GATINEAU – Canadian consumers need their wireless companies to be much more transparent when it comes to contract terms and other matters, so the industry should have national standards when it comes to the provision of wireless services, Telus told the CRTC on Wednesday in calling for a public hearing on transparency in wireless.
The call for that new process came in a letter to the Commission from the company’s senior vice-president of government and regulatory affairs, Michael Hennessy, where he denied an accusation leveled by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre that Telus routinely charges wireless customers for 30 additional…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has caught and fined another telemarketer for violating the country’s national do not call list (DNCL) rules.
Between October 10, 2010 and June 21, 2011, the Commission said that it received “numerous complaints” in relation to telemarketing telecommunications made by Ed Barna, carrying on business as Byo Steem, a steam cleaning company based in London, ON.
After an investigation, it levied an $8,0000 administrative monetary penalty against the company for initiating four telemarketing calls to consumers whose numbers were registered on the DNCL, and for initiating these telecommunications without having paid all applicable fees to the national…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has resumed its proceeding to establish a model municipal access agreement (MAA), albeit with a slight change.
MAAs are negotiated between municipalities and telecommunication providers for access to municipal rights-of-way, such as street crossings and other municipal property, for the purposes of installing, operating, and maintaining transmission facilities.
After kicking off the process last September, the Commission said Tuesday that it is amending the process to begin with the establishment of an ad-hoc CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) working group to develop the access terms and conditions to be included in the model MAA, and not with a…
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GATINEAU – Shaw Communications filed an appeal to the CRTC on Friday regarding last October’s policy decision to quash usage-based billing in favour of incumbents charging independent internet service providers either a flat rate, or a rate based on capacity and the number of users.
Under the new regulatory regime, ISPs can now sell smaller providers a set capacity per month, or a simple flat fee for a set level of speed – and was officially instituted February 1st. The new policy also means smaller ISPs will have to pay more to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has received 108 complaints since October 2009 about the Internet traffic management practices (ITMPs) used by the country’s Internet service providers.
In a new status report released Tuesday, the Commission broke out the complaints by 'ITMP disclosure complaints', which are those related to whether the Internet service provider has disclosed information on its website or in customer materials about any ITMPs it uses; 'ITMP usage complaints', which are those related to the effect of ITMPs on customers; and 'non-ITMP complaints', which are complaints that are determined not to be related to an ISP’s use of an ITMP…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is considering amending the definition of the “broadcast day” as it applies to the standard conditions of licence for competitive mainstream sports specialty services.
The Commission said Tuesday that the proposed amendment would allow licensees of specialty Category C services operating in the mainstream sports genre to choose between an 18- or a 24-hour broadcast day. Currently, the broadcast day is defined as the period of up to 18 consecutive hours, beginning each day not earlier than six o’clock in the morning and ending not later than one o’clock in the morning of the following…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given Bell Media the green light to add a pair of new transmitters to its CTV Two station in Barrie, a move that was opposed by two of its own commissioners in addition to a host of competing broadcasters.
Bell Media asked to add two new digital transmitters to CKVR-DT Barrie to serve the areas of Burlington, Fonthill, Fort Erie, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Oakville and Welland, Ontario. Opposing interveners, which included Channel Zero, Rogers Broadcasting, CBC, and Shaw Communications, argued that approval of the applications would have a negative impact on other Canadian…
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GATINEAU – Chris Seidl has been promoted to executive director, telecommunications, it was announced today.
Seidl had been serving as acting ED since John Traversy was promoted to Secretary General in October.
“Chris’ telecommunications experience in both the CRTC and the private sector will serve him well in his new functions,” said acting CRTC chair Len Katz in a staff memo.
Prior to his new post, Seidl (right) was director general of convergence policy at the Commission and before…
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GATINEAU – CRTC vice-chairman, telecom, Len Katz, has been elected acting chairman of the CRTC, the Commission confirmed Wednesday morning.
He will remain as acting, or interim, chair until such time as the Government of Canada names a new chairperson. Katz has been serving as vice-chairman of telecommunications since October 2007, and was previously the executive director of broadcasting and telecommunications. Before joining the CRTC, Katz spent 30 years in the private sector as president and COO of Digimerge Technologies and president of Rogers Business Solutions, among other senior roles. (And Cartt.ca profiled him here).
Under the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission…
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KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN made a lot of work for a lot of us.
As he has noted since he first took the job of CRTC chair in January of 2007, he wanted to make the CRTC more open, predictable, fair, and timely. While by our judgment he succeeded, with that openness came more public processes and a quick count of the number of public proceedings under his watch comes to 103. His predecessor, the late Charles Dalfen, called just 78.
Mr. Dalfen, however, never had to deal with the likes of YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.
Coinciding with von Finckenstein’s tenure at the…
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