OTTAWA – The CRTC has approved Bell Aliant’s request for forbearance from the regulation of residential local exchange services in 19 exchanges in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia.
After applying the local forbearance test, the Commission issued the decision on Friday, and directed Bell Aliant to file revised tariff pages within 30 days of the date of this decision.
Earlier this year as part of its ‘obligation to serve’ decision, the CRTC determined that the large incumbent local exchange carriers would no longer receive subsidies for residential network access services (NAS) in high-cost exchanges for which the Commission…
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TORONTO and MONTREAL – The CBC has upped the ante in its battle with Quebecor.
Quebecor's media outlets have been unrelenting in their criticism of the CBC, complaining of a lack of transparency at the public broadcaster, which has been forced to deal with hundreds of requests made by Quebecor under the Access To Information regulations. The CBC claims it can protect some competitively sensitive information. Quebecor has taken the position that because it's federally funded, it must divulge just about everything.
However, on the eve of Quebecor Inc. president and CEO Pierre-Karl Péladeau’s appearance in front of the House of Commons Standing…
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OTTAWA – The change of a single word, which the CRTC insists is a correction of a mistake, has many people in the regulatory side of the TV business wondering aloud if, in fact, the Commission caved a little to the wishes of Bell Canada.
Last Friday, October 14, the CRTC tweaked its regulatory framework relating to vertical integration, where the much ballyhooed code of conduct for vertically integrated companies was softened, with the words “shall” or “shall not” replaced with “should” or “should not” (or, in French, from “doit” or “ne doit pas” to “devrait”…
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OTTAWA – There is an easy fix to the ongoing dispute between the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, according to the chair of the CRTC, Konrad von Finckenstein.
In an appearance before the House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics Committee, von Finckenstein said Parliament just needs to change the Access to Information Act. The former judge and Competition Bureau chief noted the current dispute hinges on a double exemption contained in section 68.1 of the Act.
This section of the Act says that CBC’s journalistic, programming and creative activities are…
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TORONTO – The first annual Canadian ISP Summit is coming to Toronto from November 14 – 16, presented by the Canadian Network Operator’s Consortium (CNOC) and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP).
Designed for ISPs large and small across the country – and open to participants in the Canadian ISP industry – this conference will allow attendees to address the challenges and opportunities of the current business environment. The event will also be co-located with the Internet Society’s (ISOC) ION Conference, which will take place on Monday afternoon.
Keynote speeches will be made by representatives from the CRTC, Industry Canada, Telus…
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OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada said today it will decide whether or not the CRTC has the jurisdiction to institute the fee-for-carriage (or value for signal) regime it okayed in 2010.
When the CRTC made its policy announcement in March of that year, it referred the jurisdictional question to the Federal Court (pre-empting the carriers, who would have done the same thing). Then in March 2011, the Federal Court issued a 2-1 decision saying the CRTC did, in fact, have the right to okay a new value-for-signal policy where off-air TV broadcasters would have the right…
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CHANGE AT THE VERY top of the CRTC may be only the tip of the iceberg.
It’s been an open secret-slash-assumption for a while that the Conservative government was not keen on extending Konrad von Finckenstein’s stay as CRTC chairman. While the chair had made it known in the summer he would like to stay on for a few more years at least (a shorter, three year term was discussed, according to people with knowledge of the situation), Federal Cabinet has decided a new person will take the reins come January 25, when von Finckenstein’s mandate ends.
On Tuesday, he sent…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has taken steps to improve its complaints resolution process for Internet traffic management practices through new guidelines that include strict timelines and the threat of public shaming.
Thursday’s decision details how the Commission will now deal with complaints about Internet service providers (ISPs) slowing down certain types of traffic. Upon the receipt of a complaint regarding a traffic management practice, CRTC staff will forward the complaint to the ISP in question within 15 calendar days, and request a response within 20 calendar days of the company receiving that complaint.
If the ISP fails to respond or…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has given Shaw Communications the green light to eliminate the rules that require it to keep its DTH service Shaw Direct structurally separate from its corporate sibling Shaw Cable.
In Wednesday’s decision, the Commission noted that the distribution market has become “significantly more competitive” than when the conditions of licence in question were imposed. (Ed note: at that time, some 14 years ago, DTH BDUs were new players in the distribution market and Shaw was the only owner of terrestrial BDU, DTH and SRDU holdings).
The CRTC agreed with Shaw that the rules may place…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC’s new policy on vertical integration, released late Wednesday, tries hard to balance the wants of Canadian television viewers with the commercial demands of the country’s largest vertically integrated broadcasters and television distributors, and the needs of the smaller and independent ones.
Following a five day long hearing in June, the new policy offers flexibility to the likes of Bell Media, Rogers Communications, Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media, but also includes a number of safeguards and a code of conduct.
Highlights of the new policy include:
– Companies are prohibited from offering television programs on an exclusive basis to…
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