OTTAWA – The CRTC will examine a number of new specialty TV channel and radio applications this July.
The applications, made public Thursday, include a new French-language channel from Astral called Tele-Vitesse that would showcase the vehicles and technologies that make speed possible; three new Hindi movie channels from Asian Television Network International; a Spanish-language children’s channel from Telelatino Network; and a new animated channel to be known as Teletoon Kapow!
Intervention and comments are due by June 20, and the non-appearing hearing is scheduled for July 18, 2011 in Gatineau.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The country’s big Internet service providers will be required to provide static Internet protocol (IP) address allocation for their third-party Internet access (TPIA) services, the CRTC has ruled.
A static IP address is a number that is assigned to a device, such as a computer, to be its permanent address on the Internet. An ISP assigns the address when it provides an Internet access service to an end-user.
Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron originally told the Commission that it is unclear whether the managed router solution they use to provide static IP addresses for business customers would work for their TPIA…
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OTTAWA – Regina-based Access Communications Co-operative has told the CRTC that it no longer wishes to pay into the country’s Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF).
Canada’s cable and satellite companies must contribute 1.5% of their gross broadcasting-related revenues per year to the fund, which can then be accessed by broadcasters serving markets with less than 1 million people to help fund local programming.
In an application made public earlier this week, Access asked the Commission to amend its BDU licence to relieve it from its LPIF contributions, citing its “unique corporate structure” as compared to other BDUs (Access is a community-owned not-for-profit cooperative…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from the Canadian Network Operators Consortium Inc. (CNOC) to merge the retail component of usage-based billing (UBB) with the residential proceeding.
In a letter to the Commission earlier this month, CNOC said that if the business wholesale and residential wholesale proceedings are kept separate, parties will have to repeat many of their submissions in both proceedings, “resulting in confusion, unfairness, and inefficiency”.
The group also argued that the parties participating in the business wholesale proceeding are at a disadvantage because that proceeding does not include an oral hearing; that separate proceedings will result…
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OTTAWA – The pace of play at the Federal Court of Appeal’s (FCA) hearing on Globalive Wireless’ ownership yesterday was certainly not like an NHL playoff game, but both sides used their opportunities to rough up their opponents.
After an in-depth explanation why the Federal Court erred in its decision to overturn the Governor in Council (GIC) decision giving Globalive the green light to operate, lawyers for the government of Canada took their first jab at Public Mobile, arguing that the company shouldn’t have even had the right to appeal the GIC in the first place. They said…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered the country’s telcos to pay over $215,000 to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in order to cover its costs during the obligation to serve hearing last fall.
The consumer group asked the Commission that it be reimbursed for legal fees, consultant fees, expert witness fees, disbursement fees and tax while representing the organizations Canada Without Poverty, Option consommateurs, and Rural Dignity of Canada, an amount that it said totaled $216,795.66.
On Monday, the CRTC agreed that PIAC should be paid $215,276.46, and that the amount should be divided up among all telecommunications service providers…
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GATINEAU – Independent Canadian ISPs say that while they welcome new proposals to charge for wholesale high-speed access to incumbent facilities such as Bell Canada’s aggregated volume pricing (AVP), most everyone is missing the point by focusing on usage rather than congestion.
Movie streaming service Netflix also filed its own opinion on the Bell proposal, too.
Canadian Network Operators Consortium Inc. (CNOC) criticizes both Bell’s AVP model and the blended charge approaches suggested by the cable companies for linking high volume users with those who create congestion on the network.
“This is a crucial distinction because all of the other proposals…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with MTS Allstream in a dispute with Triton Global Business Services over the companies’ billing and collection services agreement.
Triton provides interexchange telecommunications services such as collect calling services and third-party billing in Canada. In February, it asked the Commission to resolve a dispute between it and MTS Allstream over an agreement that the two companies signed in 2003 and was terminated by MTS Allstream in January this year.
After granting Triton’s request for interim relief in March, the Commission said Monday that it found Triton has breached the agreement and “failed to demonstrate that it has taken appropriate…
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OTTAWA – The Community Radio Fund of Canada will hand out more than $180,000 to 26 campus and community radio broadcasters this year.
The Ottawa-based organization said Monday that $182,815 will be dispersed through its Radio Talent Development Program and the Youth Internship Program. The goal of both programs is to develop innovative local interest programming while providing mentorship, education, and or training for broadcasters.
"The Community Radio Fund is all about supporting programming that matters to people in your town, your village, your neighbourhood”, said president John Harris Stevenson, in Monday’s announcement. “I’m very happy that the fund has been able…
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OTTAWA – With just over 100 days and counting until the digital transition, the federal government has launched a new website to help Canadians understand and prepare for the switchover.
In addition to a downloadable checklist, the site offers affected TV viewers tips on how to install a digital-to-analog convertor box, choose a new television set, or subscribe to a TV service provider.
The country’s major over-the-air broadcasters are also now airing their public service announcements as part of the national awareness campaign which began earlier this month. As Cartt.ca reported, the CRTC directed broadcasters that are required to make…
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