GATINEAU — As the CRTC continues a Review and Vary of its August 2019 order which slashed the wholesale rates third-party Internet access (TPIA) companies pay to the incumbent network owners, the Commission announced today it is approving a stay of the order’s implementation while it completes its review.
The stay was requested by Bell Canada and cable companies Cogeco, Eastlink, Rogers, Shaw and Videotron when those incumbents requested in December 2019 that the Commission review and vary its Telecom Order 2019-288 decision.
The Commission’s announcement today comes after the Federal Court of Appeal on September 10 dismissed the incumbents’ appeal of the CRTC’s decision, which effectively removed the stay granted by the FCA back in November 2019.
In its Telecom Decision 2020-342 today, the Commission says it will address the incumbents’ review and vary applications at a later date, but in the meantime it is approving their requests to further stay the implementation of the final wholesale rates.
As we reported Sunday, independent ISP TekSavvy has said it will stop paying its wholesale fees to Bell and Rogers. This was due to the fact that the incumbent carriers have not yet filed revised tariff pages with the Commission, nor have they made any retroactive reimbursements to TekSavvy, and (until today) the Commission had not issued a stay nor varied its August 2019 order.
“This was the right decision given the CRTC’s ongoing review and Cabinet already indicating the low rates could lead to reduced investment,” said Bell spokesperson Marc Choma in an emailed statement to Cartt.ca.
Said Rogers in a statement: “We are pleased with the CRTC’s decision while the review and vary applications are considered.”
The Competitive Network Operators Consortium had a different point of view. “While not surprising, the decision to stay the rates that the CRTC spent three and a half years setting is disappointing,” said Matt Stein, president and chairman of CNOC and CEO of independent ISP Distributel.
“Nevertheless, we take comfort in knowing that the record is closed on the Review and Vary applications, and in that context we are optimistic the CRTC is nearing the end of their process, and will implement the final rates soon. What remains to be seen is whether the Big Phone and Big Cable companies can accept the new rates and move forward,” he continued. “After all, the Big Phone and Big Cable companies have taken every opportunity to create delay and uncertainty throughout this process, including making numerous dubious arguments in Court, and tying up the entire industry in a rehash of a process that continues to stand up to scrutiny.
“In the decision today the CRTC referenced Bell Canada’s own evidence that 24 of 150 companies offering high-speed service on their network ran into sufficient financial trouble that they could not pay their bills to Bell. This is just one more example of the detrimental effect this delay campaign has on competition, and therefore on Canadian consumers. It’s another reason the CRTC needs to move quickly, and clearly points to the other side of the Irreparable Harm discussion, which cuts both ways, and has been cutting sharply against competitors and their customers who long for alternatives.
“Competitive ISPs have worked hard to efficiently pass the value along to Canadians, and will do so again. Canadian consumers have waited long enough for fair rates, and it’s time to get on with it.”
Now that the Commission has granted a further stay of its wholesale rate decision, it’s unclear if TekSavvy will continue to stop payment of its monthly wholesale fees to Bell and Rogers.
