CRTC receives price floor replies

The CRTC appears to be struggling with the price floor safeguards for retail tariffed services based on the interrogatories recently replied to by parties. The commission poses questions, a number of which raise possibilities outside that found in Public Notice 2003-10.New entrants have complained that the incumbents can bundle the various services that they offer to their competitive advantage, such as offering bundles only to those who subscribe to their local telephony service. Thus, the commission in PN 2003-10 has proposed temporarily modifying the imputation test so that ILECS could offer no more than a 10% discount over the standalone costs of bundled items and other measures. The CRTC asks several parties, including the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), to comment on potential additional conditions for allowable tariffable bundles, such as: should standalone prices be available for all retail service elements included in the bundle? and, should the terms and conditions (other than rates) under which the non-tariffed service element is provided be identical to the terms and conditions that would apply if the non-tariffed retail service element were provided on a stand-alone basis? The CCTA supports the CRTC’s suggestion that standalone prices be made available for all retail service elements included in bundled telecom services. "This requirement ensures that the bundle is not in effect tied selling" and "would act as a safeguard against anti-competitive behaviour by the ILECS, thereby promoting competition," writes the CCTA in its May 28 submission to the CRTC.But the cable association further notes that the standalone requirement, brought up in CRTC interrogatories would be consistent with the commission’s proposal at paragraphs 36 and 37 of PN 2003-10. Also in response to earlier filings, the commission asks the competitors to the incumbent telephone companies about TELUS Corp.’s definition of "tariffable bundles," including whether circumstances whereby two tariffed services are offered under a single rate structure without any reduction, rebate, incentive or any other benefit is included under the TELUS definition. For its part, TELUS notes in its May 28 reply to the commission’s interrogatories that it "does not have a terminology for describing services that is distinct from the commission’s own terminology...The public notice clearly sets out the commission’s current approach to imputation and the terminology used to describe those services that are included in an imputation test at their tariffed rates," writes TELUS in its May 28 supplemental brief. Reply comments to the interrogatories are due by June 11.

CRTC receives price floor replies

News | June 8, 2004

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