By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – An association representing independent internet service providers filed a submission to the CRTC yesterday requesting the regulator impose, at least temporarily, discounted wholesale access to incumbent fibre to the building.
The submission by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada is in support of a complaint filed by internet service provider TekSavvy, which alleges that some incumbents are giving to some providers wholesale access to their networks at favourable and unregulated (“off-tariff”) rates over other competitors.
TekSavvy brought the undue preference application in light of Rogers’s proposal to provide Videotron with access to its network at below market rates as part of its effort to acquire Shaw, but the independent telecom has also accused Bell of doing the same with its newly-acquired subsidiary EBox. It is asking for the commission either to nullify these wholesale agreements or apply them universally to competitors until the commission determines next steps.
In its intervention, CNOC is asking that the commission either grant its January 2021 application requesting mandated access to the last mile fibre of the incumbents at a 25 percent discount or provide that solution on its own on an interim basis. Currently, mandated access to fiber to the premises (building or home) is being reserved for a future disaggregated regime that requires incumbents provide that access in exchange for wholesalers getting their own traffic transport network.
“Competitors will suffer irreparable economic and reputational harm unless the interim relief is granted,” CNOC said in the intervention.
For years, the independent internet service providers have argued that the lack of access to the incumbent’s last mile fibre have created a perception among Canadians that these providers are behind on technology. CNOC said in its application that its members suffer losses of “actual and potential customers and long-term loss of market share.
“The predictable loss of actual and potential customers attributable to these anti-competitive head starts combined with the low subscriber churn rates of the industry amounts to harm that is irreparable,” CNOC said, alluding to one part of the three-part test TekSavvy must meet for its application to be granted.
CNOC said granting access to last mile fibre would be of “minimal inconvenience” to the incumbents consisting of “minor administrative changes to billing and ordering systems.
“This interim relief would immediately and significantly increase consumers’ level of choice of service providers in retail service markets for FTTP-based services that are starved for competition,” the organization said.
CNOC is also backing TekSavvy’s call for an investigation into the alleged off-tariff agreements of Rogers and Bell specifically and into the potential practice by all incumbent carriers broadly.
The independent ISPs have argued that the CRTC has botched the wholesale access regime by scrapping lower rates it proposed in 2019. The regulator, however, said something is in the works to address higher broadband prices.
