OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Canada’s public payphones perform an important public service, despite their dwindling use, the CRTC said Thursday as it unveiled two new “consumer safeguards”.
As a follow up to its payphone report released in February, the Commission announced new measures to ensure Canadians are properly informed about the costs of making certain long-distance calls over a payphone.
Specifically, the CRTC directed incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to inform consumers of the costs of making long-distance calls using a credit card or other forms of non-cash payment in an effort to avoid bill shock. In addition, payphone providers must inform the CRTC…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) says that Bell Canada’s recent application requesting an expansion of the CRTC’s unbundled local loop (ULL) regime needs to be refiled. The group argues that Bell is asking for changes that directly challenge several of the Commission’s findings from Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326. CNOC contends, therefore that Bell should file a proper review and vary application.
In its November 24 Part 1, Bell asks the Commission to include services that are functionally equivalent to ULLs for forbearance purposes. As well,…
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GATINEAU – A number of Canada’s Internet service providers are telling the CRTC that Bell Canada’s appeal for more restricted access to disaggregated wholesale fibre Internet access services is self-serving and in fact would lead to less competition in the market.
Bell is asking the Commission to review and vary certain provisions related to disaggregated broadband service (DBS) in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326. The company has also filed an appeal of the decision to cabinet, as Cartt.ca first reported in October.
In its R&V, Bell argues that the Commission needs to add three conditions for granting access…
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MONTREAL – Content producers and distributors must figure out how best to be constantly innovative if Canadian content is to thrive in the new on-demand world.
That was the message Thursday as the CRTC and National Film Board’s 'En Route to the Discoverability Summit' workshop series came to Montreal. Like Tuesday’s session in Vancouver, there was a lot of discussion about how the media world has changed, and some interesting, if vague, suggestions on what to do about it.
The event started much like the previous one did, with speeches from men in suits (in French this time…)…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC has used its new anti-spam powers to pull the plug on a Toronto-based server distributing malware on the Internet.
The Commission said late Thursday that it served it’s first-ever warrant under Canada's anti-spam law (CASL) to take down a command-and-control server in Toronto as part of a coordinated international effort. The warrant was granted by a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice and was carried out with the assistance from the RCMP. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, Interpol, Microsoft Inc., Public Safety Canada and the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre were also involved in…
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GATINEAU – Fresh off of its two ‘En route to the Discoverability Summit’ events, the CRTC has scheduled the Discoverability Summit for May 10-11, 2016, in Toronto.
Co-hosted by the Commission and the NFB, the Discoverability Summit will further explore the preliminary ideas and strategies brought to the table during this week’s two pre-events in Vancouver and Montreal. The two-day affair will enable participants to discuss strategies, tools and approaches to improve the discoverability of content and to make it easier for viewers to find the content that they want, said the CRTC.
“The pre-events in Vancouver and Montreal ignited a…
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VANCOUVER – Moods, moments, sentiments, likes and trending. These may be words more commonly associated with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but they are increasingly becoming the new jargon when talking about finding video content in the new consumer-centric broadcast world. The first of two Discoverability Summits co-hosted by the CRTC and National Film Board explored this during an event in Vancouver on Tuesday.
As Jean-Pierre Blais, chair of the CRTC, explained in his opening remarks to En Route to Discoverability: Content in the Age of Abundance, the much-talked about concept of disintermediation of…
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OTTAWA – Bell Media sports service ESPN Classic may now air live sports after the CRTC approved amendments to its broadcasting licence.
The Commission on Tuesday granted Bell Media’s request to add conditions of licence allowing the national, English-language specialty Category B service to air programming drawn from all program categories, including live professional sports. That live programming is capped at 10% of the content aired during the broadcast month, however.
The CRTC added that Bell Media’s requests are consistent with Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2015-86, part of the Let’s Talk TV decision eliminating its genre exclusivity policy.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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GATINEAU – Bell Canada wants the CRTC to expand certain rulings announced in its recent wholesale wireline decision as it relates to two specific types of services.
(Ed note: It’s worth stating here that the company is also appealing this same decision to cabinet, and has also asked the Commission to review and vary it.)
First, it would like the Commission to treat services related to unbundled local loops (ULL) in the same manner, essentially voice services. And secondly, it says, the decision to freeze rates for legacy low-speed wireline services provided over…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC teamed up with Peel Regional Police Services in Ontario on Tuesday to enter and inspect a property in Brampton as part of an ongoing investigation of a “significant telemarketing operation”.
The Commission said Friday that the inspection warrant, a first of its kind for the CRTC, was granted by an Ontario Justice of the Peace. Declining to comment on the active investigation or to name the individuals or companies under investigation, the CRTC pledged to publicize the results if it issues a settlement or issues a notice of violation or citation.
It did say, however, that this…
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