Large telecoms say small ISPs should be subject to Internet Code too

A few months ahead of the introduction of the CRTC’s Internet Code, scheduled for Jan. 31,, a grouping of the largest telecom companies in the country are asking the regulator to make the code apply to smaller internet service providers as well. In the filing to the CRTC dated Oct. 29, a battery of facilities-based internet providers -- BCE Inc, Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink, Cogeco Inc., Quebecor Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., and Telus Corp. — told the regulator that it is unfair to them to exempt smaller ISPs from following the code. They argued that in excluding the smaller ISPs and resellers, the regulator “failed to strike the appropriate balance of protecting consumers and ensuring that inappropriate regulatory burdens are not placed on ISPs.” Citing the Competition Bureau’s August report into the residential broadband internet market, the applicants said that the decision to exempt smaller ISPs from following the code, “has left a significant portion of Canadians (as high as 18% in some markets) without the protections that the Code was intended to provide.” “Unless this error is remedied,” the applicants write later in the review-and-vary filing, “the Code will have the harmful unintended consequence of distorting the market for Internet services.” The submission names TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Distributel Communications Ltd., and Birch Communications Inc.’s Primus specifically, arguing that they “are provided with an unfair advantage in that the current application of the Code relieves them of the compliance costs being imposed on their competitors.” The Internet Code is designed to create better and clearer sales practices in the internet retail market. In July, shortly after the release of the code, CRTC chairman Ian Scott said the code would indirectly deal with the type of sales practices in the industry that have seen Bell court-mandated to work with the Competition Bureau and the CRTC deem some industry practices “unacceptable.” The process by which the code came into being was controversial itself, as several consumer advocacy groups boycotted proceedings, citing time constraints.

Large telecoms say small ISPs should be subject to Internet Code too

Brief | November 8, 2019

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Large telecoms say small ISPs should be subject to Internet Code too

Brief | November 8, 2019

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