GATINEAU – The CRTC took a big step towards ensuring that net neutrality reigns in Canada with its decision today to order Vidéotron to no longer zero-rate its Unlimited Music service.
In Telecom Decision 2017-105, the Commission ruled that Videotron violated subsection 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act by providing certain customers with access to Unlimited Music at no charge and not having it count against their data plans. The company has conferred its eligible subscribers and content providers included in the service “an undue and unreasonable preference", says the regulator in its decision.
It went on to say that Vidéotron subjected…
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Vidéotron’s Unlimited Music hangs in the balance
GATINEAU – Is selecting and offering free music services to wireless customers a form of net neutrality-bruising gatekeeping, or an innovative way to win and keep happy customers?
The CRTC will let us know Thursday when its decision from the November hearing into what the Regulator termed “differential pricing practices” (DPP) is announced at 4 p.m. ET.
According to Quebecor Media Inc., Unlimited Music is simply a marketing instrument which helps grow its wireless subscriber base (especially among younger users). Essentially, QMI’s Vidéotron has chosen a number of music services to…
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New three-year plan
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has released its new three-year plan that includes a review of the CBC, a decision on phasing out the local service subsidy regime, and a potential overhaul of the framework for interconnection between carriers.
Other planned activities include licence renewals for the country’s biggest BDUs, its new broadband funding mechanism, and a concerted effort to improve Canadians with disabilities’ awareness and knowledge of available accessibility products and services.
Those initiatives are among the goals that the Commission has outlined for completion during 2017-2020 under the pillars of ‘create’, ‘connect’, and ‘protect’, that support its…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC has issued a call for radio applications to serve the south-central Ontario market of Georgina after determining that the area can sustain an additional commercial station.
The Commission said Thursday that the town, located 81 kilometres north of Toronto on the south-east shore of Lake Simcoe, is geographically the largest of nine municipalities in the Regional Municipality of York and belongs to the Numeris central area of Toronto, which shares the same boundary with the corresponding Toronto census metropolitan area (CMA). In 2016, the population of Georgina represented 0.8% of the population in the Toronto…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC’s first chief consumer officer, Barbara Motzney, is leaving the CRTC.
She has been appointed assistant deputy minister, policy and strategic direction, Western Economic Diversification Canada and will start her new appointment on April 18, said a recent memo recently circulated to CRTC staff by chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
“Barbara was the CRTC’s very first chief consumer officer, a function that she has performed with great success since October 2012,” said Blais in his memo. “I, as well as the entire organization, will miss her important strategic contribution and her innovative spirit. That said, I am convinced that her…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC will begin a three day public hearing on Monday to consider radio applications seeking to serve urban Indigenous Canadians in major markets.
The Commission said in January that it had received two applications for stations in Vancouver, three for Calgary, three for Edmonton, two for Toronto, and two for Ottawa.
Five organizations have submitted applications: the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta, Watwatay Native Communications Society, Northern Native Broadcasting, VMS Media Group Ltd. and First Peoples Radio Inc.
A live audio feed of the hearing will be available on the CRTC website.
www.crtc.gc.ca
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OTTAWA – The CRTC estimates that its regulatory costs under section 9(1) of the broadcasting regulations will total $29.723 million for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
The annual adjustment amount referred to in section 8(2) for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is a loss of $2.121 million. A second adjustment pertaining to the 2016-2017 fiscal year in the amount of $0.014 million is being made following the revision of the Part I billing for two broadcasting undertakings. Part I broadcasting licence fees were recalculated and the adjustment is being invoiced to the other broadcasting undertakings.
Taking this adjustment into account, the net billing for…
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GATINEAU – In honour of Canada’s 150 birthday, the CRTC unveiled the names of 23 trailblazers that have helped shape the Canadian communications system. Representing a broad cross section of Canadian society, they come from the broadcasting and telecommunications worlds as well as science and journalism.
Well-known personalities such as Ted Rogers, founder of Rogers Communications, Israel (Izzy) Asper, founder of CanWest Global and Harold Greenberg, one of the founders of Astral Media made the list.
Jeanne Sauvé, Canada’s first woman Governor General and one of the first women to make a career in television, was selected. Also making the list…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC is once again wading into the tussle between Bell Canada and the City of Hamilton over its municipal access agreement (MAA).
An MAA sets out the terms and conditions of a carrier’s access to highways and other public places under a municipality’s jurisdiction that is required to provide telecommunications services, including broadcasting services, to the public.
After both parties disputed the interpretation of their current MMA’s clause relating to the vertical location of underground facilities, the Commission said Friday that “there is merit in reviewing the obligations” addressed in that clause. It therefore issued a call for comments on whether…
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OTTAWA – An individual named William Rapanos has been dinged for $15,000 after the CRTC found that he committed ten violations of Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL).
The Commission said that it conducted an investigation after the Spam Reporting Centre received numerous complaints between July 8 – October 16, 2014 about emails that appeared to have been sent by Rapanos advertising a design, printing, and distribution service for commercial flyers.
Despite an appeal by Rapanos, the Commission said Thursday that it found, on a balance of probabilities, that he sent commercial electronic messages (i) that did not identify the sender, (ii) that…
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