GATINEAU – Despite the demand it and others made to the CRTC for revised tariffs filed since the incumbent carriers lost their court case, no new revised tariff pages have yet been filed with the Commission by the network owners and until they are, independent ISP TekSavvy will stop paying its wholesale fees to Rogers and Bell.
On September 11th, TekSavvy, Distributel and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada each filed applications with the CRTC demanding the incumbent telco and cable carriers file new tariff pages as ordered by the Commission in its August 2019 decision setting new wholesale internet rates (CRTC 2019-288).
Of course, the day before that, the incumbents (Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco and others) lost their appeal of that 2019 decision (which also saw the court-ordered stay of the rates expire) at the Federal Court of Appeal. The 2019 CRTC decision not only set new wholesale third party internet access rates, but also demanded tens of millions of dollars in retroactive payments be paid to the TPIA companies.
However, the incumbents have also filed a Review and Vary of the decision with the CRTC – and asked for a stay of the new rates and the retroactive payments from the Commission. The Commission has not issued a ruling on either.
TekSavvy also immediately went on the record after the FCA decision saying it will stop paying Bell and Rogers unless it started to see some retroactive monies come in.
Then, in a letter sent to the Commission on Thursday, September 24, TekSavvy said since the incumbent carriers “have not filed revised tariff pages in accordance with Telecom Order CRTC 2019-2882, and whereas the Commission has not issued any decisions or procedural direction that would amend or stay that Order, TekSavvy has notified Bell and Rogers that we intend to set-off the debts they owe to us pursuant to that Order against the amounts they are charging us on invoices for relevant regulated wholesale services.”
Further, “on 22 September 2020, TekSavvy sent an email to CRTC staff asking whether any of the incumbent carriers had issued revised tariff pages; we have not yet received a reply to that inquiry. This afternoon, TekSavvy reviewed the tariff pages that are published on each carrier’s websites. Based on our inquiries and reviews, to the best of our knowledge, not one of the incumbent carriers has yet filed revised tariff pages,” continues the TekSavvy letter from last week.
“The long delay first in arriving at final wholesale rates in August 2019 and now in implementing final rates has taken a heavy toll on the competitive broadband industry. Despite that fiscal pressure, in anticipation of the implementation of final rates and our expected recovery of debts from the carriers due to the retroactive application of those final rates, TekSavvy is already expanding its investment plans with a number of network builds currently underway.”
The letter signed by Andy-Kaplan-Myrth, TekSavvy vice-president of regulatory and carrier affairs redacts how much TekSavvy pays Rogers and Bell for wholesale access to their networks but does say the retroactive payments owing are “much more than the total of their invoices for at least several months.”
So, “accordingly, on 22 September 2020, TekSavvy notified Bell and Rogers that until their debt to TekSavvy is paid in full, TekSavvy will be setting off amounts owed, with interest, against amounts charged on their monthly invoices for regulated wholesale services, beginning on the next invoice.”
UPDATE September 28: Since the CRTC announced its stay of the new rates late Monday, which means tariff pages no longer have to be filed until the Commission’s determination on the R&V is announced, it’s unclear if TekSavvy will carry out its above ultimatum. We asked TekSavvy for comment on the stay late Monday afternoon, but have not yet heard back.
