Mandate access for Rogers, and spare us: SaskTel

GATINEAU, Que. — If you’re going to mandate mobile virtual network operators in Saskatchewan, require access to Rogers Communications Inc.’s network and not ours, representatives of Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp. told CRTC commissioners Thursday. In arguments that echoed those offered by other regional carriers over the two-week hearing, SaskTel said on the penultimate day of the hearings that the mandating of MVNOs would hurt SaskTel more than anyone. SaskTel’s CEO Doug Burnett told the commission, however, that if it did decide to mandate MVNOs nationwide, it could simply mandate access on Rogers network in Saskatchewan only. “There may actually be some benefit to limiting it to Rogers’ network versus SaskTel’s network, if you accept the argument that adding another MVNO in some of the rural locations is actually going to jeopardize fourth carriers and jeopardize investment in rural locations,” Burnett told the committee. Rogers’ network in Saskatchewan, Burnett told the commissioners, is mostly concentrated in urban areas in the province, while SaskTel’s network is extended into rural areas. “National carriers are in far better position to be able to absorb the cost of actually implementing the MVNO than regional carriers may be. So, just another reason that we believe that if you decide to go down that road that limiting it to national carriers is the appropriate thing to do,” Burnett said, while reasserting that broad MVNO access would hurt fourth players like SaskTel more than the big three. Throughout the two-week hearing, regional competitors like SaskTel, Shaw Communications Inc., Bragg Communications Inc., and Quebecor Inc. argued that a broad MVNO mandate would harm them more than the big incumbents Rogers, Telus Corp., and BCE Inc. Elsewhere on the eighth day of the hearing, academics from Concordia University and Ryerson University testified that the regulator needed to mandate the creation of a properly affordable phone plan, as the “affordable” plans currently on offer are not good enough, particularly for the elderly. Kim Sawchuk and Constance Lafontaine from Concordia, and Catherine Middleton from Ryerson -- all from the federally-funded Ageing Communication Technologies research project -- sought to portray what they termed the high cost of telecom services as a social issue. “Over the course of these hearings, there have been comments about this seniors' market, and its value. In one testimony by a service provider, low-income seniors were characterized as a niche. Being old and being poor is not a niche, it is a reality for thousands of Canadians,” Lafontaine said. “Some providers have argued that the ability of seniors to afford entry into the market for mobile services is not their concern, that it is not up to the telecommunications companies to address poverty, that this is a social issue,” Sawchuk said. “This statement ignores the role that telecommunication companies are playing in the impoverishment of seniors. The current costs of owning a phone and accessing text, talk and data, not to mention the punitive penalties for data overages, are making the lives of low- income older adults, in particular, more difficult. Access to communications and affordability is a social issue.” The Coalition for Cheaper Wireless Service is asking the CRTC to mandate a low-cost bring your own device wireless plan, providing 4 GBs of data monthly for a maximum of $30 a month, an idea panned by Rogers CEO Joe Natale earlier this week. To finish the day Data on Tap Inc., which does business as dotmobile, called on the CRTC to address the problem of mental health issues in the telecommunications sector, as asserted by Telus CEO Darren Entwistle last week. “The comment was made in passing, but shouldn't be just discarded,” dotmobile founder and CEO Algis Akstinas told the commissioners. “We are urging the Commission to provide an urgent resolution on this, calling the wireless industry to assess the underlying issues for this problem and start addressing that immediately.” In advocating for what he said was the the innovation potential of full access MVNOs, dotmobile co-founder Alex Bauman told commissioners that the incumbents “are good network companies, but they are not good tech companies. They are not driving innovation in technology or service delivery, and they are not embracing infrastructure as a service.” — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Mandate access for Rogers, and spare us: SaskTel

News | February 28, 2020

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Mandate access for Rogers, and spare us: SaskTel

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