By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Investment firm Globalive is asking the CRTC to review the rates charged by the incumbents for wholesale domestic roaming and to investigate Rogers’s proposed favourable pricing to Videotron as a condition of buying Shaw.
The Toronto firm, which was once gunning for Freedom Mobile before it was sold to Videotron, said in its Part 1 application Friday that significant time has elapsed since the commission last reviewed the wireless roaming rates and that current rates are muting the impact of small and medium-sized wireless competitors.
It noted that the market has significantly changed since the CRTC said in a 2018 order that the wholesale roaming terms were “just and reasonable.” Those changes, it said, include the use of more efficient radio interfaces and more efficient use of spectrum over more bands, leading to lower costs.
The firm is asking for the CRTC to make the current rates interim, make retroactive adjustments to the interim date, and initiate a proceeding to update the rates, including asking the incumbents to file new cost studies and propose new rates.
It also said that since the Competition Tribunal reviewed the conditions of a deal that would see Rogers buy Shaw and Videotron buy Freedom, Rogers has allegedly added further sweeteners for Videotron in terms of preferential roaming rates as a condition of its Shaw purchase, which was green lit by the innovation minister Friday and that closed on Monday.
“These preferential rates and terms, if allowed to be put into effect, will unduly favour one carrier (Videotron) in respect of wholesale domestic roaming over all other competitors, contrary to section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act,” Globalive said in its application.
“If the rates offered to Videotron are significantly below what competitors can otherwise obtain, this will manifestly reduce competition,” its application added.
The application comes as the firm, which once held the Freedom assets before being sold to Shaw, seeks to re-enter the mobile wireless market exclusively as a new competitor. The firm has bid for Manitoba spectrum after Xplore’s exit from the market.
The Part 1 also comes after TekSavvy filed an undue preference complaint about Rogers’s proposed side deal that would see Videotron enjoy rates below regulated ones on the wholesale internet side. The CRTC opened the investigation into that just over a week ago.
Photo of Globalive founder and chairman Anthony Lacavera.
