Updated with comment from petitioner, dotmobile.
OTTAWA — The federal cabinet has denied a petition today to overturn a decision by the CRTC that only allowed a limited group of wireless service providers to force negotiations to use national telecom facilities, saying it believes the decision will provide consumers with greater choice and bring down prices.
Mobile virtual network operator Data on Tap (dotmobile) filed the petition in May 2021 to reverse the part of the CRTC’s decision that excludes full MVNOs like itself from participating in those mandatory negotiations. The decision by the regulator in April last year limited those forced negotiations to regional competitors that have spectrum and facilities, such as Quebecor’s Videotron, Bragg’s Eastlink and Cogeco — allowing them to expand services beyond their footprint.
Dotmobile has said that it has had a hard time getting those big national players – Rogers, Bell and Telus – to return its calls to set up an agreement to ride their networks. Some independent internet service providers have said the CRTC’s decision reneges on its commitment to competition by squeezing certain smaller players out. The MVNO requested in its petition that the spectrum and facilities requirements be removed.
But the cabinet decision, one day short of the one-year deadline since the CRTC ruling, said that the regulator’s decision is “expected to provide consumers with greater choice in service offerings and continued downward pressure on mobile prices” and it “appropriately balances investment incentives to build and upgrade networks, and sustainable competition and the availability of affordable mobile wireless prices for consumers.”
The cabinet decision, however, also notes that the governor in council is prepared to take further action to promote competition in the market if the desired effects of the CRTC decision is not achieved, including “by expanding the MVNO access service to encourage service-based competition.”
“A primary consideration in this review was that expanding MVNO access to providers that do not possess spectrum and have not invested in facilities would undermine the work of smaller regional providers that have already invested substantially to increase competition. Based on this review, the Governor in Council has declined to vary the CRTC’s decision,” said Francois Philippe-Champagne in a press release.
“While recent declines in wireless prices are encouraging, prices are still too high,” he added. “That’s why we’ll watch carefully to ensure these rules for MVNO access will lead to more choice and lower prices for Canadians. We will continue to do everything we can to make life more affordable for Canadians.”
CRTC Chairman Ian Scott previously said that part of the decision not to allow companies without networks to participate in this regime was to ensure that these types of companies that provide service-based competition wouldn’t enter and exit the market as they saw fit, which would translate into companies investing resources into doing business in Canada.
The CRTC is also in the midst of releasing the terms and conditions of the new regime, which Cogeco is banking on to strategize an entry into the mobile market.
In a statement, Algis Akstinas, founder and CEO of dotmobile, said: “Today’s decision by the Canadian government to support the CRTC and their baffling definition of Mobile VIRTUAL Network Operator is a win for the BIG3 telecom lobbyists. For Canadians, this means continuing inequity and discrimination in the form of punitively designed wireless service and significantly higher effective prices for seniors, newcomers, students and families.”
