CRTC reviewing its oversight of basic telecom services
Last Updated: Friday, September 11, 2009 | 4:17 PM ET
By Peter Nowak, CBC News
The CRTC will decide what issues will be on table for further discussion by the middle of March. The CRTC is reviewing its oversight of basic telecommunications services and is calling on the public to suggest what it should require of providers.
Telecommunications companies, interested parties and members of the public have been invited to submit their thoughts to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Parties who intend to comment must let the regulator know in writing they intend to do so by Sept. 25, and their comments must be submitted by Nov. 13.
The CRTC currently requires companies such as Bell, Telus, MTS and SaskTel to provide basic phone service to all Canadians. Part of phone providers' annual revenues go to a fund that subsidizes the cost of providing service to remote and rural communities.
The CRTC's review will look at whether it should continue to enforce those two requirements, and whether it should be expanded to include other companies, such as firms that wholesale services from the likes of Bell and Telus.
Aside from the potential dropping or expansion of existing requirements, the review could also see new services added to the list of basic obligations. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a consumer watchdog, says it plans to argue that high-speed internet should be considered a basic service.
The call for suggestions is the latest step in a long process that began in 2006 with the government's policy direction to the CRTC. Maxime Bernier, the industry minister at the time, ordered the agency to regulate with a light touch and to review its operations.
The regulator will issue a decision on what services will be on the table for further discussion by the middle of March.
