OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved, for the most part, the revised structural and operational plan proposed by the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC).
The CRFC is a not-for-profit organization that supports the development of non-commercial, community-based broadcasters including campus radio stations. Its plan must receive CRTC approval before the organization can begin administering mandatory basic annual Canadian content development contributions from the big commercial radio broadcasters, as well as tangible benefits arising from transfers in the ownership of commercial radio undertakings.
The Commission said Wednesday that it would accept the plan once it was tweaked to include amendments related to…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC will roll out a new area code in Quebec starting next fall as the 819 region begins to run out of numbers three years earlier than originally anticipated.
Starting September 15, 2012, new telephone numbers assigned in the region currently covered by 819 may be given the area code 873, the Commission announced Wednesday.
Existing customers will keep their current area code and phone numbers.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – As the CRTC turns to the gargantuan task of sorting through the issues surrounding usage-based billing, at least one of its Commissioners decided to have a little fun and flex his creative muscle upon the conclusion of the hearing.
An ode to UBB, as penned by Commissioner Timothy Denton:
On Usage Based Billing
On usage-based billing, oh let’s take a stab!Perhaps it’s no more than a revenue grab.Capacity constraints, which we try to fix,May be as real, as in IPv6.
Whose size is so large, so vast and so great,Like stars…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s satellite relay distribution undertakings (SRDUs) should be exempt from licensing requirements, say Canada’s only two SRDU operators – Shaw and Bell – in their submissions to the CRTC’s consultation on that market.
SRDUs transport broadcasting signals to broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs) that do not have access to fibre interconnections to receive their television signals, and, are often located in rural and remote parts of the country.
Both Shaw and Bell stress in their submissions dated July 11th that other technologies create enough competition in the signal transportation field to negate the need for licensing requirements….
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TORONTO – Shaw Media’s proposed new morning news shows and public affairs program have been shelved as the company grapples with a labour dispute that could result in a strike by its unionized workers later this summer.
After presenting a new collective agreement to the eastern bargaining unit of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union (CEP) earlier this month, Shaw Media president Paul Robertson confirmed in a note to staff that the company is putting the new initiatives “on hold indefinitely”. “Despite our efforts to reach an agreement with the CEP, we are still in a very uncertain labour environment”,…
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GATINEAU – Tuning into the CRTC’s usage-based billing hearing on Monday morning, you may have thought that the Commission was dealing with urban planning issues around road congestion rather a billing model for wholesale Internet services. Several parties tried, at times convincingly, to rely on streets, side streets, on-ramps and cars on a road to parallel wholesale traffic congestion, where network investments would be required and just how those costs should be recovered.
After a somewhat technical exchange among the Commission, independent ISP group CNOC, and Bell Canada on network topology and what the independent ISPs actually pay for the use…
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GATINEAU – Today, Bell Canada backtracked from its two-tiered bandwidth rate structure in its aggregated volume pricing (AVP) model. The move is designed to address concerns raised by the CRTC last week that its approach penalizes independent internet service providers with higher rates for more capacity.
Under Bell’s original proposal, initial bandwidth would be charged at $0.195 cents per GB per month when the independent ISP pre-purchased capacity. If the indie Internet provider needed more, bandwidth would be charged at $0.295 cents per GB.
In opening remarks to its rebuttal during the second week of the Commission’s hearing into…
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CALGARY – The Canadian Common Ground Alliance (CCGA) has asked the CRTC to assign the three digit number 8-1-1 to the Canadian ‘Call Before You Dig’ program, as it is in the U.S.
‘Call Before You Dig’ is a service that allows the public to identify the location of buried utilities before starting digging projects to reduce potentially hazardous situations. CCGA says that a Canada-wide three digit number will make it easier to follow this practice, and as a result, protect Canada’s underground utility network and increase public safety.
"Making that one call is critical, it can save lives or avoid…
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GATINEAU – The MTS Allstream proposal to give wholesale ISPs access to bandwidth for a fixed price was given a thorough examination Tuesday on the last day of the usage-based billing hearing.
During its appearance, the Winnipeg-based company insisted that its approach is the most “appropriate” because it allows independent ISPs to package services and speeds with significant flexibility.
“Our tariff allows competitors to fully manage their leased capacity in the transport network, and therefore, allows efficient competitors to build scale and bring choice to Canadians,” said Teresa Griffin-Muir, VP of regulatory affairs at MTS. “It strikes an appropriate…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications’ new movie service Shaw Movie Club is off to a rather controversial start.
Last Thursday, while promoting the launch of the service, president Peter Bissonnette said that using it to view movies either “on your (set top) box or on-line, this will not have any impact on your capacity or usage”. That prompted a heated response from consumer advocacy organization OpenMedia.ca, critical of Shaw’s plan to count the likes of Netflix against users’ bit caps, but exempt their own. It called Movie Club “a blatant attempt to gain an unfair advantage over on-line services like Netflix, as well as against…
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