OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC is once again seeking volunteers to help it measure the performance of home wireline broadband Internet services provided by the country’s major Internet service providers.
Under the Measuring Broadband Canada program, the Commission will work in collaboration with ISPs and broadband testing firm SamKnows to measure broadband performance and test parameters associated with the broadband Internet connection, including download and upload speeds.
While some providers offer advertised speeds of 1Gbps or faster, services above 940Mbps cannot be measured with a conventional speed test, meaning that speed tiers of 1Gbps or faster are excluded from the 2019 Measuring…
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Company asks CRTC to step into toll free dispute with Bell
GATINEAU – Frustrated with stalled negotiations with Bell Canada on how toll-free calls should be handled going forward, Rogers Communications last week filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC asking the Commission to settle the dispute.
Rogers contends Bell is profiting twice from certain toll-free calls because it won’t change the historic way it has handled them, despite changes Rogers has made and this inaction means Bell is providing itself with an undue preference. The impasse has dragged on for seven months, says Rogers.
While this sounds like a bit…
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GATINEAU – The Bell vs. Quebecor saga continues, but this time it’s not about Bell the carrier and Quebecor the sports channel provider.
This time Bell Media is complaining to the CRTC that its Super Écran is being poorly treated by Quebecor’s Vidéotron in violation of Commission rules.
Long the primary French-language premium pay-TV channel, Super Écran airs Canadian movies and series as well as dubbed popular English content from the likes of HBO and Showtime for French language viewers. However, a packaging change made by Vidéotron in November of 2018 which saw the Bell Media channel relocated from a “Premium…
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TORONTO – Canada’s three big private broadcasters, Bell Media, Corus Entertainment, and Rogers Media, have petitioned the CRTC to exempt them from providing described video to non-Canadian programs received less than 72 hours prior to broadcast without described video.
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind is not happy.
This would be contrary to a mandate from the CRTC where broadcasters were told to provide described video for all shows during prime-time hours starting in September 2019.
TVA has asked the CRTC to relax their conditions, too.
In 2015, the CRTC announced plans to increase the availability of described video and mandated that…
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Needs local data for a proper analysis
OTTAWA – It’s rare for a bureaucratic back-and-forth to be quite so public, but with so much at stake, the Commissioner for Competition doesn’t want to take no for an answer when it comes to the granular market data he wants from Canadian wireless companies.
As part of its submission to the CRTC’s review of mobile wireless services, the Competition Bureau wants to do a detailed study on what happened in regions and cities (not just in provinces and nationally) when new wireless competitors to the Big Three (Rogers, Bell and Telus) were introduced….
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QUISPAMSIS, NB – The Canadian Communication Systems Alliance said Monday voting is now open for the 2019 edition of the Tuned-in Canada: the CCSA Awards.
The awards are a nationwide, annual competition highlighting the excellent work performed by CCSA members – independent, local providers of internet, television and telephone services across Canada.
Canadians are invited to visit Tuned-in Canada 2019 to cast a vote for nominees in the following three categories:
1. Best people: on-camera community channel personality2. Best story: giving back3. Best photo: connecting Canadians
Voting takes place on the Tuned-in Canada website, and voters can cast…
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OTTAWA – New area codes are coming to Alberta and Saskatchewan in 2021.
The CRTC said Friday that area code 368 will be rolled out across the region currently served by 403, 587, 780, and 825 in Alberta starting May 15, 2021 by implementing a distributed overlay of the new area code, meaning that the area codes will coexist and will cover the same geographic area.
The Commission also approved the 403/587/780/825 relief planning committee’s report, including the proposed planning document and relief implementation plan.
In Saskatchewan, the CRTC determined that relief for area…
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OTTAWA – Super Channel will have some explaining to do before the CRTC will renew its broadcasting licence.
The channel’s parent, Allarco Entertainment Limited Partnership, is one of seven entities whose applications will be considered at hearing at CRTC headquarters scheduled for July 11, 2019.
Since Allarco’s renewal application was published for comment, the CRTC said that it has received interventions that raised issues regarding instances of apparent non-compliance, ranging from the distribution of Canadian programs, the eligibility and late payment of certain Canadian programming expenditures, to the eligibility of certain expenditures devoted to regional outreach programs.
“The Commission is particularly…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The next test of Canada’s National Public Alerting System has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, though Ontario and Quebec will not take part due to issues with ongoing flooding in parts of those provinces.
Conducted by provincial emergency management organizations, test alerts should appear on every updated and compatible mobile device connected to a LTE wireless network in participating provinces and territories and will be simultaneously distributed on radio and television. The messages will be identified as test alerts and will not require Canadians to take action.
The alerts will be sent out according to the following…
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MONTREAL — Leclerc Communication has decided to abandon its deal to acquire two Quebec radio stations after the CRTC refused to approve a key part of the deal on Tuesday.
Leclerc had sought an exception to the CRTC's common ownership policy in order to control a third French-language FM radio station in Quebec City — top-rated talk station CHOI-FM. It had agreed to acquire CHOI and Montreal's CKLX-FM from RNC Media for $19 million last year.
At the CRTC hearing in February, Leclerc vice-president Jean-François Leclerc made clear that if the request for an exception to the…
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