GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced a three-month trial that will allow 911 call centres to communicate with pre-registered participants with hearing and speech impairments via text message.
"This text messaging trial is one of several initiatives that the CRTC is exploring to improve the accessibility of communications services for the hearing and speech impaired," said Len Katz, the CRTC's acting chairman and vice-chairman of telecommunications. "This trial will give us the technical and operational information we need before making a final decision on whether to expand the program nationwide."
The trial will involve participants in Vancouver, Toronto, Peel Region and…
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MONTEREY, Calif. – A study analyzing Q3 2011 broadcast TV retransmission revenue indicates a group of 16 TV station owners grew their average monthly retransmission fees per multichannel subscriber by 46.8% between the third quarter of 2009 and the third quarter of 2011 to reach an estimated 33 cents per sub. By comparison, average Q3 2010 fees were estimated at 26 cents reports SNL Kagan.
(The numbers may be of particular interest to Canadian TV broadcasters given that the Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to hear the fee-for-carriage (or value for signal) appeal on April 19, 2012. Continue Reading
DARTMOUTH, NS, – Newcap Inc. has received approval from the CRTC to purchase CIGV-FM (The Giant) in Penticton, BC from Great Valleys Radio Ltd. The $2-million transaction, previously announced on August 4, 2011, is expected to be completed within the next 30 days.
Newfoundland Capital Corporation Limited operates Newcap Radio, which has 82 radio licenses across Canada.
www.ncc.ca
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has imposed an $18,000 penalty on Imperial Data Supply Corp. for initiating six faxes to consumers whose fax numbers were or should have been on the company’s internal do not call list. It also was charged for initiating telecommunications without being registered with the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) operator, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
The CRTC says it received numerous complaints dating from November 2009 to July 2011, in relation to fax telemarketing telecommunications made by Imperial Data.
In its defence, Imperial Data claimed it had not been properly informed of its obligation…
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OTTAWA – As the CRTC prepares to review the relative success of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), it has released new numbers for the 2010-2011 period, ending August 31st, which indicate Shaw Communications paid the most into the fund, followed by Bell Canada and Rogers Cable.
Shaw (cable and satellite) combined to pay almost $32 million (an earlier version of this story had an erroneous amount for Shaw), followed by Bell at $25.08 million and Rogers at $24.05 million. Quebecor (Videotron) contributed $13.6 million and Cogeco, $6.77 million.
Shaw, the LPIF’s largest contributor, received only $8.06 million in…
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OAKVILLE – MétéoMédia and The Weather Network owner Pelmorex Communications officially launched its National Alert Aggregation & Dissemination System (NAAD) for weather and other warnings today. The company also announced that Environment Canada will participate in the NAAD system by providing more than 80% of the overall NAAD system content.
Pelmorex's NAAD System collects public safety messages (be they weather, train derailments, chemical spills or missing children) from authorized provincial and federal government authorities and distributes those messages by satellite and through the Internet to broadcasting undertakings such as radio and television stations, cable and satellite TV companies and other…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC said today that it will continue to license satellite relay distribution undertakings (SRDUs) because of a lack of competition in that market, but will not incorporate the transport of pay and specialty services into SRDU licensing.
In its decision the Commission maintained that its dispute resolution process “remains the best way to address concerns regarding uplink fees that the Bell direct-to-home undertaking charges Canadian pay and specialty services for the transport of their signals to cable headends in cases where they do not need to use Bell’s SRDU facilities.” Canada’s only two SRDU operators, Shaw Satellite…
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GATINEAU – Hot on the heels of Shaw Communications’ application to review and vary the CRTC’s newly set policy on wholesale Internet, both Rogers Cable and now Videotron have also submitted similar appeals to the CRTC of its Telecom Regulatory Policy 2011-703, the so-called wholesale usage-based billing decision.
The decision quashed the idea of usage-based billing for third party independent internet service providers in favour of incumbents charging independent ISPs either a flat rate, or a rate based on capacity and the number of users. While most liked the idea, few liked the rates (independent ISPs…
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OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada today confirmed a lower court ruling that internet service providers are not broadcasters and therefore not subject to the Broadcasting Act, nor the policies which have sprung forth from that law.
Back in 2009, the CRTC sent the question of whether or not ISPs are broadcasters to the Federal Court to decide, since many on the creative side of the industry insisted they are and should be contributing to the production of Canadian content passing through those wires or over those wireless waves. Plus, the Commission figured then that…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC wrapped up its review of the country’s telecom regulations Thursday after cutting out a lot of red tape.
The Commission said that it has either eliminated or streamlined over 60% of its 80 telecommunications regulations, though left alone regulations deemed to be in the public interest such as those relating to 911 services, accessibility, and customer privacy.
The review concluded with a decision regarding telephone wiring in which the CRTC directed large telephone companies to provide a free diagnostic service if their customers experience a problem with their phone line and do not have a jack-ended demarcation device…
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