Broadcasting - Staff Letter addressed to the Distribution List and Jonathan Daniels (Bell Canada)

Ottawa, 20 November 2024

Reference: 2024-0069-6

BY E-MAIL

Distribution List

Jonathan Daniels
Vice President, Regulatory Law
Bell Canada
bell.regulatory@bell.ca

Subject: Request for information to Bell Canada and Bell Media Inc. regarding certain matters raised in the Part 1 application 2024-0069-6

Dear Jonathan Daniels,

After examining the record of this proceeding, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) staff requires updates to certain matters addressed in the submissions filed by Bell Canada and Bell Media Inc. (collectively Bell) in response to CRTC staff’s request for information (RFI) appended to the Staff Letter dated 29 May 2024.

Accordingly, Bell is to answer the questions in the appendix of this RFI by 2 December 2024. The responses must only respond to the RFI and cannot raise any new matters.

As the questions in the appended RFI deal only with confirming the accuracy of matters already placed on the record of this proceeding, there will not be a comment or reply period for the parties^Footnote1. Accordingly, comments from any parties on the answers that Bell is to file will not be accepted.

Bell’s submission must be filed electronically and served on the persons in the distribution list set out at the end of this letter by the dates specified. The submission will be placed on the public record and posted on the CRTC’s website.

Sections 30 to 34 of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure and Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-961 provide that persons can designate certain information submitted to the CRTC as confidential. A detailed explanation of why the designated information is confidential and why its disclosure would not be in the public interest must be provided, including why the specific direct harm that would be likely to result from the disclosure would outweigh the public interest in its disclosure.

If you file a document containing confidential information, you must also file an abridged version of the document omitting only the confidential information. Alternatively, you must give reasons why an abridged version cannot be filed. Only the abridged version of the document will be placed on the public record and posted on the CRTC’s website.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by Émilie Godbout on behalf of

Nanao Kachi
Director, Social and Consumer Policy

cc: Leah Paolini, leah.paolini@crtc.gc.ca

Distribution List

Appendix – Request for information to Bell Canada and Bell Media Inc. regarding certain matters raised in the Part 1 application 2024-0069-6

Set-top box

1. On 10 June 2024, you responded to Question 1 in the appendix to the Staff Letter dated 29 May 2024. In that response, you specified that the account for the applicant, David Lepofsky, was scheduled for migration to your new billing platform at the end of July 2024, presuming that no changes were made to any of his Bell products, services, or hardware, which could delay that migration.
   1. Has the applicant’s account been migrated to the new billing platform as planned? If not, please specify when this occurred or when it is scheduled to occur.
   2. Please confirm whether the applicant is now eligible to receive your new, more accessible set-top box at his request. If not, please specify the date by which the applicant would first be eligible to receive it.
2. On 10 June 2024, you responded to Question 1 in the appendix to the Staff Letter dated 29 May 2024. In that response, you specified that you did not have a schedule for making your new, more accessible set-top box available in Manitoba, as customers would first need to be migrated to your new billing platform. In paragraph 9 of your reply dated 2 July 2024, you stated that you had not yet completed the build for Manitoba.
   1. Please specify if you have developed a rollout schedule for Manitoba.
   2. If so, please provide the schedule by which the new set-top box will be made available to all customers in Manitoba.
3. On 10 June 2024, you responded to Question 1 in the appendix to the Staff Letter dated 29 May 2024. In that response, you provided a schedule for making your new, more accessible set-top box available in your Central Canada region (Central Canada being Ontario and Quebec).
   1. Please confirm whether the rollout for this region has been proceeding as scheduled.
   2. If not, please provide an updated rollout schedule for this region.

Apple TV 4K

4. In paragraph 7 of your reply dated 2 July 2024, you stated that you began offering Apple TV 4K devices to eligible customers at no extra cost at some point in 2022. In paragraph 17 of that Reply, you specified that the launch of your offer began at some point after 21 February 2022.
   1. Please specify the launch date for this program.
5. In footnote 27 of your reply dated 2 July 2024, you stated that you had provided 34 Apple TV 4K media streaming devices to eligible customers.
   1. Please specify the total number of devices that have now been provided since the launch of this program.

Date modified:

2024-11-20