IQALUIT – Promising choice, lower prices and advanced telephone services, Iristel announced today that its local phone service is now available to residents of the capital of Nunavut.
Iristel say its local phone service, which will be available to homeowners and businesses in Iqaluit through Iristel’s local agent, Qikiqtaaluk Information Technology Corp. (QITC), will allow customers to keep their existing phone numbers.
Maged Bishara, the company’s VP of operations and national sales, said the cost of Iristel’s local phone service will be “drastically less” than what rival NorthwesTel currently charges. Business customers, for example, could…
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OTTAWA – Ethnic broadcaster Asian Television Network has filed a complaint with the CRTC alleging that Ethnic Channels Group’s ZEE TV has breached its nature of service requirement as a Category B niche third-language women's programming service and is actually operating as a general interest programming service that unfairly competes with ATN’s flagship Category A SATV service.
Citing the CRTC’s policy for third-language specialty Category A services, ATN filed a complaint with the CRTC in early June (which was posted to the Commission’s website today), alleging that ZEE TV’s programming does not reflect its nature…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC announced Friday it has issued two notices of violation totalling $17,000 in penalties as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the use of robocalls by political parties, elected officials and telemarketers.
Paul Dewar, an M.P. for Ottawa Centre and the NDP’s foreign affairs critic, entered into a settlement agreement with the CRTC and paid a $7,000 penalty for violating the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules (UTR). In an unrelated investigation, Strategic Communications Inc. also cooperated, agreed to settle and paid a penalty of $10,000 for similar violations.
“We appreciate the…
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OTTAWA – Andrea Rosen, the CRTC’s first chief compliance and enforcement officer who has negotiated more than $3 million in penalties during her tenure, has announced she will be retiring after almost 32 years in public service.
Rosen, who will retire at the end of September, took on the then-new CRTC position in 2010 and established the compliance and enforcement sector as it evolved from the first Do Not Call office in the Commission’s telecommunications department.
As chief compliance and enforcement officer, Rosen designed the operational criteria for the Do Not Call and Canada’s Anti-Spam law….
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MONTREAL – Construction is underway at Rogers-owned TV station CJNT of a new production facility that will be the new home of Citytv Montreal’s Breakfast Television morning show that is set to premiere at the end of August.
The new facility, located in downtown Montreal, will produce a daily BT morning show and a weekly Sportsnet update show that covers significant events for the Montreal market.
Rogers acquired the former Metro 14 station last year and received CRTC approval to rebrand the station as Citytv Montreal. The new BT and Sportsnet shows make up the 15.5 hours of local programming…
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OTTAWA – Almost 164,000 new phone or fax numbers were registered with the country’s national do not call list (DNCL) during May and June – almost double the number reported in the CRTC’s previous status report.
According to the Commission’s most recent status report as of June 30, the national DNCL now contains 11,821,176 registered phone or fax numbers. There were 11,657,261 new numbers registered as of April 30.
The total of telemarketing complaints filed in May and June was at 27,418 , compared to approximately 16,000 in April. Since the DNCL’s launch…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied an application by Bell Media to increase the amount of drama and comedy programming allowed on Bell’s Category A channel, Book Television.
In Wednesday’s decision, the Commission denied Bell’s application requesting an increase to the amount of programming it can draw from program category 7 (drama and comedy) from 35% to 50%. Also denied was Bell’s request to remove the 30% limit on the amount of programming that Book Television can draw from in category 7 between 6 p.m. and midnight each broadcast week.
Bell argued the request…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The cost of using a payphone (remember those?) will remain at 50 cents for now, as the CRTC denied requests for an increase in local payphone rates to $1 for cash calls and up to $2 for calls charged to a credit card or other forms of payment.
In today’s decision, the Commission denied an application by Bell Canada, Bell Aliant Regional Communications and Télébec to raise payphone rates. The telcos argued that the increases were necessary to help recover the costs associated with upgrading their payphones to accept the new one dollar coin issued by the Royal Canadian Mint…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – Newcap Inc. has agreed to sell its CHFT-FM radio station in Fort McMurray, Alta., to Harvard Broadcasting Inc., the company announced today. Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.
“This was a unique situation in a market where two stand-alone stations were up against a competitor with two FMs,” said Newcap president and CEO Rob Steele of the announcement. “It made sense for one of us to acquire the other to make the market a level playing field. We would like to thank all our employees for their dedication and support over the…
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OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet shuffle, announced this morning, included a significant number of changes, including (as previously speculated) major shifts in the ministries with oversight of the CRTC and Canada’s cable, radio, television and telecom industries.
James Moore has been named the new Industry Minister, replacing Christian Paradis. Shelly Glover, MP for Saint Boniface in Winnipeg, will be taking over Moore’s position as Heritage Minister. Paradis, who had been Industry Minister since May 2011, takes on two new portfolios as the new Minister of International Development and Minister for La Francophonie.
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