The Commission calls for comments on proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations. These amendments reflect determinations made by the Commission in its proceeding on the customer transfer process and related competitive issues. The deadline for the receipt of comments is 18 November 2011.
The Commission proposes to amend the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations to implement certain policy determinations announced in The customer transfer process and related competitive issues.
In the regulatory policy, the Commission set out measures that simplify the process for customers to change service providers from which they receive telecommunications and/or broadcasting services. Specifically, the Commission proposed to amend the Regulations in order to require that broadcasting distribution undertakings accept a customer cancellation request from a prospective BDU where the customer requests that this BDU act on his or her behalf.
The proposed amendments would create a new provision for cancellation requests, providing that a customer's current service provider must accept a cancellation request that is made to it by the customer or on the customer's behalf by a prospective service provider.
The proposed Regulations specify that the current and prospective service provider will coordinate with each other to cancel and replace the programming services with a view to avoiding any service disruption to the customer.
The proposed Regulations also specify that unless the service providers agree otherwise, the cancellation request will occur within two business days after the day on which the cancellation request is made.
The proposed amendments are appended to this notice. The Commission invites comments on the wording of the proposed amendments. The Commission will accept comments that it receives on or before 18 November 2011.