Chair, Minister, respond, too
GATINEAU – After former Ontario CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan filed a new judicial review application last week which alleges institutional bigotry and many other workplace issues within the Commission as part of the reasons why his firing should be reversed, those directly affected by his statements have responded.
In his legal documents filed with the Federal Court last week, which we reported on here, Shoan filed a copy of a letter he sent to Heritage Minister Melanie Joly on June 14th (before his appointment was rescinded). That letter detailed a number of offensive statements which Shoan…
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a.k.a. net neutrality…
GATINEAU – There is pretty broad consensus among many of the interveners in the CRTC’s differential pricing consultation that the practice can have a positive impact on the ISP business, content providers and consumers.
First round comments to the Commission’s Examination of differential pricing practices related to Internet data plans (2016-192) revealed though that it’s not a cut and dried issue. For instance, Bell Canada argued that zero-rating and sponsored data pricing mechanisms – two differential pricing practices or DPPs – are common in the communications world.
The company pointed to toll free calling and time of use…
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Says commissioner Vennard conducted herself inappropriately, too
TORONTO – In a judicial review application filed with the Federal Court on Tuesday, former Ontario regional CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan alleges institutional bigotry within the Commission as part of the justifications why his firing should be reversed.
Documents filed by Shoan also say a serious complaint against another commissioner, Alberta and NWT commissioner Linda Vennard, was swept aside and that shows an unfair inconsistency in how staff complaints about the two commissioners have been treated.
He also seeks an immediate stay of the Order-in-Council which rescinded his appointment, so he can return to his…
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OTTAWA – Mississauga-based telecom service provider Axsit is in breach of its obligations to customers and Commissioner of Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS), says the CCTS.
Axsit, which offers VoIP phone service to residential and home office customers, joined CCTS in April 2013 as is required by the CRTC in order for it to participate in the complaint-resolution processes established by CCTS.
CCTS said that it received a complaint from an Axsit customer in January 2016 alleging that the company had billed the customer for long distance charges for calls which had actually been made fraudulently by a third party. Following…
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Growing in small market Quebec
MONTREAL – It only started in 2012, but Quebec’s Attraction Radio has already grown, entirely through acquisitions, to become one of the top radio broadcast owners in Quebec, based on a business model of small-market stations each maintaining their own identity and local management.
On Tuesday, the CRTC published the latest acquisition by this group, of CIPC-FM Port-Cartier (Radioactive 99.1) and CKCN-FM (PUR FM 94.1) in nearby Sept-Îles, on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, 500 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Both stations were owned by four shareholders, Yvan Beaulieu, Jean Laverdière, Luc Hovington and…
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Nextologies is changing the economics of signal transport
SLAVA LEVIN WANTS to show me something.
We walk through his new building in Markham, past his master control which now offers 107 TV channels to Canadian distributors (making ECG the largest broadcaster in Canada, by number of channels), past one of his studios where a Canadian Filipino-language talk show is being shot, and through a tech-cluttered storage area to a set of tight, narrow stairs and then a ladder.
We’re now on the roof among 27 satellite dishes pointed out to the present and future of far lower-cost signal transport than the TV…
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OTTAWA – Certain types of differential pricing should be banned because they can harm competition, stifle innovation and increase prices, said the Competition Bureau in response to the CRTC’s plan to review the controversial practice.
Differential pricing occurs when an internet service provider (ISP) charges one price for customers to consume one type of content, and another price for other types of content, a move that can influence the fundamental choices that consumers make.
In its submission to the Commission, the Bureau advocates that differential pricing where ISPs receive financial benefit from content providers for favouring their content should be prohibited. An…
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MARKHAM, ON – Canadian radio industry veteran Chuck McCoy will receive the 2016 Hall of Fame Award from the Ontario Association of Broadcasters at the organization’s fall conference in November.
A Board nominated honour, the OAB Hall of Fame is presented to individuals who have spent most of their careers working for private broadcasters and demonstrated a commitment to the highest standards of broadcast excellence.
With 51 years in the Canadian broadcasting industry, McCoy began his professional career on-air in 1965. His on-air hosting included stops at four stations, culminating with five years at the iconic 1050 CHUM. Over the span…
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GATINEAU – In an unsurprising decision, the CRTC denied Bell Canada’s request to review and vary the decision which gives third party independent Internet service providers access to incumbent networks’ newest fibre infrastructure.
Bell had submitted a Part 1 application to the CRTC to review and vary Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326 that states incumbent telecom providers must introduce a “disaggregated wholesale broadband access service” (DBS) so that independent ISPs gain access to FTTH (fibre to the home) facilities.
In a nutshell, Bell believes the CRTC’s decision has unfairly changed the rules governing fibre-to-the-home broadband networks by mandating…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – SiriusXM Canada is among six Canadian companies that have paid a total of $1.23M as part of settlements over violations to Canada's telemarketing rules, the CRTC said Wednesday.
Further to an investigation, the CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer found that SiriusXM Canada hired telemarketers to conduct calls on its behalf, and that the telemarketers in turn called Canadians who were registered on the company’s internal do not call list. The company has paid a $650,000 penalty.
Raid Inc. paid a $500,000 penalty after the marketer hired call centres to make calls on behalf of its clients, without ensuring…
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