GATINEAU – In the ongoing dispute between Bell subsidiary Cablevision and Vidéotron about who should bear the cost of points of interconnection (POIs) upgrades in Rouyn-Noranda and Val d’Or, in northwestern Québec, Cablevision filed its submission on December 14 and Vidéotron responded on December 16.
Cablevision denies any wrongdoing and asserts it only applied the CRTC approved tariffs relevant to the case, saying that networks updates costs should be borne by Cablevision, but changes to interconnection equipment should be paid by competitors. It would even envisage that with new competitors coming into the market, Cablevision would charge the new competitor a fee that it would remit to Vidéotron.
In its reply, Vidéotron lashed out at the regional incumbent stating that Cablevision’s tactics are the only impediment to Vidéotron’s growth in Abitibi and it has been consistently so.
It also charges that Cablevision’s interpretation of its own tariffs is ludicrous and states that Videotron has always paid themselves for these costs over the years and have not charged resellers. Monthly fees should pay for such upgrades. Period, it says. If the Commission were to rule in favour of Cablevision on this, that would be a precedent-setting change and cause a cascade of cost increases for all TPIA providers who would be faced with paying for POI upgrades.
CRTC will now have to interpret these tariffs, hopefully quickly.
Vidéotron is asking that the upgrades should be done by March 31, 2021.
Meanwhile, independent competitor EBOX continues to grow in the region.
