Either disclose or withdraw MVNO layoff threat, CRTC tells Telus

The CRTC is asking Telus Corp. to publicly release a resolution from the company's board of directors authorizing the firing of 5,000 workers should the regulator mandate access for mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). If the company doesn't want to publicly disclose the resolution, the CRTC will let Telus strike it from the record, according to a letter sent Monday to participants in last February's wireless proceedings. The threat from Telus CEO Darren Entwistle in February was one of the more attention-grabbing moments of the CRTC's wireless hearings. At the end of several hours of testimony in February, Entwistle told the panel of CRTC commissioners that the Telus board of directors had authorized management to cut “in the zip code of” 5,000 jobs over five years, and cut investment by $1 billion. Entwistle said he was giving the commissioners the numbers in the interest of “being more transparent on communications, being more effective on the communications front.” In Monday's letter, the CRTC rejected arguments made by Telus in the previous months that the resolution should be kept confidential. It said in its view, “information put forward by in the board resolution that qualifies for confidential designation, with the exception of pronouncements going to the dollar amount of potential expenditure reductions," the letter reads, "is of a general or superficial nature and reveals no detailed or even specific financial information." "As such, the Commission considers that no likely direct competitive harm would result from its disclosure." What's more, in response to Telus' claim to the CRTC that disclosure of the information would undermine the company's board of directors to conduct its business, the CRTC says it was Telus's choice to bring up the board's layoff resolution in the first place. Telus “filed the board resolution on the record at its own request and initiative," the CRTC wrote in the letter. However, the regulator is giving Telus an out. While acknowledging that its procedural rules “do not generally allow a party to a telecom proceeding to withdraw a document from the record," the CRTC will make a special exception for Telus in this case and allow Telus to pull its threat of thousands of layoffs from the record of the MVNO hearing. "No party except for could be prejudiced by such a withdrawal," the CRTC writes in Monday's letter. The letter requires Telus release or withdraw the board's resolution by June 29. Back in March the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) -- a supporter of mandated MVNO access -- had asked the CRTC to compel Telus to release the board's resolution. "It is entirely inappropriate and prejudicial to the procedural fairness rights of other parties in this proceeding for to make an inflammatory statement about potentially reducing investment by one billion dollars and terminating the employment of 5,000 employees if it is faced with greater levels of competition," CNOC wrote in a March 17 letter, "and then to file evidence supporting its claims entirely in confidence." CNOC wrote that it is particularly interested in what conditions would trigger the reduced investment and layoffs threatened by Telus. There are multiple versions of what mandated MVNO access would look like, ranging from a broad-based mandated access -- in which resellers could enter the market without previous investment -- to a hybrid model where the MVNO's access would be contingent upon some level of investment in network infrastructure. Telus has declined to specify which type of option would trigger the layoffs approved by the board. CNOC also pointed to Telus's decision to bring up the board's layoff plan in the first place. "If did not want to file this board resolution on the public record, then it should not have placed it on the record of this proceeding," CNOC wrote. The threat -- or reality -- of reduced investment and layoffs by the incumbent telecom companies have been one of the central themes of the policy fight around mandated MVNOs in Canada. BCE Inc. CEO Mirko Bibic told commissioners at the same February public hearings that Bell would reduce investment by some $500 million a year, should the regulator approve mandated MVNO access. Quebecor Inc. threatened legal action. Rogers Communications Inc. also promised investment cuts. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Either disclose or withdraw MVNO layoff threat, CRTC tells Telus

News | June 22, 2020

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Either disclose or withdraw MVNO layoff threat, CRTC tells Telus

News | June 22, 2020

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