GATINEAU — The CRTC is holding a public hearing in Gatineau starting on Tuesday, November 5, where it will examine Allarco Entertainment’s application to renew the licence of Super Channel.
As reported previously by Cartt.ca, the CRTC said back in May that Super Channel’s licence renewal application required further explanation by Allarco Entertainment after interventions submitted to the Commission raised issues regarding instances of apparent non-compliance. Some of those instances of non-compliance were related to the distribution of Canadian programs, the eligibility and late payment of certain Canadian programming expenditures, and the eligibility and late payment of certain expenditures…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA — The CRTC has initiated a show cause proceeding as the result of six telecommunications service providers (TSPs) failing to become participants in the Commission for Complaints for Telecom-television Services Inc. (CCTS) and ignoring letters and requests for information sent by CRTC staff in the last year.
In its Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2019-363, the CRTC said the six telecom resellers who have not become CCTS participants are WISP Internet Services Inc., Golden Rural High Speed, Pure Channel Communications Inc., MySignal.ca Solutions Inc., Redbox Solutions Ltd., and Total Cable Service Inc. The Commission said it is launching…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – "The Commission is of the preliminary view that certain device financing plans may create a new barrier for customers to take advantage of competitive offers in the market.
“In particular, customers, who may benefit in the immediate term from lower monthly costs related to their devices, appear to be asked to accept terms and conditions that may require them to stay with their current WSP after the end of their wireless service plan commitment period or be charged for the remainder of the cost of the device,” reads the notice from the CRTC when it opened a Continue Reading
OTTAWA — The CRTC says the total amount of Part II licence fees to be assessed by the Commission in 2019 is estimated to be $116.6 million.
The Commission made the announcement Wednesday in Broadcasting Order CRTC 2019-359. Sections 11(1) and 11(2) of the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations set out the components for the calculation of the Part II licence fees, paid by major licensed broadcasting undertakings.
The CRTC said it calculated the total annual amount of Part II licence fees to be assessed in 2019 by taking last year’s total of $113,973,360 in Part II licence fees and applying…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – An acquisition which would see Bell Media pay $20 million to add five conventional French television stations in Québec, Montréal, Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières from Groupe V Media will be probed by the CRTC in February.
In July, Bell Media announced its intention of to purchase certain Groupe V assets, pending CRTC approval and the application was made public today, Bell is requesting the conditions of licence for the V conventional stations relating to the broadcast of local programming and local news be maintained where:
each station shall, in each broadcast week, broadcast at least five hours of…
Continue Reading
Former commissioner Suzanne Lamarre also elected to board
OTTAWA — The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is enhancing the regulatory expertise of its board with the recent election of four new directors, including former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein and former CRTC commissioner Suzanne Lamarre.
PIAC said in a news release the four new directors are all experts in either telecommunications, broadcasting or class actions, which will help to boost its consumer advocacy work when appearing before the CRTC to argue for better services and consumer protection for customers of Internet, wireless, telephone and broadcasting services.
“PIAC’s extensive work on behalf…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – After being told its first application was deficient, Videotron rewrote the CRTC to rectify the company’s application and request again the withdrawal for its unbundled up-to-1 Gbps download, up-to-100 Mbps upload service since as October 23rd, it no longer has any more wholesale clients on that tier.
As before the company wants to also grandfather its retail clients who pay for the service, but stop offering to any new customers.
The removal of top speed services tilts against the prevailing winds in the broadband world.
Generally, withdrawal/de-standardization like this takes place when a service is…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – After a lot of back and forth with the Competition Bureau, which asked for much additional, specific, information in the spring, then some complaints from wireless companies, resistance from the CRTC and eventually, compliance to the Bureau’s modified requests, Commission has come to realize the January hearing for its review of the Canadian wireless industry is too tight.
The Bureau, the companies and others all told the Regulator there was not enough time to answer and respond to newly filed information, so today, the Commission released…
Continue Reading
Shaw CEO also warns regulators not to change things now
CALGARY – After showing strong wireless subscriber additions of more than 266,000 customers in fiscal 2019 and bringing in $1 billion in annual wireless revenue for the first time, Shaw Communications executives didn’t hold back their opinions during the year-end conference call with financial analysts.
CEO Brad Shaw, said the company spent the fiscal year (ended August 31) focused on adding broadband and wireless customers, expanding its wireless network in the west by rolling out its 700 MHz spectrum – all the while managing a large…
Continue Reading
LONDON, Ont. – Independent ISP Start.ca this week announced further improvements to its internet plans, with cost reductions and speed improvements.
After lowering prices and increasing speeds on several internet plans last month thanks to the CRTC’s recent decision on third party internet access (TPIA) wholesale rates, the company said Thursday more plans will be getting faster or more affordable.
The changes will affect over 14,000 existing Start.ca customers, who will now see either more money in their pockets or a free speed increase next month.
We asked for a few more details from Start.ca CEO Peter Rocca who told us…
Continue Reading
