The CRTC has revoked the international licenses from 21 service providers that have failed to comply with their obligations to provide annual reporting information to the Commission.
A little more than a year ago, the CRTC simplified some of the annual reporting requirements for licensees, but it retained the requirement to comply with the industry data collection process.
Many of the 21 companies covered in today’s announcement appear to have gone out of business, but, based on phone calls to their offices, some still appear to be operating.
As noted by the CRTC, the Telecom Act provides for substantial penalties for offering international telecom services without a license.
(a) in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand dollars for a first offence, or one hundred thousand dollars for a subsequent offence; or
(b) in the case of a corporation, to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars for a first offence, or one million dollars for a subsequent offence.
We’ll watch to see if there is follow-up to enforce the obligation for service providers to be licensed.
Update: [Oct 23 1:50 pm]
The CRTC has issued a correction to its original listing. It removed 2 service providers and added one.
The following is a current list of the service providers that lost their licenses:
Basic International Telecommunications Services – Class A
4108574 Canada Inc. (GoodLine Telemanagement)
4316100 Canada Inc.
Direct Net Inc. (Telme)
Mandarin Communications Inc.
Satelites Mexicanos S.A. de C.V. (SATMEX)
SavyTel Communications Inc.
Sitara Technologies Inc.
Skyytel Ltd. (4136454 Canada Inc.)
TV2GO Inc.
Vive Inc.
VSATel Communications Inc.Basic International Telecommunications Services – Class B
CLIMAgest Inc.
DCT Telecom Group, Inc.
EBLC Telecom (Canada) Inc./1655648 Ontario Inc.
OCMC, Inc., d/b/a One Call Communications Inc.
Port Link Inc.
Rahman Job Agency
Sonic Networks Inc.
Telcan Inc.
Touchmark at Wedgewood
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CRTC, BITS, international license, Mark Goldberg