WHITEHORSE – Northwestel told its customers this week it will extend its temporary Internet usage relief during the Covid-19 crisis for every Northwestel residential Internet customer until May 31st, subject to CRTC approval.
The company received CRTC approval to waive any overage charges for customers exceeding their Internet usage caps through to the end of April in terrestrially-served communities (which are most communities in Yukon, NWT, northern Alberta and northern B.C., says the company).
The company has also been augmenting capacity to accommodate the increase in usage on its terrestrial network. All Northwestel’s terrestrial Internet packages and rates are regulated,…
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GATINEAU — The CRTC announced Monday it has extended the deadlines for responses to its request for information and for interventions to the proceeding regarding paper billing practices of telecom and TV service providers.
The new deadline dates are as follows:
Responses to the Commission’s request for information must be filed by June 1, 2020.
Interventions must be filed by July 3, 2020.
Replies to interventions must be submitted by July 24, 2020.
crtc.gc.ca
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved Bell Canada’s March 24th application seeking to block fraudulent what are called Wangiri fraud calls on its networks, at least until June 1.
Wangiri calls work the following way: one gets a phone call, most often on a cell phone and it rings only once. Wangiri is Japanese for “one ring”. Then the victim is tempted to call back, thinking they missed a call. When it does, the “bad actor” will try to keep the victim on the phone for as long as possible and when the victim gets its telephone…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Back in the fall, Vidéotron stopped offering its retail high-speed Giga Internet services arguing that the final wholesale third party internet access rates imposed by the Commission in August 2019 made it impossible for the company to affordably offer the service to anyone at all.
It then asked the CRTC for permission to withdraw its wholesale equivalent service rates, therefore making impossible to resellers to offer that service using Videotron. Even though there was no take-up yet to this service on a wholesale basis, TekSavvy objected Videotron’s application.
One of its arguments is that since…
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GATINEAU — In light of its new role under the Accessible Canada Act (ACA), which came into effect in July 2019, the CRTC announced today it is launching a proceeding to seek input into new regulations the Commission will create regarding the accessibility reporting requirements for broadcasting undertakings, Canadian telecom common carriers and telecom service providers.
The call for comments was made in the Commission’s Telecom and Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2020-124, published today. The ACA establishes three main requirements for regulated entities, which are related to accessibility plans, progress reports and feedback processes. Each of these requirements…
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Incumbents say claim they disadvantage resellers on tech work is false
By Ahmad Hathout
GATINEAU – Despite an ongoing judicial review of lower wholesale rates the CRTC set last summer, the Regulator’s ability to set new emergency rates is unaffected by the case and the Commission should install new, lower fees for resellers, ISP TekSavvy is arguing.
On Monday, TekSavvy said in a press release the CRTC should consider emergency measures to reimpose lower rates which third party internet access providers like itself pay the incumbents to use network space. The Federal Court of Appeal is currently scheduled to hear…
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By David Farnes
GATINEAU – The Commission has quickly responded to a notification from the Emergency Services Working Group that the Next Generation 9-1-1 implementation dates are in jeopardy due to Covid-19.
In a letter dated April 8, 2020, the Commission suspended the upcoming deadlines. The CRTC also provided a preliminary view that the new date at which the NG9-1-1 network providers must have their networks ready to support NG9-1-1 Voice service is March 30, 2021. The former date was June 30, 2020.
The deadline for NG9-1-1 network providers to support NG9-1-1 text messaging, was moved from June 30, 2020 to…
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GATINEAU — In a procedural letter dated April 3, the CRTC informed Bell and Rogers it was extending the deadline for Bell to comply with the Commission’s December 2019 decision that directed Bell to deploy one-way toll trunks to connect to Rogers switches in the Bell operating territories in which Rogers also provides service, which was supposed to resolve the two companies’ dispute over toll-free call routing.
In the letter, the Commission says it considers the Covid-19 pandemic to be “an unprecedented force majeure situation during which it would not be appropriate for the Commission to expect Bell…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC expedited the release of its decisions on two broadcast transactions, announcing today Bell Media can proceed with its purchase of the V television network and Leclerc Communications can purchase CJPX-FM Montreal.
The specific rationale behind each decision is not ready for release and the announcement notes they will be available at a later date.
First the Bell-Groupe-V approval (which was a deal valued at $20 million, for the five off-air TV stations, when announced):
The conditions on Bell’s acquisition will “guarantee adequate levels of investments in local programming and original French-language Canadian programming,” says the press…
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GATINEAU — In a letter posted March 30 on its website, the CRTC announced it is extending the deadline for wireless service providers to file their 2020 Wireless Code compliance reports to April 30, 2020.
Originally the compliance reports were due by March 31, but Iristel’s Ice Wireless submitted a procedural request March 27 asking the CRTC to give wireless service providers until at least the end of April to submit their respective reports, given the ongoing Covid-19 situation.
On Monday, the CRTC approved the deadline extension to April 30.
“Staff is of the view that the ongoing Covid-19 situation constitutes…
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