And suffers a backlash
By Denis Carmel
QUEBEC CITY – CHOI-FM, the Québec City radio station whose licence the CRTC had refused to renew back in 2005 because of repeated on-air abuse against individuals and groups, is back in the news.
Last week, the station refused to air a commercial spot from the Québec government on the Covid-19 pandemic. The government wanted the ad to air on the talk station which has been questioning, through its hosts and guests, the reality of Covid-19, the government’s response and encouraging defiance from its listeners.
The station is also accused of having given a voice to…
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QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance said this morning it supports Videotron’s recent complaint to the Competition Bureau which alleges Bell Canada is unfairly slowing down and blocking access to Bell’s support structures (poles) in Quebec.
“CCSA’s members in Quebec have had the same experiences and frustrations Videotron cites in trying to get fair and timely access to Bell-owned telephone poles in order to extend high-speed Internet services in that province,” said CCSA CEO Jay Thomson in a release this morning.
“Anti-competitive tactics by Bell and other pole owners represent the biggest barrier to providing rural Canadians with…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The federal government’s Thursday announcement to spend another $2 billion on expanding broadband access to underserved communities as part of a $10-billion basket of infrastructure initiatives through the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s (CIB’s) Growth Plan leaves many unanswered questions.
“How is it going to be delivered? What’s the timeline? What communities will be prioritized?” wondered John Nater, the Conservative shadow minister for rural economic development. “We understand these will be loans, but we don’t know whether the interest rate will be competitive and how it will differ from commercial lending agencies.”
“I don’t have a ton of…
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TPIA wholesale fee decision must account for art, and science
By Len Katz
WHEN IT COMES TO the federal government’s response to the appeals of a CRTC order which, yet again, set final rates to be paid by internet service providers who lease network access from the cable and telecom companies’ networks, some well-respected industry experts have said the CRTC should just stick to its original decision.
They say the Commission should ignore the recent statement from the federal government that the Regulator should take into account potential negative impacts on network investments, especially in rural Canada, as part of…
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Ad spend down 60%, says broadcast association
By Ahmad Hathout
VICTORIA – A little over a month after a radio station in Kelowna went off the air due to pandemic-related advertising declines, the head of the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters (BCAB) sent a letter in May to the premier with a plea.
Pointing to relief measures introduced by the Quebec and federal governments, which include the waiving of licensing fees and consistent ad buys on local stations, Rob Bye requested a virtual meeting to discuss possible options.
“We’ve got positive verbal responses,” he said in an interview with Cartt.ca on Wednesday, adding…
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So northern BDU can offer the channel there
IQALUIT — Three Inuit broadcasters this week appealed to Shaw Communications to add IsumaTV’s 24-hour Inuktut-language television channel to Shaw’s satellite TV service in Nunavut.
IsumaTV Nunavut Independent Inuit Broadcasting is operated by non-profit Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV) in partnership with Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC). The three broadcasters sent a letter September 28 to Shaw CEO Brad Shaw requesting the IsumaTV Nunavut channel be added to Shaw Direct as soon as possible.
This followed an earlier appeal on September 10 to BDU Arctic Co-ops Limited CEO Ron Wilson asking for IsumaTV Nunavut…
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Also files lawsuit seeking $12 million in damages
MONTREAL — Quebecor-owned Videotron is taking its dispute with Bell over access to support structures to the Competition Bureau of Canada, asking for an investigation into Bell’s practices which Videotron says are anticompetitive by allegedly slowing down or, in some cases, blocking access to Bell’s telephone poles.
In a Videotron press release today, the company says its application to the Competition Bureau provides “multiple documented examples of the Canadian telecommunications giant’s stratagems to limit competition. These tactics, which are depriving entire communities of access to 21st century digital infrastructure, are destructive and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU — Online educational platform OneClass, owned and operated by Notesolution Inc., has agreed to pay $100,000 for allegedly violating Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), the CRTC announced today.
The OneClass e-learning platform is used by post-secondary students to access student-created study guides, lecture notes and video tutorials.
The Commission’s investigation alleged that between October 31, 2016, and March 25, 2020, OneClass sent commercial electronic messages to promote its platform, without first obtaining the required consent from message recipients. In addition, the Commission alleged OneClass installed a computer program, “OneClass Easy Invite Chrome Extension”, on the computer systems of post-secondary students between…
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But industry still has work to do
GATINEAU — The CRTC released today the findings of its first-ever secret shopper project, which was launched in response to the Commission’s 2019 report on misleading or aggressive sales practices among telecommunications service providers.
While the secret shopper report concludes the vast majority of enlisted shoppers’ interactions with the providers’ sales staff were perceived as positive, approximately one in five shoppers perceived they may have faced misleading or aggressive sales practices.
The report also says misleading or aggressive sales practices occur at a higher rate for certain vulnerable segments of the Canadian population, such…
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GATINEAU — As the CRTC continues a Review and Vary of its August 2019 order which slashed the wholesale rates third-party Internet access (TPIA) companies pay to the incumbent network owners, the Commission announced today it is approving a stay of the order’s implementation while it completes its review.
The stay was requested by Bell Canada and cable companies Cogeco, Eastlink, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron when those incumbents requested in December 2019 that the Commission review and vary its Telecom Order 2019-288 decision.
The Commission’s announcement today comes after the Federal Court of Appeal on September 10 dismissed the…
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