CRTC looking at ‘inflexible’ international roaming fees, rates in Canada

The CRTC is making moves to lower roaming rates, issuing two separate calls to companies to address the rates paid by Canadians travelling both within the country and abroad. On Monday, the regulator issued a letter to BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Telus Corp. ordering them to tell it within the next month what “concrete steps” they are taking to increase roaming plan choice and lower roaming rates for Canadians travelling internationally. If the CRTC is not satisfied with the actions they take, it will launch a formal public proceeding. The commission also on Monday issued a separate decision mandating the national wireless carriers and regional carriers to negotiate new wholesale roaming rates with one another, after an application by multiple regional carriers in 2022 argued that the rates were too high. Domestic rates disputed in 2022 application The CRTC first set wholesale roaming tariff rates in Canada for the big three national carriers — Bell, Rogers, and Telus — back in the fall of 2015 on an interim basis. All had been mandated by the CRTC to provide wholesale roaming service to other wireless carriers. The rates were made final in 2018, retroactive to May 5, 2015. A 2021 policy statement reaffirmed that the national players should provide seamless roaming and that the wholesale roaming policy applies to 5G networks. But in a 2022 application to the CRTC, Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink; Cogeco Inc., Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron, and Xplornet Communications Inc. argued that the methodology used to determine the rates was out of date and that the rates were too high, and pointed out that the rates remained unchanged 6.5 years later. “Based on the available evidence, including trends in retail data revenue and usage, the commission agrees that the existing wholesale roaming rates may no longer be just and reasonable,” the regulator said in its Monday decision. Now, instead of initiating a new rate-setting proceeding, the CRTC is mandating carriers to negotiate new rates with one another. If they cannot come to an agreement by themselves or through staff-assisted mediation, they can ask the CRTC to set a rate through final offer arbitration — which means the companies that request such action would submit each of their final offers to the CRTC and the regulator would decide which to choose. “This is similar to the approach the commission has adopted for its mobile virtual network operator framework,” the regulator noted. After a wholesale roaming request is submitted by a regional carrier or group of carriers to a national carrier, both sides will together have 60 days to conclude their negotiations with a signed agreement. The commission said it will keep in place existing tariffed rates on an interim basis until new rates are agreed to. The CRTC said it encourages the regional carriers to negotiate as a group, if they wish. The regulator said it will look to help make the negotiation process fair to all carriers by publishing “certain rate benchmarks” annually, including the weighted average retail revenue per gigabyte of data in Canada. That number was calculated to be $7.21 per GB in 2022, the commission said. “By adopting commercial negotiation with as its rate-setting approach for wholesale roaming going forward, the commission aims to help bring lower rates to the market in an efficient and timely manner,” the CRTC said. “Lower wholesale rates will enable regional carriers to offer more competitive plans and promotions, while continuing to invest in their networks.” Alongside its decision, the CRTC issued a notice of consultation asking for opinions on whether or not regional wireless carriers should have access to both Bell Mobility and Telus’ full shared national network when subscribing to either of their wholesale roaming service, as is the case with the MVNO framework. Right now, regional carriers have to enter into separate agreements with each company for their own portions of the network they share. The commission’s view, as of Monday, is that this should be the case and it is seeking comments on that stance. Interventions on the matter are to be filed with the CRTC by Nov. 6. Replies are due by Nov. 18. International rates too high, CRTC says But Bell, Rogers, and Telus have a couple days less, until Nov. 4, to tell the CRTC what steps they are taking to reduce international roaming fees, after which the CRTC would consider launching a public proceeding. The CRTC noted in its press release that roaming fees are “often inflexible” and require consumers to pay flat fees of $10 to $16 per day, “regardless of how much they use their cellphone.” It said it conducted a review to examine international roaming fees, obtaining and analyzing confidential information from Canadian companies, as well as reviewing the findings of “a number of studies” and public information on roaming. hdaley@thewirereport.ca

CRTC looking at ‘inflexible’ international roaming fees, rates in Canada

Regulatory |
By Hannah Daley
| October 7, 2024

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