CRTC rejects wholesale wireline policy review

The CRTC has denied three applications to review recent decisions relating to competitor access to infrastructure, according to notices posted on the regulator’s website on Wednesday. BCE Inc. had applied for review of last year’s wholesale high-speed access policy stemming from a review of wholesale wireline services because it said the CRTC erred in linking the introduction of “disaggregated wholesale HSA services to additional investment in alternate transport facilities.” The CRTC said Bell wanted the policy modified so that disaggregated wholesale HSA services are only available to competitors that have their own transport facility and where the competitor is also the provider to the end user (i.e. no resellers). Bell was also asking for the policy to be changed so that disaggregated wholesale HSA services weren’t available to “entities with annual revenues in excess of $500 million in Canada or abroad.” Bell’s submission that the CRTC had based its decision on “alternate transport investment is incorrect,” the commission ruled. Zayo Group Holdings Inc.’s Allstream wanted the CRTC to review its decision to withdraw mandated access to unbundled local loops (ULLs) following a three-year phase-out period. Unbundled local loops are copper links that competitors can use “to provide local telephony and Internet access services to residential and business customers,” the CRTC said. According to the CRTC, Allstream said that the Commission “made an error in fact by concluding that the withdrawal of mandated access to ULLs in exchanges where there is current demand for ULLs would not have a significant impact on competition for business local voice services” and wanted mandated access to be grandfathered in instead of phased out. “Allstream did not provide any evidence during the proceeding” that led to the initial policy or the review proceeding, the commission said, “demonstrating that ULLs were relied upon extensively in the downstream business market.” Managed Network Systems Inc., a small Ontario ISP, also took issue with the ULL decision, asking for more conditions to be placed on the ILECs after the phase-out period. Its application which were also denied.

CRTC rejects wholesale wireline policy review

Brief | June 29, 2016

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us