CRTC seeks comments on next-gen 911 deployment

The CRTC is seeking comments on funding for the rollout of next-generation 911 (NG911) service, according to a notice issued Tuesday. The commission wants to allocate money from the National Contribution Fund (NCF). When telecom service providers (TSPs) filed tariff notices for the deployment of NG911, the regulator noticed that costs were higher in certain regions of the country. By Nov. 2021, the CRTC had received tariff notices from several large telecom companies– BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, Telus Corp., and Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp.’s SaskTel– as well as 23 smaller incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) in Ontario and Quebec. The suggested tariffs for the large ILECs ranged from $0.0951 to $0.22. The tariffs proposed by the smaller telecoms for retail and wholesale wireline and wireless access ranged from $0.45 to $2.93 while wireline access only tariffs ranged from $0.68 to $10.55. “While service providers should be able to recover costs for transitioning to NG911, Canadians, including vulnerable and low-income Canadians as well as Canadians living in rural areas, should not have to face significantly higher costs to access 911 services based solely on the geographic area they live in or their service provider,” the commission stated. Last month the CRTC denied a request by Bell to range tariffs from nothing to a dime, establishing ten cents as the benchmark for NG911 service. The NCF, in place since 2000, is a revenue-based contribution system which all TSPs with revenues of more than $10 million must fund. Last year the commission established a rate of 0.46 per cent to collect a total of $181 million. Only $1 million goes to the administrative costs of the NCF; $30 million goes to fund the Video Relay Service and $150 million goes to the Universal Broadband Fund. Interested parties must answer a series of seven questions about NG911 rollout, including funding formulas. Interveners must file by Apr. 7 with responses to the interventions due on Apr. 22.

CRTC seeks comments on next-gen 911 deployment

Brief | March 8, 2022

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CRTC seeks comments on next-gen 911 deployment

Brief | March 8, 2022

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