also said that all other CSG and CSG function requirements “remain appropriate”.
