Post Tagged with: "crtc"

Straight Talk at the CAB, Part Two

CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein delivered the lunch keynote at today's Canadian Association of Broadcasters conference. While von Finckenstein came armed with a few goodies for the broadcasters (possible subscriber fees for over the air broaadcasts), the majority of the speech featured the kind of straight talk that rarely happens in Ottawa. He noted in particular the CAB's opposition to the Dunbar/Leblanc report (which he defended as an independent expert report) and the consultations over the summer on increased fees. To quote the Chair:

We understand it may be difficult for an organization as diverse as yours to reach a unified position. But we hope that in the future you will be able to have an open and constructive dialogue with us. We hope you will feel free to say just where you stand. We can’t get anywhere when there are confusing or conflicting messages coming from your organization, particularly with the CAB expressing different views to Ministers than to the CRTC. The Commission is committed to full transparency and open dialogue with its stakeholders. We expect the same from the industry. I trust the incident of the fee payer consultation was an isolated instance that will not be repeated.

Ouch. The Chair also notably went out of his way to indicate that the CRTC has no interest in regulating the Internet, but is instead interested in broadcasting on the Internet.

November 5, 2007 — 1 comment — News

How the Internet On Cable Became the Internet as Cable

Appeared in the Toronto Star on November 5, 2007 as Broadcasters, ISPs Putting Up Internet Borders When Rogers Communications began promoting its Rogers@Home high-speed Internet service nearly a decade ago, the company branded it "the Internet on Cable." Years later, their service, as well as those of their competitors, is […]

November 5, 2007 — 1 comment — Columns Archive

Leave My Internet Alone

Larry Borsato with a good post on the cancon for the Internet issue. Casey McKinnon provides a much-needed creator perspective.

November 2, 2007 — Comments are Disabled — News

The Telecom Takeover of Canada’s Do-Not-Call List

My weekly technology column (Toronto Star version, Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) focuses on the quiet telecom takeover of the forthcoming national do-not-call list. In the past few months, the do-not-call list details have begun to emerge with the CRTC addressing questions surrounding who will run the list, who will pay for it, and who will investigate consumer complaints. While Canadians might expect most of those responsibilities to rest with the CRTC, the Commission appears to have a far different vision – one that involves a near-complete outsourcing of responsibilities to Canada’s dominant telecommunications companies.

The CRTC was never particularly supportive of the do-not-call list. Indeed, Charles Dalfen, the former CRTC chair, told the Canadian Press in 2004 that a do-not-call list was a good idea, but that the Commission "isn't equipped to administer such a list and doesn't have the power to enforce it properly." Consistent with that perspective, the CRTC has sketched out a system where the do-not-call list would be maintained by a non-governmental entity and paid for primarily by businesses that engage in telemarketing. Complaints would be investigated by the newly-created telecom company-backed complaints commission.

This system has elicited considerable opposition from some marketing, financial, and charitable groups, yet the telecom companies are unsurprisingly supportive since they are literally poised to run the entire operation from registration to investigation.