CRTC accepts Comp Bureau’s narrowed request for wireless data

After the CRTC in April denied the Competition Bureau’s request for more specific telecom data for its wireless review, the commission Friday changed course and said it will go ahead and ask wireless service providers to provide more granular information. “The Commission considers that this information would benefit the record of this proceeding and assist the Commission in its decision-making,” the CRTC said in a letter Friday, adding the bureau’s request “builds on” the CRTC’s existing requests. That approved request was amended from an original ask after the CRTC told the agency that its initial request for wireless provider data was too far-reaching, “highly granular” and ultimately burdensome on the telecoms. It previously asked the bureau to narrow the information or justify the original request. With its rejection, the CRTC initially said it wouldn’t accept any other requests for information. While the bureau complained that the CRTC’s existing requests weren’t granular enough -- looking only at information at the provincial or national level -- it narrowed its scope to the satisfaction of the CRTC, which accepted the bureau’s newly focused request. It is unclear when exactly the bureau modified its request. The Friday letter notes that the data the bureau now seeks is “market information that parties participating in a major policy proceeding such as this should have readily available or be able to compile without undue difficulty.” “The Commission is of the view that the benefits to having the additional information on the record outweigh any additional burden placed on parties in providing the information,” the letter said. The bureau had asked the telecoms in April to turn over the more detailed information about their wireless operations, saying the information is necessary to put together economic analyses to help the CRTC on its review of the mobile wireless industry — a request telecoms immediately opposed. The amended information now includes providing data about retail mobile wireless revenues from subscribers with a data plan and the average monthly mobile wireless data usage of those with a data plan for between 2014 to 2018, including each month from 2016 to the present. In addition, it adds a request for what geographic location retail wireless promotions were offered in 2018, adds 2016 and 2017 to the existing 2018 and 2019 years for changes in retail prices, and asks for what percentage of data plans were consumed, ranging from 1 GB to 10 GB and more (depending on the data plan range). The telecoms that must submit include BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Shaw Communications Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., Xplornet Communications Inc., Ice Wireless Inc., Bragg Communications Inc., and TBayTel. This amended request would also apply to smaller providers, as while they have fewer resources available, they “would also have less data to compile,” the CRTC said. As such, other providers that must comply are Brooke Telecom Co-operative Ltd., Execulink Telecom Inc., Hay Communications Co-operative Ltd., Huron Telecommunications Co-operative Ltd., Mornington Communications Co-operative Ltd., Quadro Communications Co-operative Inc., Sogetel Mobilite Inc., SSi Micro Ltd., and Wightman Telecom Ltd. In response to the CRTC’s initial rejection of the bureau’s request, the watchdog said that waiting until June -- when the CRTC requests were due -- to be able to ask additional questions “may make it impossible or impractical to complete and submit the planned analyses.” The bureau proposed a deadline of no later than July 15 for telecoms to respond to its requests. The CRTC on Friday said the deadline to respond to this new request has been extended, from June 5 to June 19, 2019. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

CRTC accepts Comp Bureau’s narrowed request for wireless data

News | May 24, 2019

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CRTC accepts Comp Bureau’s narrowed request for wireless data

News | May 24, 2019

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