By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – The CRTC team involved in the co-development of a new Indigenous broadcasting policy said it could use a government-commissioned panel report to guide its process, according to a confidential document released to this publication.
The undated document highlights several areas from the report by the broadcasting and telecommunications legislative review panel, released in late January, “which could help guide its own work, particularly where they prove consistent with issues discussed during early engagement sessions.” The three-phase review began in September 2019 with the engagement sessions and will be followed by a public consultation process and then…
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Making competition illegal to support broken business models must be opposed
By Tim Denton
THE BROADCAST AND TELECOM Legislative Review (BTLR) panel report, also known as the Yale Report, went an order of magnitude further than many assumed it would in seeking to expand the power of the CRTC, through the Broadcasting Act.
Not content with placing all full motion video into the jurisdiction of the Commission, it also proposed that written materials (alpha-numeric text) be subject to federal regulatory authority when the content in question is news. It should be noted that Brad Danks did not rely on these recommendations in…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – AFX Communications, a competitive pay telephone service provider (CPTSP) based north of Montreal which offers service in a small portion of Québec, has long received compensation from the incumbent local exchange carrier (in this case Bell) for toll-free calls made from its phones.
In May 2019, AFX filed an application with the CRTC claiming Bell stopped, since March 2019, paying the required $0.80 a call when the payphone was connected to a Bell business line. Bell says the tariff only applies to calls made over a pay telephone access line (PAL) and not to call…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Community Media Advocacy Centre, a non-profit organization comprised of academics, lawyers, policy consultants and community media practitioners wants more information from the CBC placed on the public record in advance of its delayed licence renewal proceeding.
It is a regular intervenor in CRTC processes and filed its procedural request on July 22nd.
On February 8, 2020, the group sent a procedural request to the CRTC, asking the Commission to “order the CBC to release all Annual Cultural Census reports it has compiled since it first started preparing them in the first quarter of 2018. CMAC further…
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LONGUEUIL, Que. — Independent ISP EBOX today announced it will begin offering Internet, telephone and television services in the Abitibi region of Quebec starting this fall.
This could mean Longueuil, Que.-based EBOX will provide Internet services in Abitibi before Videotron expands into the region, which it plans to do, following the CRTC’s ruling which ordered Bell to give Videotron third-party Internet access to its Cablevision du Nord subsidiary network. The decision actually paved the way for any reseller to come in and lease space on the network.
EBOX already operates as a TPIA provider on four national networks and…
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By Denis Carmel
JULY 15 WAS THE DEADLINE for intervenors to provide the CRTC with their final submissions in the Wireless Policy Review proceeding.
It has been a long process and it is far from over. Technically, it started with an announcement on February 28, 2019.
However, back in 2015, the CRTC was saying: “When the Commission established the current wholesale mobile wireless service regulatory framework in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-177, it determined that the framework would remain in place for a minimum of five years, to allow for the development of sustainable competition and to encourage continued innovation and investment…
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GATINEAU — Cambridge, Ont.-based competitive local exchange carrier Fibernetics last week filed an application with the CRTC seeking relief from what it calls “unjustifiable conduct” on the part of Bell Canada related to local network interconnection (LNI) between the two companies.
In an abridged version of its application dated July 14 and posted on the Commission’s website today, Fibernetics says it has attempted to negotiate an LNI agreement with Bell for eight additional local interconnection regions (LIRs) that Fibernetics wishes to enter as a Type 1 CLEC. In April, Fibernetics provided a trunk forecast to Bell for the eight LIRs…
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TORONTO — Independent television producers with productions in a language other than English or French can start applying on July 22 for the government of Canada’s Covid-19 emergency relief funds, the Canada Media Fund (CMF) announced today.
Funding will be distributed to applicants on a first-come/first-served basis until the September 18, 2020 deadline. Applicants may be eligible to receive a maximum contribution of $50,000.
Eligible applicants may apply with no more than three TV projects produced in a language other than English or French that are the subject of an advertising revenue-share barter agreement with an eligible CRTC broadcaster during a…
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“Innovation is the child of freedom and the parent of prosperity.” – Matt Ridley, in How Innovation Works
By Tim Denton
DESPITE MANY POINTS OF AGREEMENT I have with the analysis made by Brad Danks in his piece The Critics are wrong: it’s time to regulate the Internet, I am in utter disagreement with his conclusions, namely that the Internet in Canada both can and should be regulated under the Broadcasting Act.
Mr. Danks is not my target, though. The Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legal Review (BTLR) is. My conclusion is the report should be put on the shelf, forgotten as…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The Competition Bureau is investigating whether Videotron employees artificially inflated online reviews of the Helix IPTV platform – and potentially other company products – in public forums, according to new court files asking the court to compel the Montreal-based company to hand over documents to advance the inquiry.
The watchdog said it’s of the preliminary view that the company’s employees may have violated competition law by “promoting, directly or indirectly, the supply or use of its products” and business interests through “deceptive” means. As the investigation is ongoing, the Bureau said it has not concluded any…
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