By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Saying it is suffering from an asymmetrical marketplace, Shaw filed an application to the CRTC on May 27th, requesting interim relief from having to offer access to its network to resellers, at mandated rates while Telus and Bell/MTS have no such obligations for their higher speed offerings.
The application was filed the same day the company launched its Fibre+ Gig service, across 99% of their network.
“Five years have now passed since the last review of the Commission’s wholesale wireline framework and ILECs’ fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) services continue to enjoy a regulatory holiday from mandated HSA requirements. In contrast, Shaw’s next-generation DOCSIS-based services remain subject to, and highly constrained by, the legacy aggregated wholesale HSA regime for all residential speed tiers up to 750 Mbps,” the company’s application reads.
Shaw would still offer access at negotiated rates and the company said it “does not support—nor is Shaw requesting—that the Commission mandate any form of interim access to FTTP facilities,” the application continues.
The relief is sought until such time when the Commission finalizes the Review of Wholesale Wireline Services started in 2015 as well as the planned review expected to be launched in 2020-21.
The TPIA decision also had an impact on the launch of this service, notes the Shaw application. “As a direct result of the aggregated rates set in TO 2019-288, Shaw was forced to suspend the launch of our 1-Gig Service for more than seven months, despite the fact that Shaw’s network was ready and capable of delivering 1 Gig Services across 99% of our footprint during this time,” the application reads.
The CRTC responded the next day by reminding Shaw that during the proceeding, the existing rules still applied, and that Shaw had to file tariffs for its 1-Gig service.
Readers will surely recall in October 2019, Videotron went in another direction and decided to stop offering its Giga internet service because of the TPIA decision.
Interventions on this Shaw application are due on July 2nd.
Third party internet access rules so far only apply to aggregated services generally delivered over copper wires on the last mile. The Commission has not yet ruled on reseller access to fibre to the premises networks, a decision which has long languished within the Commission.
