OTTAWA – Prices advertised by Canada’s Internet service providers should include all mandatory fees, and “unlimited” services should actually be unlimited, says the Competition Bureau.
In its comments on the CRTC's proposed code for Internet services, the Bureau detailed five recommendations that it said will benefit both consumers and competition.
The recommendations are:
– Customers should receive quotes that are clear, simple and standardized;
– Advertised prices should include all mandatory fees;
– Services represented as “unlimited” should actually be unlimited;
– The code should be competitively neutral, without being overly burdensome; and,
– The code should be reviewed regularly, and at the same time as…
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Asks for Review & Vary
GATINEAU – A large consortium of Ontario communities and other groups, together known as SouthWestern Integrated Fibre Technology Inc. (SWIFT) has filed an application with the CRTC in the hopes the Regulator will reconsider how it qualifies rural regions to receive millions of dollars in funding to deliver broadband to its residents.
In an application filed Wednesday with the Commission, SWIFT’s leadership believes the Commission’s recently outlined $750 million rural broadband fund, with its decision to rely “exclusively on error prone indicators of maximum theoretical link speeds captured in the ISED’s…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC Communications Monitoring Report (CMR) on the telecom industry will be released Thursday, says the Commission.
According to a sneak peek on the Commission's Facebook page, telecom revenues rose 3.2% in 2017. This upset a few people on Facebook, judging by the comments.
Check back Thursday for Cartt.ca’s coverage of the report.
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has given Canada's telcos exactly 12 months to implement a universal network-level call blocking system to help cut down on the number of unsolicited and illegitimate calls that Canadians receive.
The Commission said Wednesday that such a system will automatically block calls with caller ID information that either exceeds 15 digits or does not conform to a number that can be dialled, such as 000-000-0000. Telecom service providers who are already offering advanced call-filtering services to their subscribers are not obligated to implement the system.
Noting that no single solution can help Canadians block all unwanted calls, the…
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OTTAWA – Two companies have been fined over $40,000 for making non-compliant telemarketing calls to Canadians, the CRTC said Wednesday.
In the first of two compliance and enforcement decisions, the CRTC fined Toronto Breeze Air Duct Cleaning Services Inc. $18,000 for telemarketing telecommunications initiated on its behalf to consumers whose telecommunications numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), while it was not registered with the National DNCL operator, and while it was not a registered subscriber of the National DNCL, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
The company was originally fined last year and was…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered Bell Media to pay over $400,000 in outstanding tangible benefits after denying the broadcaster’s request to overturn an earlier decision.
The Commission notified Bell Media in May 2017 that an audit had turned up issues with several of the expenditures it claimed towards meeting its tangible benefit requirements for the 2013-2014 broadcast year. The broadcaster replied by filing an application that the Commission reverse part of its earlier decision, claiming that it did not have the opportunity to comment on certain evidence upon which the Commission relied to reach its decision.
The CRTC denied…
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New low-cost data only plans to be in market within 90 days
GATINEAU – The CRTC announced today it has accepted the revised low-cost data only mobile wireless plans offered – at the demand of the Commission on the impetus of federal government – by Rogers, Bell and Telus.
Further to a public proceeding launched in March, where the big national players responded by initially offering plans the Commission told them were not good enough and to try again, the wireless providers came back with better offers in September which the CRTC said…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC has set new standards for text-based message relay services to help improve the service for hearing or speech impaired Canadians.
Message relay services (MRS) enable Canadians with a hearing or a speech disability to make and receive telephone calls via text with the assistance of a relay operator. The CRTC has long required that home phone providers offer MRS to customers 24 hours per day, seven days per week, first through teletypewriter (TTY) relay service and then through IP relay services, too.
The Commission said Friday that mobile wireless service providers (WSPs) must begin offering…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC awarded two new FM radio licences to International Harvesters for Christ Evangelistic Association Inc. for English-language Christian music stations in Kelowna and Saskatoon.
Harvesters is a not-for-profit corporation controlled by its board of directors.
The new Kelowna station will operate at 88.1 MHz (channel 201C) with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 4,200 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above average terrain (EHAAT) of 500 metres). The station will have a rebroadcasting transmitter in Kamloops that will operate at 99.1 MHz (channel 256B1) with an ERP of 3,000 watts (non-directional antenna with an EHAAT of 148.6 metres).
Despite…
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Ted's right hand man reflects on his life and career
PHIL LIND MAY ALWAYS BE remembered as Ted Rogers’ cajoling consigliere.
Sure, Phil had more appearances before the CRTC – over 100 – than anybody; and he’s put in 40 exciting years co-building the Rogers brand and our country’s second-largest telecommunications and media company – Rogers Communications.
But to caricature Phil Lind as merely Ted’s strategic “Abominable No Man” is to sell this man very short.
His new book Right Hand Man: How Phil Lind Guided the Genius of Ted Rogers, Canada’s Foremost Entrepreneur, written with Bob Brehl, may not be headed for the…
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