Rogers claims Yorkville MDU owner playing ignorant to stall CRTC proceeding

Rogers Communications Inc. is calling out a Toronto developer’s so-called “feigned ignorance” in a dispute over access to a high-rise building in the Yorkville area. In a Monday reply to a submission from Lixo Investments Limited, the owner of the building, Rogers argues to the CRTC the developer has made it “abundantly clear” it has no intention of providing it with timely access to its multi-dwelling unit (MDU) at 70 Yorkville Ave. The company’s comments follow a response from Lixo to a Part 1 application submitted to the CRTC by Rogers earlier this month. Lixo said it is unaware of any facilities referenced in the Rogers application and asked the CRTC to either compel the company to give it more information so it could substantively respond or throw out the complaint altogether while claiming the CRTC does not have jurisdiction to order access. “The suggestion by Lixo that it is somehow unaware of the presence of Rogers’ facilities and customers in 70 Yorkville strains credulity,” Rogers said in its reply Monday, additionally arguing that Lixo’s claim it needs more information “is unacceptable given our efforts to communicate with Lixo’s representatives over the past nine months.” “Lixo’s feigned ignorance of the circumstances underlying our access request is nothing more than a stall tactic designed to delay the commission’s consideration of our application.” Rogers suggests Lixo seems to believe it can avoid the CRTC’s MDU access rules and continue to block its access by denying it has any knowledge of Rogers customers in the building. “Even if Rogers did not serve any customers in 70 Yorkville today, the commission’s MDU access rules would apply so that Rogers would be granted access to the building on reasonable terms and conditions.” Rogers is demanding the CRTC declare that Lixo is denying it access to the building and issue an order that it be granted timely access on reasonable terms and conditions to install, operate, repair, replace and maintain equipment. Rogers also wants the CRTC to order any telecommunications service providers serving the building to immediately stop doing so unless it has also been granted access. In an intervention, BCE Inc. wrote that while it only services a “handful” of customers using copper wires in the building, it supports the general principle of access for telecom companies to MDUs. Rogers does provide some information on the date it claims it first served a customer at the building, which it said was sometime in 1984, per its application. Up until Oct. 2020, it had been able for several years to activate customers remotely without a technician needing to enter the building, but last fall it discovered a technical issue impacting its network quality. That’s when Rogers began repeated requests to access the building to address the problem, it said, with Lixo consistently denying it access. Lixo disputed the claim that it denied Rogers access to the building, in its response. The developer said the doors to the property were unlocked prior to the pandemic and if Rogers does have any facilities there, it “suspects that Rogers accessed the property without permission.” This is not the only dispute over MDU access before the CRTC at this time. Rogers is currently seeking access to a building in Saint John, N.B., and in a separate July decision, the CRTC ruled that companies must negotiate access to existing in-building wiring in MDUs when trying to provide service, or install their own. - Reporting by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Rogers claims Yorkville MDU owner playing ignorant to stall CRTC proceeding

News | August 31, 2021

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Rogers claims Yorkville MDU owner playing ignorant to stall CRTC proceeding

News | August 31, 2021

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