OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC appears have to struck a balance between competitors’ requests to access incumbent and cableco facilities, and the large providers’ need to invest with return on investment certainty.
The two big changes to come from Wednesday’s decision on wholesale wireline services is that access to the ILECs’ last mile fibre facilities by competitors is now mandated, and that there will be a transition to a disaggregated wholesale High Speed Access (HSA) model.
Telecom Regulatory Policy 2015-326 also greatly simplifies the wholesale services market. There is now a three point test (input, competition and duplicability) to determine whether…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) was quick to commend the CRTC for Wednesday’s wholesale wireline decision, one that it says will have a “profoundly positive impact on Canadian consumers, competition, and competitors.”
Referencing its stance at last November’s the fibre hearing, where it advocated for mandated access to all-fibre networks in multi-unit buildings and housing developments, as well as the introduction of a disaggregated model for transport services, CNOC said that the Commission’s decision to implement both “affirmed that additional regulatory measures were necessary”.
“This decision, once fully implemented in a graceful manner, will strengthen competition throughout Canada’s markets for…
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OTTAWA – The National Football League wants to come to Canada. Specifically, it has asked to appear in Court as part of Bell Media’s appeal of a CRTC decision banning simultaneous substitution during the Super Bowl.
In documents filed with the Federal Court of Appeal last week, the NFL officially asked for intervener status in Bell’s appeal of BRP 2015-25 which, among other decisions, ruled that simsub may no longer be performed by Canadian broadcasters for the Super Bowl effective at the end of the 2016 NFL season.
Bell Media, the Canadian rightsholder of the big game that airs nationally on…
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OTTAWA – Now that the CRTC has made the big decisions as part of its Let’s Talk TV process, it’s up to the major broadcasters to decide how they want to game the system to their advantage. And Bell Media has already taken the first steps.
On Monday, the CRTC posted applications from Bell to convert Bravo!,The Comedy Network, Discovery Channel, E!, MTV (Canada), M3, Much and Space from Category A services to Category B. Before the Let’s Talk TV process, this would have been a dramatic and unlikely change. But now it’s just accelerating a process that the Commission…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will release its decision on wholesale wireline services late Wednesday.
The Commission confirmed that it will stage a media “lock-up” from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET on July 22 at its Central Office to provide a technical briefing to explain the different elements of the decision. The decision itself will be released at 4:00 PM and Cartt.ca will be there.
When the hearing into wholesale wireline kicked off last November, CRTC chairm Jean-Pierre Blais directed that it focus on the themes of:
– Whether changes should be made to the CRTC’s framework for wholesale telecommunications services;
– What considerations…
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OTTAWA–GATINEAU – The CRTC is launching a proceeding to examine the framework for French-language vocal music (FVM) in order to foster its discovery, promotion, creation and consumption in the digital era.
Noting that Canadians’ consumption habits are changing thanks to new broadband-driven technologies, streaming music services, and a trend that sees some listeners migrating from French-language stations to English-language ones, the Commission said Monday that the goal of the proceeding is to ensure that French-language content is present in music programming and to provide French-language vocal music listeners with access to programming that reflects their needs, interests and culture.
The CRTC…
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OTTAWA – There is broad consensus among the smaller Internet providers, consumers groups and local governments that high speed Internet is a critical part of Canadian society and the economy. They are now telling the CRTC that it should take the steps necessary to include broadband as part of the basic service objective and find ways to ensure its rollout is funded by the industry and government.
As the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) noted in its July 14 submission to the CRTC’s review of basic telecommunications services, broadband has a “prominent influence” on Canada’s economic, social and cultural identity.
“Broadband…
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MONTREAL – Could Vidéotron be forced to refund cash to its TV subscribers for failing to give them proper community access television?
A grassroots community TV group that got the CRTC to declare Videotron’s MAtv community channel non-compliant with regulations has filed a class action lawsuit against the company on behalf of all subscribers in the greater Montreal area. The group is seeking a refund of part of the two per cent of gross revenues that are redirected to MAtv for greater Montreal over the past three years (roughly $4 total per subscriber), plus moral and punitive damages of $2…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has kicked off a call for comments on proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations in order to implement some decisions from the recent Let’s Talk TV proceeding.
Among other things, the Commission said that the amendments seek to:
– provide Canadians with access to a small entry-level service offering (basic service) and pick-and-pay and flexible package options;
– eliminate genre protection to allow more programming flexibility, while streamlining the licensing regime for discretionary services;
– ensure that a diversity of voices is offered to Canadians by requiring that vertically integrated distributors offer one English- or French-language independent service for…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has announced plans to give Canada’s 9-1-1 networks a stress test and then decide whether to mandate 9-1-1 network quality-of-service standards.
Canadians have access to either Basic or Enhanced 9-1-1 service through wireline, wireless, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone services in areas where 9-1-1 call centres, also known as public safety answering points (PSAPs), have been established by provincial, territorial, or municipal governments. The Commission said Thursday that it wants to proactively review the reliability and resiliency of 9-1-1 networks and various elements in light of significant service disruptions to 9-1-1 services in the…
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