CRTC sets interim rates for wholesale FTTP access

The CRTC has announced the interim rates competitors will pay three of Canada’s largest telephone companies for wholesale access to their existing fibre networks. The CRTC in August released a decision ordering BCE Inc.’s Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, and Bell MTS, along with Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., and Telus Corp. to provide competitors access by Feb. 13, 2025, in an effort to boost competition in internet services. New fibre builds are exempt from wholesale access until Aug. 13, 2029. At the time, some stakeholders said the effectiveness of the new policy relies on what interim rates would be set, anticipating they would be announced by the end of the year, based on the regulator’s timeline. The commission released those rates late afternoon Friday, Oct. 25. Last year, the CRTC temporarily mandated large incumbents Bell and Telus to offer wholesale access to their fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks — with fibre optic cables that run directly into customers’ homes — in Ontario and Quebec, regions that saw the most significant decline of wholesale-based competitors. That access was officially launched in May and will remain in place, according to the CRTC’s August decision that wholesale access would be expanded across Canada and include SaskTel’s networks as well. Aggregated rates for FTTP access to Bell’s network in Ontario and Quebec have been set at $68.94 per month, per premises for three megabits per second (Mbps) to 1500 Mbps, and $78.03 for 1501 Mbps to 3000 Mbps. For Telus, it is $65.25 for all speeds in Quebec. All are effective immediately. Those rates are virtually unchanged from the rates set for FTTP access on each companies' networks in both provinces in 2023. Meanwhile, aggregated fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) and FTTP access to Bell Canada’s network on a capacity-based billing basis has been set at $64.24 per 100 Mbps in Ontario and Quebec. In Telus’ case, it is $75.85 per 100 Mbps in Quebec. In Manitoba and Atlantic Canada, respectively, Bell MTS and Bell Aliant’s aggregated FTTP access rates on a per month, per premises basis and for capacity-based billing are the same as the rates in Ontario and Quebec, except they are effective Feb. 13, 2025, in line with the CRTC’s decision to grant access to competitors as of that date. SaskTel’s aggregated FTTP access rate for all speeds up to one gigabit per second (Gbps) is $77.57. Its aggregated FTTP capacity-based billing rate will be $35.76 per 100 Mbps. Telus, meanwhile, will see an aggregated FTTP access rate for all speeds, 15 Mbps to 1.5 Gbps, of $80.41 in Alberta and British Columbia. Its capacity-based billing rate in those provinces is $75.86 per 100 Mbps. Bell, SaskTel, and Telus have been directed by the CRTC to issue new tariff pages reflecting the new interim rates by next Friday. The Wire Report has reached out to all three companies requesting comment on the rates. SaskTel is challenging the CRTC's August decision mandating competitor access to its fibre netorks. In September, the Crown corporation requested from the Federal Court of Appeal both a judicial review, alleging that the new policy is unreasonable; and leave to appeal, alleging it is based on an unlawful policy direction. SaskTel’s request for leave to appeal echoes previous arguments made by Bell last November after the commission issued an interim decision requiring it to temporarily provide access to its fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec, and takes aim at the government’s 2023 Policy Direction for the CRTC. hdaley@thewirereport.ca - With files from Phalen Tynes-MacDonald Editor's note: This article has been updated to correctly reflect the rates in Manitoba and Atlantic Canada

CRTC sets interim rates for wholesale FTTP access

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By Hannah Daley
| October 25, 2024

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CRTC sets interim rates for wholesale FTTP access

Regulatory | By Hannah Daley | October 25, 2024

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