Canada
Radio communications in Canada are regulated by a branch of Industry Canada called Radio Communications and Broadcasting Regulatory Branch together with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). This means, interested parties must apply for both a certificate from Industry Canada and a license from CRTC in order to operate a radio station. Industry Canada manages the technicalities of spectrum space and technological requirements whereas content regulation is conducted more so by CRTC.
LPFM is broken up into two classes in Canada, Low (50w) and Very Low (10w). The transmitters therefore range from 1-50 watts, as opposed to 1-100 watts in the U.S. As of 2000, 500 licenses (very low and low power FM) have been issued. These transmitters are generally only allowed in remote areas.
The regulation of spectrum space is strict in Canada, as well having restrictions on 2nd and 3rd adjacent channels along with other protections for AM and FM commercial radio. In addition, because there have been a few cases that found that FM frequencies have caused interference to the aeronautical navigation and communications (NAV/COM) spectrum, (though evidence is not very concrete presently) pirate radio regulation has remained very strict as well. However, the two regulating bodies do have certain exemptions. For example, low power announcement transmitters that meet the requirement of Broadcasting Equipment Technical Standards 1, Limited Duration Special Events Distribution Undertakings, Temporary Resource Development Distribution Undertakings, and Public Emergency Radio Undertakings are a few instances, which according to certain criteria, may be exempt from certificate/license requirements.
In Canada, there is no formal transmission power below which, a television transmitter is broadcasting at low power. Industry Canada, in most cases, considers a television transmitter to be low power if the noise-limited bounding contours are less than 20 km from the antenna.
Read more about this topic: Low-power Broadcasting
Famous quotes containing the word canada:
“Canadians look down on the United States and consider it Hell. They are right to do so. Canada is to the United States what, in Dante’s scheme, Limbo is to Hell.”
—Irving Layton (b. 1912)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)