ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter Addressed to Anthony Tibbs (Media Access Canada)
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Ottawa, 7 June 2017
Our reference: 1011-NOC2017-0033
BY EMAIL
Anthony Tibbs
Chairman
Media Access Canada
1602-265 Poulin Avenue, Ontario K2B 7Y8
anthony@tibbs.ca
Subject: Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2017-33, Review of the regulatory framework for text-based message relay services
Dear Mr. Tibbs:
On 2 February 2017, the Commission issued Notice of Consultation (NoC) 2017-33 to review the regulatory framework for text-based message relay services (MRS review), which are text-to-voice services that enable people with a hearing or speech disability to make and receive telephone calls.
In order to ensure the Commission has a complete record in the MRS review, Commission staff is issuing letters to accessibility groups that expressed views regarding MRS in past proceedings, such as the Basic Telecommunications Services (BTS)Footnote1 and next-generation 9-1-1 (NG911)Footnote2 proceedings, in order to ask those groups whether they still hold their views.
Commission staff notes that Media Access Canada (MAC) is not a party to the MRS review, as MAC did not file an intervention by the Commission’s deadline of 3 April 2017 set out in NoC 2017-33. Nevertheless, given that MAC has expressed views regarding MRS in past proceedings, Commission staff is issuing the present request for information (RFI) letter to confirm whether MAC continues to believe that:
- Canadians, particularly deaf seniors, “are discontinuing their land line and no longer use TTY as a method of communications”Footnote3;
- 83.5 percent of deaf and hard of hearing Canadians “never use TTY”, while the remaining 16.5 percent “only use it one to two times per month”Footnote4; and
- “email and text are the most commonly used form of communication technology in the deaf and hard of hearing communities”Footnote4.
Commission staff is requesting that you reply to this letter by 13 June 2017 by confirming, as noted above, whether MAC continues to hold the views it had expressed in the NG911 proceeding. Your reply to this letter will permit parties to comment on MAC’s views by 23 June 2017, which is the deadline set out in NoC 2017-33-1 for parties to comment on responses to RFIs filed by other partiesFootnote5.
We value MAC’s contributions to the Commission’s public consultations and look forward to receiving MAC’s comments during the present MRS review.
If you have any questions with regards to this letter, please contact Bradley Gaudet at bradley.gaudet@crtc.gc.ca.
Yours sincerely,
originally signed by
Nanao Kachi
Director, Social and Consumer Policy
Consumer Affairs and Strategic Policy
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