Basic service should include wholesale rates: TekSavvy

GATINEAU, Que. — On the first day of the CRTC’s hearing on what basic telecom services should be available to all Canadians, small ISP TekSavvy Solutions Inc. asked the CRTC to include wholesale access in its definition of basic service. It suggested the CRTC change the definition of basic service from including the “capability to connect via low-speed data transmission to the Internet at local rates” to “capability to connect to the Internet via high-speed data transmission made available, where feasible, at reasonable wholesale rates.” Andy Kaplan-Myrth, director of regulated agreements at the company, said during the company’s appearance in front of the CRTC panel Monday afternoon that “there is no reason why Canadians in underserved communities should be locked into a vertically-integrated monopoly, where the broadband provider is the only one who can interconnect and offer Internet services over it. There is no technical reason for it. There is no economic reason for it.” CRTC commissioner Candace Molnar asked the company representatives how wholesale rates fit into a basic service objective aimed at consumers. Chief regulatory officer Bram Abramson responded that this isn’t “a definition whose goal is to be sort of emblazoned on the back of stickers and say ‘this is what I want in my home.’ I think the goal is to create a definition that from a regulatory standpoint will deliver that end goal, and I think that end goal is reliable Internet access, and not being locked into only one provider.” Molnar also asked the company to comment on the idea of a “skinny Internet for all, provided by all ISPs.” Abramson noted Rogers Communications Inc.’s announcement last week of $9.99 Internet service for individuals living in rent-geared-to-income housing, and said “we thought that was great they were able to afford to do that.” “We, again, are all about affordability as a company. We’ve often historically attracted people looking for a good price for Internet access. But in terms of cross-subsidizing supra-normal profits in one area to sell things below cost in another area, we don’t have those kinds of margins,” he responded. “We’re happy to see skinny pricing, skinny broadband. We think the best way to achieve affordable rates is skinny profit margins because you have a vigorously competitive market.” Earlier in the day, the First Mile Community Consortium appeared in front of the panel, representing community-based First Nation service providers from rural and northern regions. Rob McMahon, coordinator with the organization, asked the CRTC to create a Northern Infrastructure and Services Fund, which wouldn’t be limited to incumbent providers, but would “enable local and regional community-based service providers to access funding to support construction and operation of facilities in the North.” The fund wouldn’t replace any current federal funding programs, but would complement them “by supporting an increased role for community-based providers,” McMahon said. Penny Carpenter, manager of the K-Net service provider in northwestern Ontario, said the K-Net network was built “because telecommunications companies would not or could not do it for us in a way that is sustainable, affordable, and meets our communities’ development requirements.” Representatives from the Yukon government also appeared Monday, asking the CRTC to set a standard of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds, and an “aspirational target” of 100 Mbps upload and 30 Mbps download. “The present defined standard of 5/1 is simply inadequate for the current level of everyday usage, and is certain to have Canadians lagging behind,” representatives said, according to a written copy of their opening statement. “Without a stretch goal to inspire a quantum change, the basic standard will become the de facto ceiling for rural and remote communities.” Establishing a standard is more important than “whether that standard is considered as part of basic service,” it said. The representatives also said that Canadians in rural and remote regions shouldn’t have to pay more for lower-quality services than what’s available elsewhere, and asked for both a subsidy for broadband service and a subsidy for transport infrastructure to be put in place. “It is absolutely clear that rural and remote users — and especially those in the North — will not have access to the fast, affordable, and reliable broadband service without subsidy support,” the opening statement reads. Insufficient infrastructure, specifically the lack of transport capacity, has a negative effect on the development of competition in the area where Northwestel operates, it said, adding that “a program of subsidy support is necessary to extend transport facilities.” The $500 million investment for rural and remote broadband announced in the federal budget, it said, “represents a clear opportunity for the Commission to set standards and devise a mechanism for achieving universal basic broadband.” The CRTC will hear additional perspectives about service in the North in the coming days. The government of Nunavut is scheduled to appear at the hearing on Tuesday, along with the Nunavut Broadband Development Corp. and the NWT Association of Communities. Rogers, BCE Inc., and Telus Corp. will appear next week. The hearing will continue until April 28. It is, as CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais noted in his opening statement, one of the most exhaustive hearings the CRTC has held in the past two decades. He added, according to a copy of his remarks, that it’s also “one that has garnered the most interest, as much from the industry as from the public at large.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Shruti Shekar at sshekar@thewirereport.ca

Basic service should include wholesale rates: TekSavvy

Broadcast | April 11, 2016

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Basic service should include wholesale rates: TekSavvy

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