CRTC has sole jurisdiction over in-building wire: Ontario court

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled against BCE Inc. in favour of Internet service provider CloudWifi Inc. in a dispute over whether the issue of the ISP accessing Bell wires in multi-dwelling units is a property dispute or a regulatory matter. In a decision released Tuesday, Judge Laurence Pattillo agreed with CloudWifi’s assertion that the CRTC holds sole jurisdiction over the matter of competitor use of in-building wires. “The CRTC has exclusive jurisdiction to determine a dispute between two regulated companies concerning the provision of telecommunication services,” Pattillo wrote in his decision, citing both the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act. The dispute, Bell had argued in front of the court, was a property dispute rather than a regulatory matter. “Even if it can be said that the court has concurrent jurisdiction to determine the issue,” Patillo wrote in reference to an argument made by Bell in its motion against CloudWifi, “given that the issue requires a determination of existing broadcasting and telecommunications regulations and policy, I would decline to exercise such jurisdiction.” In June, the CRTC granted Kitchener-based CloudWifi access to Bell’s infrastructure, for a “reasonable fee,” the first time the regulator had granted those rights to competitors that are not competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) or broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). The regulator cited increased “consumer choice” in making its decision. The case in the Ontario court isn’t the only front in which Bell is opposing that June decision. Bell first filed a challenge with the CRTC in July, saying in a Part 1 application that the company would suffer “irreparable harm,” and that the regulatory regime surrounding wiring needed to be updated given the movement toward fibre away from copper wiring. In July Bell also took the fight to the Federal Court of Appeal, and Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., and Shaw Communications Inc. all filed interventions with the CRTC in support of Bell. After CloudWifi told the Federal Court of Appeal that Bell’s request for leave to appeal was “premature,” Bell also asked for, and was granted, a stay on its request for leave to appeal until the CRTC proceeding it initiated is settled. That court case will continue once the stay is lifted. CloudWifi co-founder and vice president of business development Gary Kenning said in a Tuesday evening phone interview that the decision was “a great win for us.” “We’ve been in court a long time,” he said. “We’re able to continue operating and growing our business according to the rules and regulations that the CRTC has set out. That’s really what today was all about,” Kenning said. “It’s solidifying the path for more competitive landscape for internet providing in this country. It’s showing that there is a jurisdiction for this stuff and hopefully presenting a bit of a deterrent for the big guys trying to take things to different avenues or different courts to get their mandates across,” he said. In an email to the Wire Report Tuesday evening, a Bell spokesperson said simply that the company is still “reviewing the decision.” Matt Stein -- CEO of Distributel Communications Ltd. and president of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), which represents small ISPs -- wrote in a Tuesday email that CNOC was still reviewing the decision, but added “at first read it does seem encouraging.” — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

CRTC has sole jurisdiction over in-building wire: Ontario court

News | November 12, 2019

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CRTC has sole jurisdiction over in-building wire: Ontario court

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