TekSavvy calls for TPIA tariff changes to stop delayed access to new offerings

TekSavvy Solutions Inc. is asking the CRTC to speed up the regulatory process by which new speed tiers are introduced and become available to wholesale-based internet service providers like the Chatham-Kent, Ont.-based company. In a Part 1 application filed with the regulator Apr. 29 and posted to the CRTC website Tuesday, TekSavvy wrote that it believes there "is a growing phenomenon in which new service speeds see a widening gap between the time they are offered by incumbent carriers at retail and when wholesale competitors are given access to the equivalent service speed." "Because of the tariff application process currently in place, competitors are left to wait for commission approval for access to new service speeds," TekSavvy continued. "Meanwhile, incumbent carriers immediately begin offering the new speeds to their retail customers, insulated from any wholesale competition, for periods in some cases exceeding a year." In order to deal with the problem, the company is calling on the CRTC to implement a handful of reforms that will see new incumbent speed tiers available to wholesalers faster. TekSavvy asks the CRTC to "clarify that no tariff approval is required to introduce speed tiers that fall within an approved speed-band associated with an approved rate;" to "approve all currently outstanding tariff applications introducing speed tiers which would fall into the foregoing category;" and to introduce a default interim tariff approval process for those speed offerings that fall outside previously-approved bands which would see new offerings approved two weeks after their introduction by an incumbent. The interim approval, TekSavvy adds, can be accomplished with a cost study if the incumbent provides one, or through the established proxy approach to rate-setting if the incumbent does not. Under a 2006 decision, incumbents are required to offer the same speed tiers to third-party internet access (TPIA) customers and to avoid delays for TPIAs that "significantly prejudiced competition" in the retail internet market. According to TekSavvy however, under what has become the status quo, an incumbent carrier will file a tariff application on the day it makes a new speed tier service available to its retail customers, but not to TPIA customers until after a commission approval of the tariff application. Such approvals can take over a year, TekSavvy wrote in the application. TekSavvy pointed to a number of different tariff applications that have not yet been approved. In one such example, Shaw Communications Inc. introduced a service for retail customers offering 300 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload on Sep. 11, 2020 and filed a tariff application with the CRTC on the same day. To date, the application has not been approved and the speed tier is not available to TPIA customers. If TekSavvy intervenes in the tariff application proceeding, the wholesale-based ISPs wrote in the Part 1, "this inevitably delays the commission’s approval of those tariff notices even where the issues raised in interventions are ultimately deemed out of scope." This leaves companies like TekSavvy with the unfortunate choice of delaying their own access to new incumbent offerings, or keeping silent during CRTC procedures. "Competitors should not be asked to either accept tariffs that deviate from commission practice or delay their own access to services for an indeterminate length of time," TekSavvy wrote. TekSavvy pointed to remarks by Rogers Communications Inc. CEO Tony Staffieri that TekSavvy said demonstrates that incumbents are giving themselves an unfair advantage. “We have ubiquitously one gig available across our entire footprint, and that’s soon to be 1.5 Gigs, so from a product standpoint, we’re quite comfortable in terms of the product advantage we have there,” Staffieri said on a Rogers first quarter earnings call. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, TekSavvy complained to the CRTC that incumbents were using the pandemic in order to slow down maintenance work for TPIA customers. The CRTC ultimately told incumbents and TPIA providers to "work together" to resolve the dispute. Interventions on TekSavvy's new application are due June 2. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

TekSavvy calls for TPIA tariff changes to stop delayed access to new offerings

News | May 3, 2022

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TekSavvy calls for TPIA tariff changes to stop delayed access to new offerings

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