OPINION: Bulk MDU deals no longer a rare occurrence

by Todd Hofley, vice-president, Policy and Communications, Beanfield Like many industries, telecommunications has its share of good and bad behaviour. Good, from Beanfield’s perspective, means transparent, fair, reliable and always putting the customer first. Bad means opaque, convoluted, confusing and always putting the company first. It might seem quaint – or even naïve to some - to care more about your customer than your bottom line, as we can all agree they are inextricably linked. But we believe that organic, bottom line growth will happen when we let free and even market forces do their job. If we let the quality of the product, the caliber of the service and the value they create do the talking, both the customer and the company win. Call us idealists, but we don’t think there’s any need for shenanigans. Unfortunately, over the past five years, we’ve seen what was good behaviour increasingly turn into bad behaviour, destroying consumer trust in its wake. It’s this shift that compelled us to file a Part 1 Application to the CRTC this week. Our application is the loudest of the alarm bells we’ve been ringing for the past three years. Beginning in November of 2020 when we spoke to the CRTC about the Rogers Communications Inc.-Shaw merger, through to our in-building wire (IBW) submission of 2021 and finally in our CRTC 2023-56 submission on the Wholesale High-Speed Access Framework, we’ve laid out the policy problems, the competitive implications and the negative real world effects of bulk billing in residential MDU’s (condos and apartments). We’ve been forced to submit this application because what used to be a rare occurrence has snowballed into an enormous problem that we see manifesting not only in Toronto, but across the country, in markets large and small. At its core, our application is simple. The MDU Access Framework, established in CRTC 2003-45, along with the context of the policy doctrine of the time and continuing through to the most recent policy direction given to the CRTC, is there to ensure that Canadians, the “end-users” of the service, have a choice of provider. While geography and the number of providers available will, necessarily, vary from location to location, if choice is available, then it should be available - unless there are exceptional circumstances that justify that lack of choice. In the case of bulk billing, we believe this fundamental principle of capitalism (consumer choice) and the clear intent of the MDU access condition, is circumvented. When developers or condo boards and telecommunication providers sign an agreement that lock hundreds or thousands of future nameless owners and residents into long term service contracts they may or may not want, the consumer’s autonomy is denied, their choice is removed, and their recourse is negated. Regardless of whether the consumer wants the service, they have to pay. Regardless of whether the service is good or reliable, they have to pay. Regardless of, literally, anything…they have to pay. They were not a part of the conversation, they didn’t sign a service agreement, they didn’t speak to the provider and the terms of their contract are non-negotiable. They can’t even leave and if they did, they’d have nowhere to go. That all of this is decided, ahead of time and with no transparency to the “end user” is wrong. Full stop. But the problem doesn’t just end there. By locking 300-1500 homes or more into a single source, single bill contract, there is no potential market share for any competitors and with that, there is no incentive to even try to compete. The upshot is that not only do Canadians lose their right to choose, they also lose the resiliency multiple communication networks provide. If we cast our minds back to the Rogers outage of July of 2022, the potential result would be that MDU communities – communities that are larger than 1000’s of towns across our country - are completely cut off. Their emergency elevator phones don’t work, the water sensors in their smart building are offline, and they can’t ask a neighbour to share their internet so they can go to school, make their virtual doctor’s appointment or speak to their loved ones. As a condo president myself, it is impossible to imagine a scenario in which the mayor of a town or the developer of that town, would be allowed to dictate this choice to residents. Torches would be lit and pitchforks would be out. The 1992 deregulation of Canada’s telecom industry was supposed to be a milestone that ended monopolies. The hope was that it would usher in a wave of new competition that would drive prices down, improve service and spur innovation. In many ways it worked and Canadians are the better for it. Sadly, 31 years later, we’re witnessing a resurgence of behaviour that contradicts those goals and aims to take us back in time. The practice of bulk billing and the creation of monopoly MDU islands should be a concern to us all because if it’s allowed to continue, these islands will become regions and these regions, cities. We’re hopeful that the regulatory agencies governing this vital industry agree and put a stop to the practice once and for all. Todd Hofley joined Beanfield in 2019 and is now their vice-president of Policy and Communications. He is responsible for Beanfield’s marketing, PR/GR, and internal and external communications. Hofley is also a condominium president. THE WIRE REPORT ACCEPTS SUBMISSIONS BY OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS WHO ARE KNOWLEDGEABLE ON THE SUBJECT MATTER DISCUSSED. SUBMISSIONS CAN BE SENT TO JCOCULLO@THEWIREREPORT.CA.

OPINION: Bulk MDU deals no longer a rare occurrence

News | September 29, 2023

by Todd Hofley, vice-president, Policy and Communications, Beanfield

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OPINION: Bulk MDU deals no longer a rare occurrence

News | September 29, 2023

by Todd Hofley, vice-president, Policy and Communications, Beanfield

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