By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC did not establish that it has jurisdiction over long-distance calls from correctional facilities when it ruled it doesn’t regulate those rates, opening the door for provincial courts to make conflicting determinations on proper charges in civil actions, according to applications filed by the province of Ontario and Bell.
The regulator released a decision in December clarifying that it has not regulated inmate long-distance calls since 1997, and that it does not have the authority to adjust rates that were charged by Bell on a retroactive basis.
The decision followed an application…
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Regulator also designates small ILECs as ONPs
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Friday extended by two years the deadline to decommission the legacy 911 system, after public safety groups said they wouldn’t be able to make the March 4, 2025 deadline to implement the new system.
The regulator said a majority of proceeding intervenors – including the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, and the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada – said they would not be able to implement the system by this week.
The CRTC has now set March 31, 2027 as the deadline for the…
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Regina’s community radio station, 91.3 FM CJTR, has officially rebranded as AccessNow Community Radio, according to a press release Thursday.
The news follows the CRTC’s approval of the sale of the station to AccessNow in December. AccessNow says, since the approval, it has retained two full-time staff and hired a sales executive. The station generates money through advertising and sponsorship revenues, it says in the release.
Tracey Mucha, Access’s senior manager of community engagement, said the company is “excited to offer businesses new and innovative advertising opportunities, responding to the growing demand for local content and more dynamic advertising solutions as…
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The CRTC has approved My Broadcasting Corporation (MBC)’s purchase of four Bell Media radio stations in eastern Ontario.
The stations include CFJR-FM (Move 104.9) and CJPT-FM (Bounce 103.7) in Brockville and CFLY-FM (Move 98.3) and CKLC-FM (Pure Country 99) in Kingston.
Based on a proposed transaction value of nearly $1.87 million, MBC will be required to pay a total of $111,936 in tangible benefits over seven consecutive broadcast years to various funds, including Canadian Starmaker Fund, Fonds RadioStar, FACTOR, Musicaction, the Community Radio Fund of Canada, and any eligible Canadian content development initiative of MBC’s choosing.
MBC has said…
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PIAC, Competition Bureau, CCTS push label as important opportunity
By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC must take a light-touch regulatory approach when it comes to determining how internet service providers (ISPs) present certain technical plan details, as being too prescriptive risks providing unnecessary information while adding implementation costs, according to several large service providers.
The gist of the ISP argument – both large and regional – can be distilled to some form of the following: they already provide the necessary information they believe an already-informed public should know, and the one example of a mandated “broadband label” – that is the one in…
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Ahead of its March 31 public hearing on modernizing its definition of Canadian content, the CRTC has added a public opinion research report to the public record and is setting out the key issues it will focus on during the hearing.
The research report prepared for the CRTC by Phoenix Strategy Perspectives Inc. is based on an online survey of 1,226 Canadians aged 16 years and older and eight online focus groups (four in English and four in French) conducted with Canadians aged 18 and older. The online survey took place from Nov….
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By Ahmad Hathout
CRTC commissioners Nirmala Naidoo and Ellen Desmond have been reappointed by Order in Council last week to their respective posts for another five years.
The terms for Naidoo, commissioner for Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and Desmond, commissioner for the Atlantic region and Nunavut, are effective on July 20.
Naidoo and Desmond filled the vacant positions after the departure of commissioners Christopher MacDonald and Linda Vennard, respectively, in June 2020.
Naidoo was an award-winning television anchor, journalist and communications expert in a past life. Desmond is a lawyer by trade and was the director of legal and administration with…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Two of Canada’s largest telecoms are warning the CRTC against implementing a uniform internet subsidy for the far north or risk increasing internet service prices in rest of the country. Others are saying the subsidy contribution would be a negligible amount to support those in need of affordable services.
The CRTC last month proposed a monthly subsidy to be distributed by internet service providers (ISP) to all households in the far north. The contributions would come from the National Contribution Fund (NCF), which subsists on ISP contributions.
The concern, outlined by some providers in submissions to…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Thursday it is considering reducing the financial obligations on traditional commercial radio broadcasters while maintaining content requirements to level the playing field with online streamers.
“The Commission acknowledges that some view content requirements as a heavy regulatory imposition. At the same time, the Commission recognizes that content requirements do not appear to work in an online context. As such, to help level the playing field and respond to the changing landscape, the Commission is of the preliminary view that traditional audio undertakings should be relieved of some of the other regulatory burdens they are subject…
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By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC has ordered Telus on Wednesday to provide additional monetary compensation to customers in certain remote British Columbia regions who will lose access to landline service dependent on spectrum licenses the telco will lose next month.
The Vancouver-based telecom, which is the dominant provider in the affected region, has been relying on the 3.5 GHz spectrum to provide landline services to 115 customers in the Alexis Creek, North Kamloops, and the Tahsis exchanges. But the telco, which was granted two extensions on the use of the licenses, will lose access to them next month when Industry Canada…
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