OTTAWA and MONTREAL – Should the CRTC be able to dictate which technology Bell Canada uses to provide broadband to rural and remote communities in communities in Ontario and Quebec?
Absolutely not, says Bell. And it appears to have at least one CRTC commissioner on its side.
After agreeing in 2008 that Bell could use its deferral account funds to build broadband out to 112 underserved communities in Ontario and Quebec, Bell applied for permission the following year to deploy the latest HSPA+ broadband technology. But in Tuesday’s deferral accounts decision, the CRTC told Bell that it must instead bring digital subscriber line (DSL) technology to these communities.
“…the Commission directs the Bell companies to provide broadband services using DSL technology to implement their broadband proposal. The variety of services provided must be comparable to those offered in urban areas, using the same DSL technology, in terms of their rates and terms and conditions”, the CRTC wrote in CRTC 2010-637.
But Bell says that forces it to deploy less-advanced DSL wired technology rather than leading-edge HSPA+ wireless broadband, which it has already rolled out to 93% of the Canadian population. And that denies customers in those areas access to faster mobile Internet access speeds, plus new voice and data products such as the Apple iPhone.
“Our key issue is about the technology choice, and on that issue, the CRTC is just dead wrong”, said Bell’s SVP of regulatory and government affairs, Mirko Bibic, in an interview with Cartt.ca. “From a policy point of view, from a community point of view, from a technology point of view, it’s just the wrong decision.”
The Commission noted that mobile voice services are already available in 93 of the 112 approved communities, with 90 of the 93 already partially or fully served by wireless HSPA facilities. Although acknowledging that Bell’s proposal “would result in the expansion of mobile voice services in all the approved communities”, it stated that the primary objective of its deferral account determination “is to ensure that these communities receive broadband services comparable to those available in urban areas.”
In a dissenting opinion, Commissioner Len Katz backed Bell’s right to choose which technology it deploys.
“I submit that once the Commission has established the appropriate allocation of funding from the deferral accounts, the ILECs should be free to deploy new and innovative technologies as long as they meet the price, quality, reliability, service and access conditions imposed by the Commission”, he wrote. “
While Bibic referred to the decision as “backward looking”, Bell’s president and CEO George Cope took it a step further.
"Considering the federal government’s commitment to ensuring Canada’s leadership in the digital economy and its strong support for intensified investment in the latest broadband technologies, this is quite frankly a shocking decision by the CRTC”, Cope said in a statement. “It’s a clear opportunity missed, and it perpetuates the digital divide between rural and urban Canada."
Bibic said that Bell has not ruled out appealing the decision.
“We’re still digesting the options and how to approach this issue, but suffice to say that the technology choice is really the issue that we plan to pursue”, he added. “We haven’t decided how or when at this point.”
The CRTC directed the telco to spend $306.3 million on rolling out rural broadband, and to return approximately $250 million, including interest, to its current residential home phone customers in urban areas of Ontario and Quebec in the form of credits, rebates or promotional offers within the next six months. Bibic said that Bell will announce specifics on that initiative shortly.
Despite the Commission allowing Bell to use an additional $1.02 million from its deferral account to cover the costs of billing system adjustments, billing notices, and increased call centre activity, the company said in a statement that it “no longer expects 2010 free cash flow at the high end of the guidance range”. It did not make any changes to BCE‘s 2010 guidance for revenues, EBITDA, capital intensity and adjusted EPS.
