Rogers program raises pre-hearing questions about affordability

OTTAWA — Other major Internet service providers may be compelled to follow in the footsteps of Rogers Communications Inc. and offer cheap Internet packages for low-income earners, according to experts looking ahead to next week’s CRTC basic telecom services hearing. On Thursday, Rogers announced the expansion of its Connected for Success program, which makes a $9.99-per-month Internet service available for those living in rent-geared-to-income housing in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. During a launch event in Ottawa, Rogers chief customer officer Deepak Khandelwal said 20 non-profit housing organizations out of the 533 potential partners have already signed on. “We started the pilot program three years ago in Toronto. We took our time to make sure we understood the successes, what worked, what didn’t work with the pilot program,” Khandelwal said in an interview, in response to a question regarding why Rogers made the announcement about the program expansion days before the April 11 CRTC hearing start date. “We got 11,000 people that have now participated in the program and we said ‘hey, this is the right time to expand the program.’” John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said in a phone interview he’s glad Rogers is considering the issue of affordability, but that “the need is much larger” than those who live in social housing. “It’s only one service provider; it’s not like all of the majors are doing the same thing. It’s not going to solve the problem, but it’s a positive development,” Lawford said. “I don’t think it changes anything from our perspective,” he added. Among other recommendations, PIAC has proposed an affordability subsidy for low-income households. “If I was sitting on that panel I‘d be challenging every carrier: why can’t you replicate Rogers’ model?” Len Katz, former CRTC commissioner and interim chair, said in a phone interview. While he said the concept of a basic services objective is outdated, Katz said there is a need for something to be done to assist Canadians, especially school-aged children and seniors, with having reliable Internet access. Lots of government attention and money has been funnelled to rural and remote areas, including a new $500 million federal program announced in the Liberal’s first budget, but there are more underprivileged residents who could use assistance in connecting to the Internet in major cities, said Katz. “There’s lot of subsidized housing, as Rogers has indicated,” he said, but added he doesn’t believe it is the role of the CRTC to set a standard price point. Independent telecom analyst Bill St. Arnaud disagreed, pointing to the United States as an example. “Rogers and (others) are going to say ‘look at all this great stuff we’re doing for the poor people in the cities and so forth, so we don’t need competition, we’ll take care of that.’ And they’ve done this in the States, made the same arguments in front of the (Federal Communications Commission) and the (government) said ‘no, no that’s a nice gesture but we’ve really got to address the overall problem,” St. Arnaud said in a phone interview. “Rogers started this process, but (the CRTC) will probably formalize it,” St. Arnaud said. He added that BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. are likely to “step up and say ‘oh yeah, we’ll do the same thing as long as we get to define who can’t afford the stuff, rather than the marketplace.’” The incumbents would prefer to return to the former regulated carrier model, St. Arnaud said, where they had to provide a basic telephone service and did so by subsidizing their cheaper options with higher rates for others. “Whereas the rest of the world is saying we’ve been down that road, we know that that does not work, we know that competition by and far is the best way of introducing innovation and reducing costs for everybody, both rich and poor,” he said. The Connected for Success program is part of Rogers’ corporate investments, said Khandelwal. “There’s an extra step where we say ‘hey, as a corporate citizen and wanting to be involved in the community, we think this is a great way to help a certain demographic, which is in non-profit housing to get access to the Internet,’” he said. “So this is purely an investment. Obviously it costs us more than $9.99 a month to offer this service but we think it’s an important investment to make in Canada.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Rogers program raises pre-hearing questions about affordability

News | April 7, 2016

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Rogers program raises pre-hearing questions about affordability

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