OTTAWA — The CRTC provided final relief to Videotron on Wednesday in its dispute with Bell over wholesale roaming. The Commission had provided interim relief in June 2019 while it processed Videotron’s Part 1 application.
In its decision Wednesday, the Commission said it approved Videotron’s application for final relief, but it expected the Quebecor-owned company to submit information showing it had resolved a couple of issues that came to light during the proceeding.
In May 2019, Bell had informed Videotron by letter that a number of its customers were allegedly using Bell Mobility’s wholesale roaming service in a manner that contravened Bell’s access services tariff. Bell threatened to suspend the service in June 2019 if the infraction were not remedied within 30 days. After providing interim relief, the CRTC initiated a proceeding into the matter.
During the proceeding, the Commission determined that Videotron had not complied with Bell Mobility’s tariff for certain end users who were in a permanent roaming situation, rather that only temporarily using Bell’s network. In its response to the Commission’s request for information, Videotron said a technical issue had prevented certain customers from receiving notification of the infraction. The problem was a result of a communications failure between Videotron’s monitoring and SMS notification systems, the company said. Videotron said it would have the issue fixed no later than December 1, 2019.
In today’s decision, the Commission said Videotron has until February 17, 2020 to confirm to Bell and the Commission that the technical issue has been resolved and that it can now send notifications to all end users who are in permanent roaming situations. In the event that Videotron has not resolved the technical issue, the Commission directs Videotron to implement a new manual system for issuing two-month and three-month notification letters regarding excessive roaming, and maintain the system until the technical issue is resolved and the Commission has been notified.
The Commission also directed Videotron to set out in a report for Bell and the Commission a list of the IMSIs (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) of the end users to whom Videotron issued two-month and three-month notifications. This report is to cover a six-month period beginning on April 15, 2020, the Commission says.
In addition, the Commission determined during the proceeding that Videotron had not been adequately monitoring customers of its discount Fizz service for permanent roaming infractions. In its response to the Commission, Videotron said this was an oversight that has since been addressed.
The Commission notes in its decision that it has chosen previously not to adopt rules that would establish a specific threshold to determine whether a wholesale roaming customer was using the service inappropriately and expects the parties would collaborate to determine what constitutes an acceptable level of incidental roaming.
Finally, the CRTC noted, in the interests of saving time and resources, it expects Bell and Videotron to exchange information on a regular basis and to discuss issues affecting the provision of services set out in the tariffs before issuing notices of suspension or submitting applications to the Commission.
