OTTAWA – When Cartt.ca wrote about CBC/SRC CRTC licence renewal last month, one of the questions which remained was: How much money will the Corporation be able to draw upon to meet its obligations, and how can the CRTC impose obligations in the absence of budgetary certainty?
It’s not the first time the CRTC and the CBC/SRC found themselves at this junction, but this time there was some guidance from the 2016 Federal Budget.
However, the 2016 Budget used language which created more confusion. “The Minister of Canadian Heritage will work with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada to develop a five-year accountability…
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GATINEAU – Talking about utility poles and other such infrastructure might sound awfully boring, but when it comes to the potential barriers to the delivery of advanced communications – especially in hard-to-serve regions – clear policies for access to such infrastructure is crucial.
This week the CRTC issued a call for comments “regarding potential barriers to the deployment of broadband-capable networks in underserved areas in Canada” and this proceeding will be an important one for all operators, especially those serving areas where they count poles needed per customer, instead of households served per pole.
Basically, rolling broadband…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today levied a $100,000 fine to John Paul Revesz and Vincent Leo Griebel, who were partners operating under the business name Orcus Technologies, for developing, selling and promoting malware.
An additional penalty of $15,000 was issued to John Paul Revesz “for operating a secure dynamic domain name service that was allegedly used by hackers to communicate with a variety of infected machines,” reads the press release.
The Commission investigation found Orcus Technologies marketed and sold a Remote Administration Tool under the name Orcus RAT, and concluded this tool was in fact malware. It was a Remote…
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CIPPIC and vLex want to correct power imbalance when it comes to policy making
OTTAWA – Canada’s CIPPIC and international legal technology firm, vLex want to reduce the barriers to effective public participation in communications policy and will do so by developing a free and fully public communications law and policy research platform, the two organizations announced today.
This initiative “aims to increase access and contextual understanding of regulatory, policy and legal submissions and documentation, allowing Canadian citizens to become more informed and more influential in a policy-making process that is often dominated by multi-billion dollar telecom and broadcasting giants,” reads…
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GATINEAU – Canadians hate it when the phone rings and it is someone or a machine trying to sell them something they don’t need and the CRTC was given the mandate to deal with these nuisance calls through legislation back in 2005.
As the callers are becoming more sophisticated or rather as technology allows them to easily circumvent the rules, the regulatory bodies around the world have been struggling to keep up with the task at hand.
One of those method to circumvent the rules is called ID/spoofing. Spoofing occurs when callers deliberately falsify the caller identification (e.g. telephone number)…
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OTTAWA – The NDP’s industry critic says the federal government should have provided more detail about the promised rollout of a Digital Charter ) in Thursday’s Speech from the Throne.
Instead, it only referenced a plan to “review the rules currently in place…to ensure fairness for all in the new digital space.”
Windsor West Member of Parliament Brian Masse, the New Democratic critic for digital government; innovation, science and industry; and telecommunications, said the charter deserved a mention since it provides a “broad framework” of expectations and rules for industry, consumers and government regarding online rights that address such…
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GATINEAU – As we’ve reported, one of the outcomes of the Let’s Talk TV process was the creation of a national ratings service to include set top box viewership data from all major TV carriers – which was enshrined in the conditions of licence for large BDUs.
However, with Videotron’s status still unclear since it abandoned the process earlier this year despite its condititions of licence requiring it to take part (the Commission has since turned down its request to pull out and the Federal Court has refused to hear…
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GATINEAU – While everybody else was requesting an extension to the 90-day deadline to file a R&V with the CRTC over its decision on wholesale internet access rates, Telus quietly filed its own application on November 13th.
It requests the Commission to vary some determination of the Telecom Order 2019-288.
The following excerpts are highly technical. Mature audiences only.
To determine the rates Telus must charge its resellers, the Commission relies on Phase II costing methodology, but Telus argues, however, “the effectiveness of Phase II hinges on adhering to and implementing the underlying principles of this methodology. If…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC announced Wednesday the total amount of subsidy to be paid to incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) from the National Contribution Fund will total $60.7 million in 2019. The Commission also said it estimates the total interim subsidy payments to ILECs will be approximately $38.7 million in 2020.
Last year, in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2018-213, the CRTC announced it would phase out the local telephone service subsidy over a three-year transition period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021, through semi-annual reductions.
Each year, the CRTC finalizes the subsidy payments for ILECs providing residential local telephone service…
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OTTAWA — The CRTC announced Wednesday it has approved the application submitted by the Canadian Administrator of VRS (CAV) for $16,032,739 in funding from the National Contribution Fund (NCF) for 2020.
Access to this funding will enable the CAV to continue to offer video relay service in Canada to the benefit of all Canadians, as envisioned by the Commission in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2014-187, the CRTC said today in its decision. Video relay service (VRS) enables people who use sign language to conduct telephone calls and communicate with voice telephone users using sign language. VRS connects a sign language user…
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