By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC on Thursday launched a consultation into whether it should ban Rogers, Bell and Telus from using the bundled fibre networks of the large telcos in Ontario and Quebec.
The commission is asking whether it’s in the public interest to change its November 2023 decision that temporarily allowed competitors to force negotiations to access both the traffic transport and last-mile fibre facilities of Bell and Telus in those provinces.
The deadline for comment is December 12.
The consultation comes at the recommendation of federal cabinet, which expressed concern that this policy could be detrimental to smaller competitors, who would have to compete against deeper-pocketed rivals in their own operating territory.
The commission’s November 2023 decision has since been superseded by its final decision in August that expanded the temporary regime to the rest of the country; provided a five-year access moratorium on new fibre builds to allow the incumbent telcos to recoup their investments; and allows the Big 3 to access the wholesale internet regime so long as they are outside of their operating territory.
The language of the consultation means the regulator will not consolidate the review-and-vary applications that followed the cabinet recommendation. Those applications asked the commission to revisit parts of the final decision.
“The Reconsideration Order makes reference to the Final Decision, but does not vary, rescind, or refer the Final Decision back to the Commission for reconsideration,” the CRTC said, referring to cabinet’s recommendation.
Instead, the CRTC said the public can comment on those applications separately.
Rogers and a joint application filed by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC), Eastlink and Cogeco argued that the CRTC should completely ban the Big 3 from the wholesale internet regime altogether, regardless of technology.
Rogers added it’s not fair that it has to spend billions of dollars on next-generation cable technology, which provides for multi-gigabit speeds, and not be given a similar five-year head-start to recoup its investments. This asymmetry, it said, would defeat the goal of the commission to rebalance the wholesale regime that has traditionally seen the cable networks shoulder the majority of wholesale subscribers.
TekSavvy filed its own review-and-vary application asking the CRTC to clarify that the five-year access moratorium that shields new fibre builds by Bell and Telus for five years doesn’t apply inside its operating territory, and to set a timeline for when the last-mile fibre builds of the cable companies will be subject to the access regime.
