OTTAWA-GATINEAU — The CRTC is asking Canadians to share their views about the possible creation of a mandatory code of conduct for Internet service providers, by submitting comments on the Commission’s Facebook page between February 21 and March 4.
The CRTC launched a public consultation regarding a possible Internet code in November 2018. Similar to the purposes of the Wireless Code created in 2013 and the Television Service Provider Code in 2017, the Internet Code would, among other things, establish consumer-friendly business practices, ensure contracts are easy-to-understand, and make it easier for Canadians to switch providers to take…
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QUEBEC CITY — Leclerc Communication tried out its best logical gymnastics on Wednesday as it appeared before a CRTC hearing to justify its requests related to the proposed $19-million acquisition of CHOI-FM (Radio X) in Quebec City and CHLX-FM (91,9 Sports) in Montreal from RNC Media.
Besides the ownership transaction itself, Leclerc is asking for an exception to the common ownership policy to acquire Quebec City's most popular commercial radio station and keep its two others, and is seeking to change CHLX's format from sports talk to music.
(Ed note: For what it’s worth, other radio station owners have argued the…
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GATINEAU – “Having considered the matter in depth, the CRTC finds that it is apparent that misleading or aggressive retail sales practices are present in the telecommunications service provider market in Canada.
“These practices exist in all types of sales channels, including in store, online, over the telephone, and door to door. They occur to an unacceptable degree; they are harming Canadian consumers, in particular vulnerable Canadians; and they are a serious concern for the CRTC.”
So begins the Commission’s report on the sales tactics of the Canadian telecommunications industry, released today. The Regulator hosted a contentious hearing back in…
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OTTAWA — Without publicly naming names, the CRTC issued a letter Friday to telecom service providers who have not submitted their six-month progress report regarding their implementation of measures to reduce caller ID spoofing and to determine the origin of nuisance calls, a compliance requirement they must meet by March 31.
In the Telecom Commission letter posted on its website, the CRTC reminded telecom service providers (TSPs) that the Commission’s Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2018-32, issued January 25, 2018, determined that authentication and verification of caller ID information for IP voice calls should be implemented…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC will release its Report on Misleading or Aggressive Telecommunications Retail Sales Practices at 11 a.m. Wednesday, February 20th.
The Commission hosted a contentious hearing back in October, a review it initially resisted undertaking, but in the end was insisted upon by the federal government thanks to enormous mainstream media and social media pressure.
The feds demanded a report on the matter by the end of February.
The five-day long October hearing featured angry consumers and consumer groups, defensive telcos, cellcos and cablecos and a Twitter hashtag, #CRTCforum, which allowed anyone to be part of…
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Independent ISP demands answers to altered methodology – and a fixed report
CHATHAM, ON – TekSavvy Solutions is calling on the CRTC to fix its “flawed” 2018 Communications Monitoring Report and for the Commission to explain why it omitted data the company says is highly relevant to current regulatory proceedings.
In a letter submitted Wednesday to the Regulator, the independent ISP says the 2018 CMR released December 20th was not only very late and disjointed, but it also did not follow the same methodological standards and practices of prior reports.
“The CRTC published the 2018 Report in the waning days of 2018,…
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GATINEAU – When the CRTC released its Broadband Fund Decision in September 2018, it set out a methodology to allot the disbursement of the expected $750 million to fund broadband expansion in regions of Canada where delivering broadband connectivity isn't feasible without financial assistance.
In December 2018, the Southwestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT), filed a review and vary application with the Commission challenging elements of that methodology. As per the rules of procedures, interested parties had until 8 February to make their comments. 237 such intervenors filed comments. While most are individuals or organisations that…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s TVA Group has closed its deal to buy French-language specialty channels Évasion and Zeste as part of its acquisition of parent company Serdy Media.
Évasion launched in 2000 with a schedule of travel, tourism, adventure and food discovery programs, while Zeste, which debuted in 2010, caters to viewers who love cooking, fine food and entertaining in style.
TVA Group said Wednesday that Évasion and Zeste complement its existing line-up of specialty channels which includes LCN, TVA Sports, AddikTV, CASA, MOI ET CIE, Prise 2 and Yoopa.
"Évasion and Zeste are two prestigious brands for consumers who are passionate…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has established an appropriate quality of service (QoS) metric for jitter as it continues to define the broadband portion of the universal service objective.
The Commission said Tuesday that in order to define fixed broadband Internet access service as a high-quality service, it must meet, among other things, a jitter threshold of 5 milliseconds, measured using specific predefined methodology.
The threshold would be measured during peak times (i.e. from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. local time on weekdays), and from the modem at the customer premises to a server located off-net at the Internet exchange point in…
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TORONTO – Two guys who helped Wind Mobile get off the ground and then build its follower Freedom Mobile are the latest in a line of Canadian companies hoping to shake up the wireless market here.
Algis Akstinas (left, formerly the director of marketing and commercial strategy at Freedom) and Alex Bauman (right, formerly manager, customer base management) launched dot mobile Thursday with the goal of bringing a product and the company to market in 2020.
Dot stands for “Data On Tap” and the company aims to be just that for Canadians – a spigot of cheap,…
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