GATINEAU – CRTC vice-chairman, telecom, Len Katz, has been elected acting chairman of the CRTC, the Commission confirmed Wednesday morning.
He will remain as acting, or interim, chair until such time as the Government of Canada names a new chairperson. Katz has been serving as vice-chairman of telecommunications since October 2007, and was previously the executive director of broadcasting and telecommunications. Before joining the CRTC, Katz spent 30 years in the private sector as president and COO of Digimerge Technologies and president of Rogers Business Solutions, among other senior roles. (And Cartt.ca profiled him here).
Under the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved the implementation plans for local competition and wireless number portability filed by a number of the country’s small incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
In last May’s obligation to serve decision, the CRTC said that it would maintain its existing framework for competitors wishing to enter territories served exclusively by smaller telephone companies in order to encourage competition and consumer choice.
More to come on this story.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The Weather Network/Météomédia had its mandatory distribution status on the digital basic service extended through 2018 by the CRTC on Tuesday.
The Commission granted the extension from August 31, 2015 to August 31, 2018 after parent company Pelmorex Communications fulfilled various conditions relating to the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system.
Pelmorex must still execute NAAD user agreements with the emergency management organizations of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories which are due by April 1, 2012 and August 31, 2015, respectively.
www.crtc.gc.ca
www.pelmorex.com
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KONRAD VON FINCKENSTEIN made a lot of work for a lot of us.
As he has noted since he first took the job of CRTC chair in January of 2007, he wanted to make the CRTC more open, predictable, fair, and timely. While by our judgment he succeeded, with that openness came more public processes and a quick count of the number of public proceedings under his watch comes to 103. His predecessor, the late Charles Dalfen, called just 78.
Mr. Dalfen, however, never had to deal with the likes of YouTube, Facebook or Twitter.
Coinciding with von Finckenstein’s tenure at the…
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TORONTO – Media Access Canada (MAC) is calling on Industry Canada to allocate a portion of the 700 MHz spectrum auction funds to the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund (BAF).
BAF is the $5.7 million fund mandated by the CRTC last year as part of BCE’s tangible benefits when it purchased CTV. MAC, which represents a number of national disability organizations, continues to lobby the CRTC to administer the BAF.
“It is critical that opportunities not be lost while awaiting the CRTC’s decision on management of the BAF is pending”, said CEO Beverley Milligan, in a statement.
www.mediac.ca
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with online gamers in their complaints against Rogers Communications’ network management policies.
The Commission’s Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer Andrea Rosen told Rogers in a letter on Friday that based on preliminary evidence, its Internet throttling practices are in breach of the net neutrality rules within the Telecommunications Act. It also gave the company two weeks to either dispute the evidence or provide a plan to come into compliance with the Act.
“Based on the preliminary results of our ongoing investigation, Commission staff is of the belief that Rogers Communications Inc. applies a technical ITMP…
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OTTAWA – A new CRTC policy announced Thursday encourages the country’s incumbent telephone companies to adopt Internet Protocol (IP) throughout their networks, putting them on a similar footing with their wireless colleagues.
Large telephone companies have traditionally relied on voice circuit-switched technology (known as TDM) to transfer telephone calls to and from other service providers. Although they are gradually migrating their networks to IP, these companies continue to rely on the older technology.
By comparison, cable companies and wireless providers that began offering telephone services in the last few years have built IP-based networks, and are currently responsible for converting their…
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OTTAWA – Industry Canada has suspended the use of television channel 51 in an effort to prevent interference in the lower part of 700 MHz spectrum pending its forthcoming auction.
In a letter to the CRTC, IC said that effective immediately, it will no longer grant new broadcasting certificates for regular power and low power TV applications. The moratorium affects only the applications for new or modification to facilities predicated on increased usage of the spectrum and does not affect existing regular power or low power television stations currently on channel 51.
www.ic.gc.ca
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AS NATIONAL CHAIR OF THE Canadian Broadcast Standards Council for 18 years, Ron Cohen has seen and heard the most controversial television and radio programming offered on the Canadian airwaves.
Talk show hosts who obliterated whatever journalistic lines there were have been reprimanded, gratuitous violence has been appropriately banished from the airwaves and ignorant, yet aired, viewpoints which were human rights violations were harshly dealt with and apologized for thanks to the codes interpreted, nurtured and enforced by the CBSC under Cohen’s direction.
He spent over 18 years at the helm of the CBSC, the private broadcasters’ standards body. The CBSC…
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OTTAWA – More than 20 applicants have asked the CRTC to be awarded a spot on the FM dial in the crowded Toronto radio market.
And that list includes broadcasting heavyweights such as Newcap, CBC and Astral.
The Commission issued the call last September after Evanov Radio Group subsidiary Dufferin Communications applied to change the frequency of its station CIRR-FM Toronto, (also known as Proud 103.9), from 103.9 MHz to 88.1 MHz. Applications were due December 19.
As Cartt.ca readers will recall, 88.1 FM is the slot formerly occupied by Ryerson University radio station CKLN which had its licence revoked by…
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