OTTAWA – The CRTC has decided what the Competition Bureau wants is too much to ask of Canada’s wireless service providers.
On March 8, 2019, the Competition Bureau wrote to the CRTC as part of the Regulator’s review of mobile wireless service proceeding, requesting the Commission demand a series of data from the wireless service providers (WSPs) which would allow the Bureau to conduct an analysis of the competitive landscape.
As Cartt.ca reported, the WSPs responded strongly, arguing the new burden imposed on them by the request for years of data was too onerous and accused the Bureau of hijacking the CRTC process. “The Bureau RFI is unnecessarily broad and akin on its face to a fishing expedition,” wrote David Watt, Rogers’s SVP regulatory, at the time.
On March 25th, the CRTC undertook a quick process to get parties to voice their opinion on the issue with an April 5th deadline, where the Bureau didn’t back down much from its requests.
Thursday, CRTC staff issued its determination, saying in a letter to the parties: “At this early stage of the proceeding, staff’s priority is on building a fulsome record in relation to the issues outlined in the Notice of Consultation. With this goal in mind, Commission staff has issued an initial series of its own RFIs (dated 5 April 2019) to various WSPs, and upon which the Competition Bureau has been copied.”
The information requested by the Commission overlaps with the Bureau’s and is the standard information the Commission would normally request in these circumstances.
The Commission’s position is that asking parties to respond to two sets of RFIs at this early stage of the proceeding, before any interventions have been filed, would be overly burdensome on WSPs, who are preparing both their initial interventions and their responses to Commission staff’s April 5th RFIs.
“Commission staff does not intend to issue any additional RFIs to parties at this time, either on its own behalf or on behalf of another party, at least until Commission staff’s 5 April 2019 RFIs, which are due on 5 June 2019, are filed and reviewed,” CRTC’s letter concludes.
The Competition Bureau responded to the CRTC’s decision. “We are disappointed with the decision, however we respect the CRTC’s process and appreciate the Commission staff providing a decision on this matter quickly. The information that we are seeking is critical to our ability to make an evidence-based submission on the competition issues in this matter,” said Eric Joyce, Competition Bureau spokesperson in an email to Cartt.ca.
“We will take the necessary time to review the Commission staff’s decision and will decide on the appropriate next steps. The Competition Bureau remains focused on ensuring that consumers benefit from innovation and competition in the wireless marketplace,” he concluded.
