OTTAWA – Two companies have been fined over $40,000 for making non-compliant telemarketing calls to Canadians, the CRTC said Wednesday.
In the first of two compliance and enforcement decisions, the CRTC fined Toronto Breeze Air Duct Cleaning Services Inc. $18,000 for telemarketing telecommunications initiated on its behalf to consumers whose telecommunications numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), while it was not registered with the National DNCL operator, and while it was not a registered subscriber of the National DNCL, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules.
The company was originally fined last year and was…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has ordered Bell Media to pay over $400,000 in outstanding tangible benefits after denying the broadcaster’s request to overturn an earlier decision.
The Commission notified Bell Media in May 2017 that an audit had turned up issues with several of the expenditures it claimed towards meeting its tangible benefit requirements for the 2013-2014 broadcast year. The broadcaster replied by filing an application that the Commission reverse part of its earlier decision, claiming that it did not have the opportunity to comment on certain evidence upon which the Commission relied to reach its decision.
The CRTC denied…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC has set new standards for text-based message relay services to help improve the service for hearing or speech impaired Canadians.
Message relay services (MRS) enable Canadians with a hearing or a speech disability to make and receive telephone calls via text with the assistance of a relay operator. The CRTC has long required that home phone providers offer MRS to customers 24 hours per day, seven days per week, first through teletypewriter (TTY) relay service and then through IP relay services, too.
The Commission said Friday that mobile wireless service providers (WSPs) must begin offering…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC awarded two new FM radio licences to International Harvesters for Christ Evangelistic Association Inc. for English-language Christian music stations in Kelowna and Saskatoon.
Harvesters is a not-for-profit corporation controlled by its board of directors.
The new Kelowna station will operate at 88.1 MHz (channel 201C) with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 4,200 watts (non-directional antenna with an effective height of antenna above average terrain (EHAAT) of 500 metres). The station will have a rebroadcasting transmitter in Kamloops that will operate at 99.1 MHz (channel 256B1) with an ERP of 3,000 watts (non-directional antenna with an EHAAT of 148.6 metres).
Despite…
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3,000 have signed up to Connecting Families so far, too
OTTAWA – Following last month’s report from the Auditor General which said the connectivity needs of rural Canadians are too often going unmet, John Knubley, Canada’s Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, today said the ministry accepts the recommendations made in the report and are moving forward with plans to improve rural and remote internet connectivity.
“On strategy, we agree with the report, particularly in light of the CRTC‘s decision in December 2016 declaring broadband as a basic service,” Knubley said. “I believe the declaration has created…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sided with Frontier Networks in its dispute with Eastlink over reselling its high-speed access (HSA) services.
In April, Frontier requested expedited interim relief and final relief regarding the refusal of Bragg Communications Inc. (carrying on business as Eastlink), to allow it to continue to resell HSA service to its two reseller customers. Interim relief was granted by the CRTC in May.
On Tuesday, the Commission made Frontier’s interim relief final after finding that its interpretation of Eastlink’s Third-Party Internet Access General Tariff is correct. It also directed Eastlink to file revised Tariff pages within 30 …
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OTTAWA – A group of ten academics have told the CRTC that they will be unable to participate in the Internet code of conduct proceedings because the Commission’s timelines are too tight.
In a letter to CRTC secretary general Claude Doucet dated December 5, the group stresses that the 40 calendar day/28 business day timeline for parties to prepare initial comments is insufficient to “produce informed, high quality, evidence-based interventions”, and that “adherence to the timelines as proposed will exclude the perspectives of many Canadians, and is not in the public interest.”
“As noted in the correspondence from other public interest…
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But interim ruling means squabble not over yet
OTTAWA – Noting that the issue of calls not being completed must be addressed in “an expeditious manner”, the CRTC Friday waded into the dispute between Telus and Iristel over failed phones calls to the North.
Specifically, the Commission approved, in part, interim relief request from both companies. Telus was ordered to ensure that calls to Iristel’s users with in the 867 numbering plan area (NPA), or calls that transit through TCI’s network and terminate on Iristel’s network in that NPA, reach Iristel’s network within 10 days of the decision (by Monday, December…
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OTTAWA – The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) says that it will opt out of the CRTC’s Internet Code proceeding after the Commission denied its request for more time and for revisions to the proposed procedure.
In a request dated the day after the CRTC issued its call for comments on setting a code of conduct for Internet service providers, the consumer group asked that the proceeding's timelines be pushed back to March after noting that the deadlines overlap with several other proceedings that it says involve many or all of the parties who typically participate in CRTC telecommunications proceedings.
“The major…
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Comments due by December 19
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – In an effort to address increasing complaints about Internet services, the CRTC is calling for comments on a mandatory code of conduct for Internet service providers.
The Commission said Friday that the proposed new code would establish consumer-friendly business practices, ensure contracts are easy-to-understand, and make it simpler for Canadians to switch providers to take advantage of competitive offers. The code would apply to retail fixed Internet access services provided to individuals and small businesses by large facilities-based Internet service providers.
The CRTC also included a working document based in part on certain provisions…
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