OTTAWA – The CRTC has directed all incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) that have support structure services to revise the definition of subscriber drop wire in their respective tariffs.
The decision comes as a result of a show cause proceeding initiated by the Commission last November that urged ILECs to be consistent with the revised definition of subscriber drop wire established for Bell Aliant in a billing dispute between that company and Eastlink over payments for service poles.
As Cartt.ca reported, the Regulator clarified in the Bell Aliant/Eastlink matter that a “service pole” is to include all poles on…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC announced Thursday it is closing the file on a complaint from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) regarding various cable carriers’ wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services, and directed CNOC and the cable carriers to address outstanding issues through bilateral discussions or the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC).
In Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-40, the CRTC further directed CNOC and the cable carriers in question to submit a report, within 90 days, on the state of progress in resolving these issues. The cable carriers who were specifically included in CNOC’s original complaint, first submitted to the CRTC…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC’s decision last week that Vidéotron’s Montreal MAtv community channel is in violation of community television policy and thus must rectify the situation before its cable licence renewal in August 2015 does not go far enough, according to the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
As reported last week, after a complaint was filed in January 2014 by Independent Community TV (ICTV) of Montreal, the CRTC reviewed program logs submitted by Vidéotron for MAtv. In its Broadcasting Decision 2015-31, the CRTC concluded Vidéotron’s operation of MAtv “is in non-compliance with the requirements…
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OTTAWA — Drumheller, Alta.’s CHOO-FM must continue to include folk and folk-oriented music in its weekly playlist rotation after the CRTC denied the radio station’s application to amend its broadcasting licence.
Announcing its decision on Friday, the CRTC had determined previously that CHOO-FM (operated by Golden West Broadcasting Ltd.) was in non-compliance with the condition of its licence requiring the radio station to devote 10% of its musical selections each broadcast week to music content subcategory 32 (folk and folk-oriented).
Golden West submitted an application in September 2014 to the CRTC, requesting the broadcasting licence for CHOO-FM Drumheller be amended…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Hamel Système d’Information 2000 Inc., also known as Telelisting, has been ordered by the CRTC to pay a $260,000 fine for violating the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
Acting on information received from Canadians, the CRTC investigated Telelisting and concluded the company had divulged contents of the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) to its clients in violation of the Rules. Telelisting provides telephone directory services for online lead generation.
According to a CRTC news release, during the period from July 10, 2012 to July 10, 2014, Telelisting shared contents of the DNCL with clients who had not…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Videotron’s French-language community channel MAtv is not serving the diverse cultural communities in Greater Montreal, the CRTC told the Quebec broadcaster Wednesday, before approving its request for an English community channel.
MAtv is available to approximately 1.8 million homes in Montreal, Québec-Lévis, Sherbrooke, Cap-de -la- Madeleine, Sorel-Tracy, Granby, Netherlands St. Lawrence, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Ottawa. After a complaint in January 2014 by a group calling itself Independent Community TV, the Commission reviewed program logs submitted by Videotron for MAtv. Its investigation concluded that during the week in question, the channel devoted only 30.2% to access programming (the required…
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TORONTO – The CRTC left no doubt as to its stance on an open internet when it clamped down on Bell and Videotron’s practice of exempting their own mobile television services from their standard monthly data charges.
The Commission determined Thursday that mobile television services Bell Mobile TV and illico.tv give their respective distributors an undue preference in favour of their own services, and have subjected consumers of other services to a corresponding undue disadvantage, contrary to the Telecommunications Act.
Bell Mobility was ordered to eliminate the “unlawful practice” by April 29, 2015. Vidéotron, which had already told the Commission…
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TORONTO – The topic of simultaneous substitution always comes up a lot at this time of year, in the same breath as the Super Bowl and its nifty new ads.
While the average Canadian sports fan may be celebrating the CRTC’s decision Thursday to prohibit the controversial requirement in Super Bowl games starting in 2017, Bell Media, the Canadian rightsholder of the big game that airs nationally on its CTV network, told Cartt.ca that it was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling.
“The government is damaging the future of local television in Canada while rewarding U.S. corporations over home-grown companies”, said…
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LONDON – In his speech this morning to the London Chamber of Commerce, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais announced a Commission decision which said Bell and Vidéotron were providing themselves undue preferences by letting customers stream programming without it counting against their bandwidth caps like all other streamed video.
“In November 2013, the CRTC received an application – filed by a University of Manitoba graduate student named Ben Klass – complaining about an alleged undue preference on the part of Bell Mobility. A similar application, filed against Vidéotron, followed a few weeks later,” outlined Blais.
“The problem in…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has been asked to step in to help resolve a standoff between Bell Canada and the City of Hamilton over a new municipal access agreement (MAA).
In an application to the Commission dated August 22, 2014 but made public recently, the Ontario city said that its previous MAA expired in 2012, and that it notified Bell a year prior to say that it would not renew that agreement as it “provides no mechanism or means of holding Bell to account for its failures to either perform at an acceptable level or comply with the City’s basic…
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