GATINEAU – Canadians seem to have a lot to say about their broadband service.
The CRTC said Tuesday that it has already received over 15,000 responses to its questionnaire on telecom services, including nearly 10,000 responses in the first 24 hours after making the questionnaire available five days ago.
The questionnaire is the second phase of the Commission’s review of basic telecommunications services, and asks Canadians to weigh in on the telecom services that they consider necessary, what they rely on most, and whether the cost of those services should be standardized across the country.
“The fact that many Canadians have responded…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request by Bell Media seeking to convert eight of its specialty channels from Category A services into Category B services.
In its decision on Monday, the Commission reiterated that it had set out a specific timeline for the implementation of policy changes resulting from its Let’s Talk TV proceeding, and said that Bell failed to provide evidence as to how the broadcasting system would benefit by making an exception to that timeline.
As Cartt.ca reported, Bell filed Part 1 applications posted last July to change Bravo, The Comedy Network, Discovery Channel,…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Four and a half months after Vidéotron announced it would exempt certain music streaming services from its wireless data caps, prompting two complaints to the CRTC mere days later, telecom companies, consumer rights groups and others are still debating the interpretation of the Telecommunications Act, Internet traffic management policy and the wording of a recent CRTC decision.
The Unlimited Music offer applies to higher-end data plans offered by Vidéotron Mobile. It exempts a list of music streaming services, including Songza, Spotify, Google Play Music and Stingray Music, from…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The CRTC wants to hear which telecom services that Canadians consider necessary, what they rely on most, and whether the cost of those services should be standardized across the country.
The Commission kicked off the second phase of its review of basic telecommunications services Thursday by encouraging Canadians to complete a short questionnaire to share their views on the telecommunications services available in their region. Canadians who cannot access the questionnaire online may call 1-877-249-2782 to fill it out over the phone with an agent or to request a paper copy, or, may send a fax to…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has found that Rogers Media’s decision to cancel local third-language newscasts on its OMNI stations does not constitute a breach of its conditions of licence, and subsequently turned down requests by Urban Alliance on Race Relations and Unifor Local 723M seeking an expedited public hearing on the matter.
The Commission said Tuesday that it will instead review the OMNI stations’ ongoing performance and requirements, including their obligations regarding the provision of local third-language programming, as part of the upcoming hearing that will form part of the licence renewal process scheduled to begin later this year.
“This will…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The new TV providers Code of Conduct, an idea which came out of the CRTC's Let's Talk TV Policy Review will be announced this week, the Regulator has announced.
The Code of Conduct is expected to set out new rules which protect consumers by giving TV carriers (cable, satellite and IPTV companies) new regulations to govern their relationships with their customers. The code proposes that TV service providers would be required to provide easy-to-understand agreements to their customers, notify them of changes to their services, and clarify the terms surrounding issues such as the addition or…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has issued a call for radio applications to serve the Edmonton market after determining that the area can sustain an additional commercial station.
The Commission said Friday in the first of two related decisions that its preliminary view is that the market would be best served by proposals targeting ethnic communities. The Edmonton Numeris central market includes the cities of Edmonton, Fort Saskatchewan, Leduc and St. Albert, a region currently served by 19 commercial radio stations, of which only one is an ethnic service.
The call for applications comes in response to an application last April by VMS…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – Without provisions explicitly requiring investment in transport facilities, independent ISPs simply won’t spend the money, contends Bell Canada in reply comments to its appeal of Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326.
The company’s December 14 intervention maintains its original position that ISPs must bring their own transport facilities to central offices (COs) and cable head-ends and provide service to retail customers before being allowed to use disaggregated wholesale high speed access (HSA).
The vertically integrated communications and broadcasting company argues that because transport is already highly competitive – 84 of the 100 Bell major COs in Ontario in Quebec…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canada’s public payphones perform an important public service, despite their dwindling use, the CRTC said Thursday as it unveiled two new “consumer safeguards”.
As a follow up to its payphone report released in February, the Commission announced new measures to ensure Canadians are properly informed about the costs of making certain long-distance calls over a payphone.
Specifically, the CRTC directed incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to inform consumers of the costs of making long-distance calls using a credit card or other forms of non-cash payment in an effort to avoid bill shock. In addition, payphone providers must inform the CRTC…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC has used its new anti-spam powers to pull the plug on a Toronto-based server distributing malware on the Internet.
The Commission said late Thursday that it served it’s first-ever warrant under Canada's anti-spam law (CASL) to take down a command-and-control server in Toronto as part of a coordinated international effort. The warrant was granted by a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and was carried out with the assistance from the RCMP. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, Interpol, Microsoft Inc., Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre were also involved in…
Continue Reading
