STRATFORD – Does Canada need a single Communications Act, one that blends the Telecommunications Act, the Broadcasting Act and the Radiocommunication Act?
CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein seems to think so.
Speaking Monday at the Canada 3.0 forum, von Finckenstein urged attendees to consider “the policy, legislative and regulatory changes that will be required to deal with the new technologies”.
“I can sum up in three points the changes that I believe are necessary”, he said in the address. “We need a conceptual rethinking of our whole approach to regulation; new comprehensive legislation for the whole field of communications; and an improved institutional…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – Mobilicity has received CRTC approval to proceed with the launch of its new wireless service.
In its ownership and control review, the Commission determined that, subject to certain modifications to the company’s amended and restated shareholders agreement, Mobilicty meets the requirements of the ownership and control regime making it eligible to operate as a Canadian telecommunications common carrier.
In a statement released that afternoon, chairman John Bitove said that Mobilicity has agreed to implement the changes within the required timeframe.
"We have been given the approval to offer Canadians truly competitive wireless services," Bitove said in the statement. "It has taken four…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – The tenure of CRTC vice-chair, broadcasting, Michel Arpin draws to a close at the end of August. According to sources, Arpin has already been officially notified by the Prime Minister’s Office that he will not be offered a renewal, so the big question in Gatineau is who will fill his shoes come September 1?
Arpin, a well-respected broadcast policy veteran with a long history in the industry, was appointed August 31, 2005 and prior to that was senior regulatory and governmental affairs advisor for Astral Media. Before that he worked for Radiomutuel. He had a prior stint with…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has released new broadcast license trafficking rules which make it easier to sell a license that was awarded during a non-competitive process.
The Commission announced Monday that transactions involving a licence granted through a non-competitive process do not undermine the integrity of the licensing process and are therefore excluding from its original policy which prohibits a transfer during the first two years following the launch of a service.
“The Commission is of the view that the revised scope and application of the Policy will have a positive impact on the Canadian broadcasting system”, the information bulletins…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down CBC’s request to amend the broadcast licence of its specialty channel bold, instead giving it a month to come up with another programming strategy.
As Cartt.ca has reported, CBC re-launched its Country Canada category 1 specialty channel as bold on March 27 2008, after telling the CRTC that the change could be done without amending its original nature of service. But the Commission disagreed, and scheduled a hearing to determine whether the way that CBC re-branded the channel had negatively impacted “the integrity of the licensing process”. The CRTC eventually suspended the…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – It’s time to open up Canada’s telecom borders to foreign investment, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development told the federal government this morning.
Dimitri Ypsilanti, head of the information, communications and consumer policy division directorate on science, technology and industry with the OECD in Paris discounted the both cultural and network sensitivity reasons for maintaining foreign investment restrictions in telecom during his chat this morning with the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology which is examining the rules on foreign investment in Canadian telecom companies.
“There’s no reason in my mind to believe that foreign telecom network…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – CRTC audits of the community channels operated by some of Canada’s biggest cable companies show “numerous abuses”, according to the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
From 2002 through 2005 (the last year in which the CRTC monitored them), CACTUS said that the audits prove that cable companies “routinely” exceeded the maximum of two minutes per hour of promotional ads, and the 15-second limit for sponsorship messages.
Calling out Rogers in particular, CACTUS said that one of its OHL hockey programs contained 24 ads in one episode, plus another 41 ads two nights later, yet none of…
Continue Reading
KINCARDINE, ON – Bryan Walden just wants a chance to compete.
The president of Kincardine Cable has asked the CRTC to level the playing field and allow small cable companies like his the chance to offer local telephone service to their customers, in the same way that the independent telcos in his rural region can offer television services – or that big cable companies can offer in their urban territories.
But a leftover protection in our telecommunications regulations is standing in his way and he’d like to know why.
“(The CRTC) opened local exchange competition years ago, saying the small (telcos should) have…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Bell Canada had some strong words for the CRTC on the way it reported the financial results of Canadian broadcasting distributors and conventional television stations last month.
In a letter addressed to CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein dated March 29, Bell accused the Commission of not reporting the industry’s financial data “in a factual and complete manner”, and offered its recommendations on how to do so.
According to Bell, the primary profitability measure reported by the Commission, profit before interest and taxes (PBIT), does not take into account the yearly capital investments that BDUs make.
“Nowhere is it reported…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA – The CRTC has changed its mind about accepting applications for new Category A services.
In a broadcasting public notice issued in October 2008, the Commission said that it would consider applications for new Category A services filed on or before April 1 2010, with a view to issuing decisions before August 31, 2011.
However, in a bulletin on Wednesday, the CRTC said that in light of the “significant changes” experienced by the broadcasting industry of late, “(i)t is the Commission’s view that the broadcasting industry needs sufficient time to adapt to these changes and, therefore, that the introduction…
Continue Reading
