By Ahmad Hathout
WHITEHORSE – Telus announced Thursday that it has struck a deal in principle to transfer incumbency to Bell’s Northwestel in the region of Atlin, British Columbia to better serve the area.
There are only three communities in the far north that are served by Telus as the incumbent – Fort St. John, High Level, and Atlin. But unlike the former two, Telus does not serve Atlin with its own transport facilities. Instead, it leases a stretch of 1,300 kilometres of the transport portion from Bell subsidiary Northwestel.
“It is an island completely separated from the rest of TELUS’ ILEC network and because of that, service is less reliable than it should be,” Telus said Thursday during the CRTC’s hearing on the far north. “Equally important, the cost of 1300 km of leased Northwestel transport makes it a very costly arrangement.”
Telus said the incumbency swap – for which it said it is paying a lot of money to complete – makes sense because it is “far less expensive” for Northwestel to build or lease transport to the Yukon than it would be for Telus to build or lease transport to its own network; the community would be less susceptible to community isolation caused by transport failures, as Northwestel is the dominant provider; and all repairs can be performed by Yukon-based technicians, ensuring reliable service.
Telus said it expects the binding legal agreement to be completed by the end of next month. There will then be a transfer of infrastructure and customers to Northwestel. The Bell subsidiary will then have to apply for subsidies to bring fibre-to-the-home services in the area.
The company said it will report updates to the CRTC by June 9, the final submission date for the far north proceedings.
Telus credited the CRTC for pressing the service issue in the region.
CRTC Commissioner Claire Anderson is a citizen of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, which resides inside the Atlin area. The CRTC defined the far north as the area consisting of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon, 17 communities in northern British Columbia and Fort Fitzgerald, Alberta.
During the hearing, which will run until Friday, the commission has asked participants to contemplate what a far north subsidy will look like.
Telus recommended the subsidy be delivered to the customer, instead of the service provider, so they can choose the type of technology and service they want. The company said a service provider subsidy would allow the provider to pick where the discount would go, excluding those customers in need.
The Vancouver-based telecom also urged the commission to get more Broadband Fund money out of the door as a priority item. The regulator recently launched a proceeding into modifying the $750-million fund, including broadening it to fund the maintenance of networks in remote areas, improve network resiliency, and to have a separate funding stream for indigenous-focused projects.
Bell had previously submitted an application to the commission requesting that it stop collecting money from the providers for the fund because it wasn’t close to disbursing the money already collected.
Aerial photo of Atlin, via atlininn.com
