On Friday, the CRTC announced that it was going to conduct a review of the office of The Commissioner for Complaints for Telecom Services [TNC 2010-247]. The consultation will include an oral hearing, scheduled to take place September 27-29.
As the CRTC notice indicates, a Federal Cabinet directive in April 2007 originally ordered the creation of “an independent agency with a mandate to resolve complaints from individual and small business retail customers”. Cabinet considered this to be “an integral component of a deregulated telecommunications market.”
When the consumer agency was established in December 2007, [Telecom Decision 2007-130] the CRTC committed to a review within 3 years:
117. The Commission considers that it would be appropriate to conduct a review of the Agency’s structure and mandate, as well as related matters, in the future to examine how well the Agency is operating. 118. Accordingly, the Commission determines that it will initiate a review of the Agency, no later than three years after the Agency meets the conditions of approval set out in this Decision. The scope of the review will be determined at that time.
That time is now.
The Commission has asked for input on 5 questions in respect of the office of the Commissioner of Complaints for Telecommunications Services:
(a) membership, (b) governance and voting structure; (c) mandate; (d) remedies; and (e) other matters, including the accessibility of the Agency’s services its public awareness and outreach campaigns and the Agency’s overall effectiveness
Comments are due June 28, with reply comments to be filed 2 weeks later. The oral phase is in late September, as mentioned above.
More material to be discussed at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit. Have you registered yet?