A good sign to win in a Review & Vary on third party network access?
By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – The CRTC admitted Monday it may have misjudged the complexity of an independent ISP connecting to fibre.
“The Commission acknowledges that the differences between in-building fibre and in-building copper are greater than it had originally considered. There also appears to be some confusion about the existing framework among both in-building wire owners and competitors. It appears that some LECs that own in-building wire believe that only Bell Canada must give access to its in-building fibre to other LECs, while some competitors are…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA — Canadians will soon have access to a call blocking system that better protects them against illegitimate calls. Telecom service providers are required by the CRTC to implement this system within their networks by December 19.
With the implementation of this system, calls with caller ID information that either exceeds 15 digits or does not conform to a number that can be dialled (for example, 000-000-0000) will be blocked before reaching the subscriber, the CRTC explains in a news release issued Tuesday.
Providers that offer their subscribers call filtering services — which provide more advanced call management features —…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL — TTP Media, the independent broadcaster which has been trying for almost a decade to launch two news-talk AM radio stations here, has faced yet another setback. A windstorm in late November has knocked both stations off the air, and it will be several weeks before they're transmitting again.
Nicolas Tétrault, a real estate agent and former politician who is one of three partners behind the company, told Cartt.ca that the storm caused damage to a lot of equipment at the transmission site on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve south of Montreal. This included damage to the power supply,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – With the national dialogue stuck on familiar battle lines of lower prices versus network investment, Boston Consulting Group’s Centre for Canada’s Future published a new report today reminding the industry, the public and especially policy makers there are no simple black and white decisions here.
It’s complicated. Government and the CRTC must balance affordability with the need for quality, availability, investment, and innovation to enable the best outcome for Canada’s digital infrastructure. It isn’t easy.
The report estimates the benefits of what its authors see as the coming digital revolution could add $200 billion or more per year to…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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)…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading