OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is continuing its crackdown on telemarketers making robocalls, announcing Tuesday that it has dinged nine individuals and companies in several countries for calling Canadians whose numbers are registered on the National Do Not Call List.
The Commission said that its recent enforcement action has resulted in over $490,000 in penalties and one citation. A citation is a procedural administrative action that alleges violation(s) and notes the specific corrective action to be taken within a certain time frame.
Since January 2015, the CRTC, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office have been…
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Cord cutting intent strengthening, as is skinny basic awareness
TORONTO – According to new research from Toronto’s Solutions Research Group, Netflix now counts more than 5 million subscribing households in Canada, while nascent Canadian efforts CraveTV (owned by Bell Media) and Shomi (owned by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications) together is estimated to have about one-seventh the number of subscribers.
The figures come from SRG’s ongoing Digital Life Canada syndicated research. For this edition, SRG interviewed 1,000 Canadians online in April 2016 using a professionally managed national online panel, says the release. The company has run Digital Life Canada each quarter…
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TORONTO – Carriers, broadcasters, content providers and media companies wonder about what viewers want to consume these days as the digital world expands. So it was appropriate that a Canadian executive of one used food to talk about the future of traditional TV and new media.
“I think there's a lot of 'empty calories' in the televison space right now (with content) that people aren’t passionate about,” David Purdy, chief international growth officer at Vice Media, told the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday (pictured with Corus Entertainment's Maria Hale).
“Ad dollars are going to shift to where people are passionate about…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has scolded Toronto-area telecom Iristel Inc. and American VoIP provider netTALK for their respective roles in a dispute earlier this year that resulted in approximately 75,000 Canadians losing their full phone services.
In a letter dated June 8, 2016 addressed to Iristel president and CEO Samer Bishay and netTALK COO Nicholas Kyriakides, the Commission said that its investigation in to the matter was “inconclusive as to whether one, or both parties, clearly contravened regulatory obligations”, but added that the service disconnection in this case could, and should, have been avoided.
“It does not seem that the parties…
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Sees no way to add video to Unlimited offer
TORONTO – Despite having spent $2 billion so far on spectrum, plus a network build, then an upgrade to LTE all between 2010 and now, Vidéotron sees more spending on the horizon as 5G approaches. So today its CEO called on the federal government to maintain “spectral balance” when formulating the rules around the next auction of low frequency spectrum in the 600 MHz range.
In a keynote speech to the Canadian Telecom Summit on Wednesday morning, Manon Brouillette noted the sheer pace of technological change in our industry, remembering she spoke…
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Commission should also call Quebec government on the carpet
TORONTO – The CRTC should bring back informal closed door meetings with the industry to improve the regulator's knowledge, cool down temperatures at formal hearings and allow some things to be said that are avoided in open hearings, said Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada’s chief legal and regulatory officer.
He made the suggestion Tuesday during the annual regulatory blockbuster panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto, a session where provocative and entertaining arguments are often made.
“The (hearing) process has become ‘overly judicialized’,” Bibic (pictured, right, with PIAC's John Lawford) said. “I think…
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TORONTO – True competition in Canada’s telecommunications industry will require foreign investments and phasing out the CRTC’s role as telecom regulator, according to former Industry Minister and Conservative party leadership hopeful Maxime Bernier.
Speaking Tuesday at a keynote speech at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto, Bernier had harsh words for the CRTC, both past and present, saying that it is “behind the curve” and accusing it of having a “control freak mindset”.
“As the industry evolves, the CRTC finds new reasons to continue to regulate it, in order to justify its existence. In doing so, it is not protecting consumers,…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has extended the deadline for submission of interventions into its highly anticipated review into differential pricing practices related to Internet and wireless data plans.
The Commission said Friday that initial interventions are now due by June 28, rather than the original deadline of June 17, 2016.
The revision comes at the behest of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) which noted in a letter to the CRTC that parties had less than a month to prepare their interventions, while a significant number of other Commission proceedings that they need to prepare for are also ongoing. …
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GATINEAU – The basic service objective (BSO) hearing changed mid-stream when CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais made the unprecedented move of delivering a statement declaring broadband “vital” to Canadians. After that, a National Broadband Strategy (NBS) – what should it look like, how do we get there and the role for the Commission – became a huge part of the discussions.
In his April 18 address to the hearing, he asked parties to think about these and other issues related to an NBS and present potential policies.
When Rogers Communications appeared before the commission in April, it raised the concept of a…
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GATNIEAU – Many broadband Internet providers say the CRTC must refrain from adopting new funding mechanisms for the deployment of high-speed networks to under-served and unserved areas of the country and let the market play it out.
In final submissions to the basic service objective (BSO) proceeding, providers are nearly unanimous in arguing that the current approach of market forces and targeted government funding is working. They say 96% of Canadians already have access to a minimum 5/1 Mbps (downstream/upstream) service and that figure will jump to 98% once the final round of Connecting Canadians funding is spent.
For Bell Canada,…
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