By Ahmad Hathout
Bell is telling the CRTC it has not received approval on a proposed tariff that would address the issue of the cost of prep work for its poles to which a Montreal municipality wants to attach.
The Municipalité régionale de comté (MRC) de D’Autray, located in the Lanaudière region northeast of Montreal, filed a Part 1 application in April asking the CRTC to force Bell to make adjustments to its existing attachment applications so that the telco, not MRC, is absorbing the costs of corrective work incumbent upon it.
The demand stems from a Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
If the CRTC raises the revenue threshold for contributions to the regulator’s administration of telecom matters, it will effectively concentrate the burden on fewer providers, which is the opposite of what it has been trying to do with changes to broadcasting fees that an application to raise the threshold is partially relying upon, Bell argues.
The Independent Telecommunications Providers Association filed a Part 1 application in late April calling for the increase in the revenue threshold from $10 million to $25 million to contribute to the CRTC’s administration of the telecom regime, with an annual…
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The CRTC last week asked the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee’s (CISC) Emergency Services Working Group (ESWG) to provide recommendations to ensure 911 calls routed to intermediary call centres are handled in the caller’s preferred official language.
The request stems from incidents reported in January in which 911 calls from francophone residents of Quebec were routed to Sudbury-based intermediary call centre Northern911 and answered in English.
In a May 31 letter to Ryan Anstey of the CISC’s ESWG, the CRTC’s executive director of telecommunications, Leila Wright, says the commission is concerned about the reported events.
“Canadians need…
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Foreign streamers say base contribution will make collaborations more difficult
By Ahmad Hathout
Foreign and standalone online streamers that make $25 million or more will be required to contribute five per cent of their previous year’s Canadian revenues into the system, an amount the CRTC said Tuesday would draw $200 million per year into supporting Canadian content.
The regulator said it is prioritizing certain categories of content to the receive funds, including the expensive-to-produce local news on radio and television, and content catering to French-language, indigenous and minority communities.
Of the five per cent, two per cent will go toward the Canada Media…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is asking Rogers to maintian TekSavvy’s ability to service its customers at two Toronto buildings until it can make a determination on an application by the wholesaler that warns the cable giant’s move to pure fibre would leave competitors behind.
The request came two days after TekSavvy complained that Rogers’s transition from hybrid fibre-coax facilities to pure fibre would mean it would lose 29 existing and possibly more future subscribers at the 191 and 201 Sherbourne Street buildings.
The regulator said in a Friday letter shared with Cartt that it is “concerned that customers…
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By Connie Thiessen
The CRTC is proposing cost recovery regulations that would apply to the largest online platforms that distribute news content as it continues to set up a framework around implementation of the Online News Act.
With the vast majority of the commission’s operations funded by fees charged to companies it regulates, it’s now proposing additional cost recovery rules in light of work required under the new Act. In a call for comments on the suggested measure, published Thursday, the CRTC proposes charging the largest digital operators to fund that new work, stipulating it will not collect from news businesses.
Cost recovery…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has ordered Bell’s Northwestel to stop adding a $20 surcharge for DSL internet services that don’t bundle the telecom’s home phone service.
The surcharge was approved by the commission in 2016 for the purpose of providing the telecom with enough revenue to complete by the end of 2017 DSL network upgrades in 45 communities in the Far North, which are considered high-cost serving areas outside of Whitehorse, Yukon, and Yellowknife.
“With the completion of these upgrades, the surcharge’s purpose has been fulfilled and it should no longer be added to customers’ bills,” the CRTC…
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The CRTC will decide how much it will cost Bell and Quebecor to broadcast each other’s sports channels, it said this month.
The two companies agreed that they could not hash out commercial terms to distribute Bell’s RDS and Videotron’s TVA Sports and filed in November a request for the regulator to make that decision.
The commission agreed in a letter dated May 15, saying the request met all the required criteria for a final offer arbitration hearing: the dispute is shared between the two; it concerns only monetary issues; the parties exhausted all methods to come to an agreement; the…
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Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Incorporated (APTN) has been given the green light from the CRTC to launch a new APTN Indigenous-language channel.
The CRTC on Tuesday approved a June 2023 application by APTN to amend its conditions of service so that its four distinct programming feeds — APTN West, APTN East, APTN North and the national APTN HD feed — could be consolidated into two high-definition channels — APTN and APTN Languages.
As a result of the CRTC’s decision, the APTN channel will soon operate on a unified broadcast schedule featuring programming in…
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By Ahmad Hathout
TVA Group will be able to broadcast fewer newscasts and hours of local programming to allow it to be nimbler in a rough financial environment, the CRTC ruled Monday.
TVA parent company Quebecor a year ago filed to the CRTC the request to ease the regulatory obligations on CFCM-DT in Quebec City, saying it would need some relief from the need to broadcast two newscasts every weekend and reduce by two hours the requirement to maintain 18 hours of local programming per week. The alternative to that, it warned, is that it would have to make “difficult…
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