OTTAWA – The CRTC wants the country’s wireless service providers (WSP) to ‘fess up by the end of this month whether or not they are making customers pay for service calls.
In a letter addressed to all WSPs dated April 2nd, the Commission said that it is aware of incidents where some carriers have been charging for certain client service calls, a practice that may run afoul of the Wireless Code.
For the purposes of this request, the Regulator is defining a customer service interaction fee to include any charges to customers when they contact their service provider to discuss or ask…
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OTTAWA – Vancouver may soon have a new radio station after the CRTC issued a call for comments on the market capacity and on the appropriateness of issuing a call for radio applications in that city.
The Commission said Thursday that it issued the call after receiving an application from Rogers Media for a commercial radio station to serve that market, operating on the frequency used by its rebroadcasting transmitter CKKS-FM-2 Vancouver, which rebroadcasts the programming of CKKS-FM Chilliwack.
Interventions are due by June 3 and the deadline to file replies is June 18, 2019. Following receipt of comments, the CRTC said that it…
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GATINEAU – A Competition Bureau request for the CRTC to facilitate a big data dump from Canadian wireless service providers has flummoxed the Commission and caused at least one carrier to accuse the Bureau of attempting to “hijack” the CRTC’s recently announced review of Canada’s mobile wireless services market.
On March 8, the Competition Bureau filed a procedural request with the CRTC under the proceeding, saying it planned to conduct three of its own analyses of the Canadian wireless market, but in order to do so, it needs the CRTC to demand Canadian wireless service providers…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is calling for comments on a proposal to update its policy on Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) to take into account the digital media broadcasting environment.
Acknowledging the many changes to the broadcasting environment since the CPE requirements were last updated in 1993, the Commission noted that applying regulations designed for traditional television and radio services to digital media poses “significant challenges”, including those relating to requirements to make financial contributions to Canadian production.
BNC CRTC 2019-91 seeks stakeholder feedback on a number of questions and issues relating to updating the CPE policy to incorporate the digital…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is seeking industry feedback on the idea of a new, annual digital media survey for all licensed Canadian broadcasting undertakings (radio, television and distribution).
Currently, the Commission collects data on traditional broadcasting activities via its annual broadcasting survey, but does not collect primary data on the other digital media activities of Canadian broadcasters.
The proposed digital media survey would be part of the CRTC’s current annual broadcasting survey for this fall, and would collect financial information on BDUs’ digital media broadcasting activities for the 2018-2019 broadcast year, using the Commission’s data collection system.
“The Commission recognizes that the…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has once again flexed its anti-spam muscle, executing a warrant along with the RCMP at a Greater Toronto Area residence Wednesday during a malware investigation.
Part of an international coordinated effort with the RCMP, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Australian Federal Police, the Commission said Thursday that the two warrants were obtained as part of ongoing parallel investigations into Remote Access Trojan (RAT) technology, a kind of malware that enables remote access to Canadian computers without their users' consent, potentially leading to the theft of personal information and installation of other malware.
The CRTC…
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GATINEAU – In a complaint filed with the CRTC on February 27th, Quebecor alleges that Bell Canada is conferring undue preference and disadvantage when distributing RDS, Bell Media’s French sport channel in a different way than Quebecor’s own TVA Sports.
(Perhaps this is what Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau was referring to in his Op-Ed here last week.)
According to the complaint letter, TVA Sports is NOT offered in Bell TV’s “Good” tier, where it carries RDS, which in its eyes constitutes a clear case of undue preference which is not allowed as stated in Section 9…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC estimates that its regulatory costs under section 9(1) of the broadcasting regulations will total $31.361 million for the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
The annual adjustment amount referred to in section 8(2) for the 2017-2018 fiscal year is $1.137 million.
Taking this adjustment into account, the net billing for the Part I licence fee for the 2019-2020 fiscal year is $32.498 million. This estimated net billing represents a 12% increase compared to the amount for the 2018-2019 fiscal year ($29.027 million) due to the ratification of collective agreements, including retroactive payments dating back to 2014-2015, the Commission said…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request by Iristel seeking interim relief from Bell Canada’s rate increases for certain circuits.
In an application dated December 19, 2018, Iristel asked the Commission for both interim and final relief regarding alleged anti-competitive conduct by Bell Canada over the rates that it charges Iristel for circuits associated with certain transport services.
Iristel submitted that the Commission must decide whether Bell Canada engaged in anti-competitive conduct by “unilaterally and without proper warning increasing its rates for certain forborne circuits” from by 80% to 250% in some cases, and by over 125% in others, both of…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has decided against issuing a call for new radio stations to serve Timmins after finding that the market cannot sustain an additional commercial radio station at this time.
Located in northeastern Ontario approximately 280 kilometers north of Sudbury, the Timmins radio market is currently served by four commercial FM radio stations: the English-language stations CJQQ-FM and CKGB-FM, operated by Rogers Media; the English-language station CHMT-FM, operated by Vista; and the French-language station CHYK-FM, operated by LE5 Communications. It is also served by the Indigenous station CJWT-FM, operated by Wawatay Native Communications Society, as well as rebroadcasting…
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