OTTAWA – A consumer group says that the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) “will have its hands full” come September when it adds TV service provider watchdog to its role.
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) noted that Canadians made 2,734 complaints about their television services to the CCTS over the last six months, more than it received in relation to wireless, Internet, local voice, or long-distance voice services. And that’s months before it can officially accept TV consumer complaints.
“With Canada’s communications regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reporting that it received 8,584 complaints about broadcasting each year in its most recent data, it looks like the CCTS will have its hands full bringing TV Service providers up to the standards Canadians expect”, PIAC said in a statement.
The CCTS will become the single point of contact for Canadians’ complaints about all of their communications services effective September 1, 2017, the CRTC decreed in March 2016. All licensed television service providers (TVSPs), including related exempt TVSPs, must become members of the CCTS by that date, the same time that that TVSPs must adhere to the CRTC’s new Television Service Provider Code.
“The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) fought for the TV Service Provider Code, just as we fought for the Wireless Code before it”, continues the statement. “These mandatory codes protect consumers and promote competition. Both Codes focus on allowing consumers to make informed choices.”
