City Wide petitions the Governor in Council to vary the decision
By Amanda OYE
OTTAWA – Eastlink is arguing Dartmouth, Nova Scotia-based independent Internet service provider City Wide Communications merely restated its original argument in its application to have the CRTC review and vary its decision to deny its request to order Eastlink to move its third-party Internet access (TPIA) point of interconnection (POI) in Nova Scotia.
Eastlink’s TPIA POI in Nova Scotia is currently located in the rural community of Pennant Point but City Wide has been asking for it to be moved to a location in the core of Halifax.
The…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – On Aug. 4, the CRTC sent a letter to Pelmorex regarding the impact of Rogers’ Canada-wide service outage on its role as the operator of the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system.
“As an initial step, comprehensive information is required in order for the Commission and Canadians to understand what happened, and, just as importantly, what can be done to improve the system including how to mitigate impacts on the National Public Alerting System,” the letter reads.
The CRTC mentions that while it is considering a public inquiry on this telecommunications failure, it wishes to…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has sent Lixo Investments a request for information regarding claims from Rogers Communications it is refusing to grant the telecom access to 70 Yorkville Avenue in Toronto despite the Commission having issued a decision on June 8 granting the telecom’s request for access.
The Commission’s decision indicated increasingly stringent measures would take effect 30 and 45 days from the date of the decision if Rogers did not report it had “been granted timely access under reasonable terms and conditions.”
At issue is Rogers ability to access the building to service facilities installed in the 1980s. Rogers indicated…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced on Twitter that its Quebec Commissioner Alicia Barin (above) was appointed by the Governor in Council as interim vice-chair, broadcasting on Monday for a six-month period.
Barin takes over the role from Caroline J. Simard, who is set to begin her new role as Commissioner of Elections Canada starting Aug. 15.
Simard was previously scheduled to leave the Commission in September. She was a dissenting voice on two recent CRTC decisions regarding the CBC – the decision to renew its licences with significant changes to its conditions of licence, and the decision…
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HALIFAX – Provincial Crown corporation Develop Nova Scotia today announced it is expanding the Satellite Internet Service Rebate program it announced in July to help more people in the province get access to Internet services faster, as well as expanding the scope of three fibre-to-the-home projects.
When the Satellite Internet Service Rebate program was announced July 29, 3,700 homes and businesses were eligible to claim up to $1,000 for costs associated with setting up satellite service meeting the CRTC’s minimum speed targets of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.
“Starting today, August 11, the program will accept applications from…
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OTTAWA – More information is being sought on how the recent nationwide Rogers outage impacted the company’s deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind (DHHDB) customers and wholesale customers.
Late last month, Rogers submitted a report to the CRTC with answers to a series of questions about the network outage that started July 8, the publicly available version of which was heavily redacted.
Canada Deaf Grassroots Movement (CDGM) and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Coalition (DHH Coalition), the latter of which includes Deafness Advocacy Association Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador Association of the Deaf, and Ontario Association of the…
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OTTAWA – Telus Communications is asking the CRTC to approve revisions to its general tariff, which would allow it to charge customers a 1.5% credit card processing fee.
If approved, new and current Telus customers making a payment by credit card will be charged the fee. The company is proposing this change be effective as of Oct. 17, 2022. If the Commission is not able to issue a decision in time, Telus is requesting the effective date be set at three weeks after the Commission’s decision is released.
In its application to revise its tariff, Telus notes in 2018, there was…
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OTTAWA – When the federal government announced it was proposing a new telecommunications policy direction to the CRTC back in May, it emphasized how it would improve competition.
This is supposed to help ensure telecommunications services are affordable and encourage innovation in the industry.
The proposed policy direction compels the CRTC to consider, among other things, how its decisions “encourage all forms of competition and investment”. But while several telecommunications service providers (TSPs) that submitted comments to the government on the proposed policy direction seem to agree competition is important, there is disagreement on what kind of competition the CRTC…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The CRTC’s renewal of the CBC/SRC’s licences on June 22, was met with dissenting voices within the Commission where the decision was approved by three commissioners over two dissents, as well as outside voices who have issues with some segments of the decision.
Several groups have now filed petitions to Cabinet to have the decision set aside or referred back to the CRTC, including Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the National Pensioners Federation (NPF), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), FRIENDS, l’Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA),…
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Calls claim of confidentiality for certain things “ridiculous on its face”
OTTAWA – Consumer advocacy group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) today filed a request with the CRTC asking for the disclosure of additional information from the documents Rogers Communications filed with it in relation to the company’s nationwide outage last month.
“PIAC submits that Rogers’ response has excessively redacted critical information that the public requires to understand what occurred during the outage and how Rogers plans to mitigate future risks and harms – and to make consumer choices based on these answers and otherwise protect their…
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