The CRTC is seeking a data service to monitor and measure competitive forces in the Canadian internet services market, following its new regulatory policy mandating wholesale access to the large telephone companies’ last-mile fibre networks across the country.
The telecom regulator has pre-identified Boston-based Opensignal as the supplier of the data service, but has issued an advance contract award notice (ACAN) to allow other interested suppliers to submit bids.
The CRTC and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) are looking to contract a company to provide timely and granular ISP…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Wednesday it will expect online streaming undertakings to provide described video for new, third-party and legacy programs and described audio for news and information programs.
The policy, part of the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, will apply only to English- and French-language scripted pre-recorded programs and partially scripted live events of national interest, such as the Academy Awards and the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
New original programs are those that are created or commissioned by the streamer and made available on its platform; third-party programs are those created by other companies but is being made available…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Monday that there isn’t enough evidence on the record to show that Bell is imposing on Quebecor an undue disadvantage by allegedly forcing disproportionate wholesale transport charges on its subsidiary.
Quebecor filed an application over two years ago claiming that Bell has been forcing its subsidiary, Fibernoire, to renew a wholesale fibre transport agreement on terms that would allegedly subject it to an undue disadvantage: better prices in exchange for a long-term contract and a commitment to minimum annual revenues – which Bell says is a common practice that provides revenue and…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
Apple has filed a letter to the Federal Court of Appeal requesting that the panel of justices review a recent CRTC decision that it believes could bolster its challenge to the commission’s own base contribution ruling.
In the letter dated December 11, the tech giant alleges that the CRTC has handicapped the attorney general – its legal counsel at the court – by stating in paragraph 4 of its November decision on the definition of Canadian content that the commission believes defining such programs is “a necessary step before establishing financial or…
Continue Reading
The CRTC said Friday that Wingham, Ontario can sustain at least one additional FM radio station.
The decision comes after the regulator launched a proceeding to replace an existing AM station in the small community earlier this year. The proceeding followed an application by Blackburn Media Inc. to operate an English-language FM station on the 104.3 MHz frequency, instead of its existing AM facility, which it said has experienced failing equipment and infrastructure that are expensive to maintain.
The application required that the CRTC consult the public and then make a determination if adding a station would harm…
Continue Reading
The CRTC has notified Telus that it must immediately stop selling locked cellphones, after the commission became aware the Vancouver-based telecom has been selling its customers phones that are locked for up to 60 days after purchase.
In a letter Tuesday, the CRTC also directed Telus to unlock, free of charge, any cellphone still locked to its network and notify affected customers that it has done so.
This missive to Telus follows a similar one sent to Bell in late November in which the CRTC directed Bell to stop its practice…
Continue Reading
Follows other telecoms asking for change in reporting thresholds
By Ahmad Hathout
Telesat is asking the CRTC to clarify if satellite transport providers are subject to its new outage reporting rules and, if so, to amend them because they are not privy to some of the information the regulator is asking for.
In a review and vary application made public on Monday, the Ottawa-based company said because it doesn’t provide services directly to retail customers, it cannot comply with the CRTC’s new rules that establish a new threshold for reporting to official bodies. It is asking for a new set of reporting…
Continue Reading
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC is asking Rogers to provide an opinion about whether returning to service providers uncommitted money from the service provider-supported Broadband Fund at the end of year would alleviate some of its concerns.
Rogers filed a Part 1 application this summer asking the regulator to review the way the National Contribution Fund (NCF) manages the program, arguing that service providers must set aside large amounts of money for collection when the fund doesn’t always deliver the amounts it has already collected, which is currently set at $150 million per year. It is asking the…
Continue Reading
In a letter Wednesday, the CRTC acknowledged the measures Meta has taken to ensure its Facebook and Instagram platforms comply with the Online News Act, while also saying the commission will continue to monitor the situation.
In October 2024, the CRTC began investigating whether Facebook was continuing to allow Canadian news to be available on its platform in violation of the Act.
In a series of responses, Meta told the CRTC it had taken steps to ensure its platforms are not operating as digital news intermediaries within the scope of the Online News…
Continue Reading
Regulator says OUTtv must-carry application won’t be reviewed
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC ruled Friday that Rogers unjustly removed LGBTQ+ channel OUTtv from its premium pre-assembled television package while the two were negotiating a new carry rate.
Prior to the end of the previous agreement, OUTtv was in Rogers’s Premier television package, which the cable giant stopped marketing in favour of its best pre-assembled package called Ultimate TV. After the carry agreement ended, Rogers removed the channel from the Premier package and, instead of putting it in Ultimate TV, slotted it into two themed ones called Variety and Lifestyle and Entertainment.
OUTtv, whose…
Continue Reading
