By Ahmad Hathout
Several internet service providers have filed petitions asking cabinet to send back a decision by the CRTC this summer that refused to back down on letting Rogers, Bell and Telus (Big 3) access the wholesale internet regime.
Rogers, SaskTel, Cogeco, Eastlink, the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC), and TekSavvy filed petitions in September – made public on Friday – requesting that cabinet send back for reconsideration the decision by the CRTC in June refusing to heed their advice to review and vary the commission’s final framework in August 2024.
That framework allows…
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The CRTC last week approved Akash Broadcasting’s acquisition of Bell Media’s radio station CFRW-AM Winnipeg, which has been off the air since June 2023.
The one-time TSN Radio station had last operated under Bell Media’s “Funny” format before its 2023 shutdown.
In its Oct. 16 decision to approve Akash’s purchase of CFRW-AM, the CRTC said it had determined the value of the transaction is $1,047,250, and thus Akash must pay tangible benefits totalling $62,835 (six per cent of the transaction value) in equal payments over seven consecutive…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has approved final attachment rates for competitors to access Bell and Telus poles.
The rates, on a per unit per month basis, are higher than those approved by the commission many years ago but are less than what the telcos asked for.
After roughly 15 years renting out its poles in Ontario and Quebec for a rate of $1.04, Bell got a final approved rate of $1.32 – 77 cents less than what it asked for. Telus’s pole attach rates for British Columbia and Alberta were bumped up from $1.61 to $2.29, 20 cents less than what…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Friday it believes service providers should notify unhappy customers of the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) sooner in the complaints process.
Instead of informing customers they have recourse with the dedicated complaints watchdog only at the second level of escalation (first being the proposed telecom solution), the CRTC now believes telecoms should tell customers about the CCTS at the same time they offer that solution regardless of whether that resolution is favourable to the customer. The “offered solution” is defined by the CRTC as a written proposal intended to close the complaint, which…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Sports streamer DAZN is telling the Federal Court of Appeal that it is not sure whether it is obligated to immediately pay the base contribution amount forced upon it by the CRTC to support Canadian content funds.
The United Kingdom-based company filed a motion to the court last week seeking leave to intervene in an outstanding appeal against the CRTC policy for the purposes of clarifying whether a stay granted in December applies to all streamers or if must file for a suspension pending the outcome of the court’s decision.
“Providing this clarity with regards to whether the Base…
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Consultation triggered by Feb. 2024 complaint
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has launched a consultation Thursday to see whether it should force certain — and a broader base of — broadcasters to better facilitate accessibility of their services.
“The CRTC has heard that some content is hard to access for persons who are blind or partially sighted, and is working to identify, remove and prevent these barriers,” the CRTC said in a press release Thursday.
The key amendment the regulator is proposing is the removal of a qualifier under section 7.3 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, which stipulates that broadcasters…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Iristel is asking the CRTC to provide smaller service providers money to support the commission’s policy of sending wireless public alerts.
In a Part 1 application dated October 3 but made public Wednesday, the far north service provider is recommending that the CRTC use the National Contribution Fund (NCF) to bankroll the policy for smaller service providers because of what it conveys as a crippling cost of implementing it.
“The imposition of a requirement that wireless public alerts must be served by very small wireless carriers makes their business cases nonviable,” Iristel says in the application. “The Commission must…
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Telco focusing on content and mobility bundle
By Ahmad Hathout
Bell said Tuesday it will use the CRTC’s wholesale internet framework to launch fibre-based internet services in British Columbia and Alberta, reciprocating what its telco rival Telus is doing in eastern Canada.
The telco confirmed to Cartt that the launch of the services in western Canada “is a result of the CRTC’s recent decision,” which it does not agree with because of what it says is the policy’s negative impact on network investment. The regulator mandates that competitors have access to the bundled fibre infrastructure of Bell and Telus nationwide.
“Our position on…
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The News Forum and Rogers have reached a new agreement on the latter’s distribution of the former’s national news service, according to a letter filed jointly with the CRTC in late September.
With the new agreement in place, The News Forum is withdrawing its Part 1 application submitted to the commission in March, in which it alleged Rogers was unduly disadvantaging the discretionary network by excluding it from the cable giant’s legacy or grandfathered cable packages. In its April reply to The News Forum’s complaint, Rogers had called for the application…
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Proposing one-year trial for spoken word on FM
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday abolished radio licence renewal periods, thereby making licenses indefinite with regular compliance audits that it says will streamline the process and reduce the burden on both the industry and the commission itself.
The regulator said it was often processing over 300 licence renewal applications every year, with multiple rounds of information requested from each station. But it found that the vast majority of stations were in “full compliance at all times, and most of the non-compliance was minor and could be addressed easily.”
The new Broadcasting Act allows…
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