TTC wants CRTC to let Bell and Rogers work it out; PIAC says CRTC should use interconnection powers

The CRTC should not intervene in an ongoing dispute between Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. over wireless network access in the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), and should instead allow Rogers to negotiate with other carriers commercially, according to the TTC. In a July 17 intervention, the TTC wrote that the commission should dismiss an application from Bell from last month that asked the CRTC to step in and prohibit Rogers from providing wireless access in the TTC system until Rogers enables access for all carriers. “This is a request for the commission to protect public safety and promote the public interest by ensuring all Canadians can access wireless services in the TTC subway system,” Bell had argued to the regulator. In its intervention, the TTC argued that through its agreement with BAI Communications -- the Canadian arm of which Rogers bought in April -- Rogers should be able to negotiate “timely access” with any wireless carrier, including Bell. “Regulatory intervention should be the last resort and the parties, which are both sophisticated commercial entities, should be negotiating acceptable and commercially reasonable terms and conditions in accordance with the ,” the TTC wrote. Meanwhile, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in its own intervention argued that while wireless access in Toronto’s subway system is indeed an important goal, Bell is making the request for other reasons. Pointing out that neither Bell nor any other carrier complained when BAI owned the TTC wireless network and Wind Mobile (now Quebecor Inc.’s Freedom Mobile) inked a deal for access to the system in 2015. “As such, it lies ill in the mouth of Bell to complain about the urgency of the situation now or the safety implications of Rogers’ apparent reluctance to offer the commercial terms Bell would prefer, for quasi-sharing of this TTC backbone network,” PIAC wrote in its July 17 intervention. Bell’s main concern, PIAC continued, is rather the “potential for what it considers to be an anti-competitive ‘head-start’ for Rogers, as the TTC contract appears to only require commercial negotiations with other towards a presumed agreement within 18 months after Rogers begins offering service.” PIAC also criticized the TTC’s role in the proceeding, which the public interest group said “appear self-serving in some aspects and quite indirectly (and even possibly not at all) in the public interest.” “Certainly the contractual actions, contract payments and behaviour of the TTC can appear to prioritize revenue raising with inadequate consideration of the public interest in communication,” PIAC wrote. The public interest group went on to argue that Bell is relying on sections 24 and 42 of the Telecommunications Act, which govern the conditions of service and the CRTC’s own authority to order the building of telecommunication facilities, and suggested that Bell is deliberately avoiding the use of section 40 of the act, which gives the CRTC the authority to require a carrier to interconnect with another carrier. Because Section 40 gives the CRTC the power to order an interconnection within a given time frame, PIAC argues that it allows the regulator to insert itself into commercial negotiations to an extent that sections 24 and 42 do not. That is a precedent Bell does not want to set, PIAC argued, saying that bell is “anxious to keep” commercial negotations “in the ‘Big 3’ (plus Freedom) family.” “It is likely this latter power that Bell does not wish to remind the commission it has, but it is crucial to forcing the earliest possible, widest possible public access to the improved Rogers claims to be working on,” PIAC wrote. But it is exactly this power that the CRTC should utilize to solve the dispute, PIAC concluded in the intervention. “This will encourage the conclusion of a deal or protocol of the type favoured by Bell and which accords more closely with earlier access for all in the public interest,” PIAC argued. -Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

TTC wants CRTC to let Bell and Rogers work it out; PIAC says CRTC should use interconnection powers

News | July 18, 2023

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TTC wants CRTC to let Bell and Rogers work it out; PIAC says CRTC should use interconnection powers

News | July 18, 2023

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