OTTAWA – The CRTC began using a using a harmonized set of rules on Friday to process the majority of its broadcasting and telecommunications applications, and to guide public participation in its proceedings.
Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein said in a statement that the new rules of practice and procedure offer “an opportunity to modernize and simplify our procedural rules, as well as ensure they reflect a converged communications industry”.
After reviewing its service standards, the Commission established new objectives for both sectors, and aims to publish decisions within the following time frames:
– Proceedings initiated by the CRTC as a result…
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TORONTO – Rogers is asking the Governor In Council to tweak a CRTC decision allowing Bell to use deferral account funds to expand broadband services to underserved communities in Ontario and Quebec.
In the decision, the CRTC approved a proposal by Bell Canada and Bell Aliant to use $306.3 million in deferral account revenues to extend broadband service to 112 approved locations using high-speed packet access (HSPA)+ wireless broadband technology. But Rogers has asked that this amount be reduced by the deferral account revenues required by Bell to cover “the uneconomic portion” of its cost to serve the 15 approved…
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OTTAWA – As Bell Canada stole the show with its usage-based billing (UBB) backdown earlier this week, the fact that the cable companies also suggested that billing on an aggregate use basis might be a more palatable approach was overlooked.
Under this type of model, the independent ISP which leases network capacity from a facilities-based carrier would be charged for a pre-determined amount of bandwidth that it could then offer to all of its customers. If the small ISP exceeds this amount, it would be charged additional fees. The current UBB approach contemplates charging independent ISPs on per-customer basis….
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OTTAWA – In the face of enormous political and public pressure, Bell Canada has killed wholesale usage-based billing.
Knowing politicians (whomever wins the election) are determined to stop wholesale UBB in its tracks, in its submission to the CRTC late Monday evening on the newest proceeding into the issue, Bell Canada abandoned any plan to continue pushing for UBB in its previously Commission-approved-form.
Instead, Bell has proposed a new idea (well, borrowed, really from CRTC Commissioner Candace Molnar and industry consultant Mark Goldberg) it is calling aggregated volume pricing.
“We are basically riffing off of the sentiments expressed by several…
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CHATHAM, ON – While not exactly endorsing the Harper-led Conservative government, independent Internet service provider TekSavvy expressed its frustration with last week’s dissolution of Parliament and resulting election call, citing the impacts on key industry initiatives.
“We are in the middle of a very important regulatory process, the review by the CRTC of the usage-based billing decisions”, said president and CEO Rocky Gaudrault, in a statement. “Its outcome will have a major impact on the way Canadians experience the Internet, one that will determine whether we will benefit from a fair, truly competitive framework within which we will be able to develop…
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MONTREAL – Videotron is appealing a CRTC decision forcing it to share video-on-demand content with competitors.
Cartt.ca has learned that Videotron has filed a motion with the Federal Court of Appeal seeking to overturn the Commission’s January decision which ruled that Videotron must offer content from the TVA network that is currently available on its illico on-demand platform to Bell and Telus for use on their on-demand platforms in Quebec.
Citing “errors of law and jurisdiction”, Videotron is challenging the CRTC’s finding of undue preference, alleges that the Commission “misapplied” the TV and BDU regulations, and questions whether TVA can be…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from CBC to add a post-transition digital transmitter to its English-language conventional television station CBAT-TV Fredericton/Saint John.
Noting that the proposal would result in a loss of over-the-air TV service to the residents of Saint John, the Commission cited its Revised licensing framework for over-the-air digital television services policy whereby broadcasters are encouraged to provide digital coverage that matches their current analog coverage.
“The Commission notes that the proposed digital transmitter would be located such that it would provide service to only one of the two markets served by the…
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OTTAWA – The Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) said that it applauds the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for recognizing the importance of fair terms of trade agreements between independent producers and vertically integrated media companies.
As Cartt.ca reported, in a report to the Government of Canada on the impact of private television ownership changes, the Standing Committee recommended that the Government consider the issue of fair terms of trade agreements between independent producers and vertically integrated media companies when reviewing the Canada Media Fund.
“The Committee is to be congratulated for its timely recognition of the need for…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given its thumbs up to the revised monthly recurring rates and service charge rates for the wholesale line-sharing services of the major incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, SaskTel, and Telus.
Line-sharing service is a wholesale service that provides access to the high-frequency band of unbundled copper local loops. Under a line-sharing service arrangement, the co-located competitor provisions its own digital subscriber line access multiplexer to offer high-speed Internet access service to its end-customers.
The Commission also established the conditions under which line-sharing service is to be offered. Click here…
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TORONTO – It will be up to Canada’s Supreme Court to decide on whether Internet service providers (ISPs) are just pipes or actually broadcasters.
On Thursday the Court granted a coalition of Canadian union and guilds leave to appeal a lower court decision issued last July that deemed ISPs “content-neutral,” and therefore not subject to CRTC-regulated Canadian content exhibition or contribution requirements like broadcasters.
During that proceeding, the major ISPs, (many of which are also cable companies), insisted that because ISPs do not select, originate or package programming, they cannot be considered broadcasters. A coalition of content producers and…
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