Bell Canada fighting Vidéotron over broadband access policy for VoIP

Bell Canada has launched a complaint against Vidéotron ltée over the cable company’s practice of requiring customers who subscribe to its cable telephony service to subscribe to its high-speed Internet service. The following is an edited excerpt of Bell’s March 15 application. Bell Canada has already identified its concern with Vidéotron’s policy in contributions it made to the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC) on 12 and 17 January 2006. In its response to the company’s aforementioned CISC contributions, Vidéotron (with the support of a number of other cable companies) denied that any problem exists. Vidéotron’s position is that it is entirely appropriate for it to require customers to terminate competitors’ services as it is doing so for technical reasons. As the company further describes below, Vidéotron’s technical reasons are unfounded. Vidéotron’s cable telephony service connection practices appear to be designed to prevent customers from exercising choice of providers of Internet services. Vidéotron’s policy is unjustly discriminatory and violates section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act. The company has conducted research into Vidéotron’s customer transfer procedures and has ascertained that Vidéotron’s policy of denying customers the ability to retain or subscribe to the Internet service of their choice stems from Vidéotron’s practice of severing any connection between the twisted pair inside wire and the ILEC local loop to which it had been connected. The result of this appears to be that not only would it not be possible for a customer to subscribe to a competitor’s DSL-based high-speed Internet service, but it would also no longer be possible for the customer to subscribe to any competitor’s telecommunications services which utilize twisted pair inside wire at the customer’s premises unless the competitor over-wires the customer’s premises. These practices by Vidéotron reflect this cableco’s policy of connecting its equipment to the customer’s inside wire at what Vidéotron describes as "the most convenient point" and severing all connection between the customer’s inside wire and any other service provider’s network. Vidéotron’s definition of the most convenient point is, in fact, the most convenient point solely from Vidéotron’s perspective. In reality, Vidéotron’s policy is to sever any connection from the end-customer to any potential competitor and to do so in a manner which will typically require extensive on-premises work should the end-customer wish to subscribe (or to continue subscribing) to any service offered by a competitor of Vidéotron. Once Vidéotron has severed all connection to the ILEC’s network, the cost for the customer to subscribe to any service provided by Vidéotron’s competitors is substantial since extensive work is needed to re-establish the previously existing connection. Not only are customers precluded from obtaining competitors’ high-speed Internet service but they are also precluded from subscribing to a second line from any competitor. Because of the manner in which Vidéotron appropriates the customer’s inside wire for its exclusive use when it installs its cable telephony service, Vidéotron has created a substantial barrier for end-customer choice as well as for competitors. Vidéotron is fully aware of the impact its installation practices will have on competitors’ services. Vidéotron does not identify to potential subscribers that they will lose the ability to exercise choice. Vidéotron’s response to this situation has been documented in its above referenced CISC Contribution and is that:When a cable company wins over a local telephony customer from an ILEC it sends out a technician. We submit there is no reason for an ILEC not to expect to do the same in reverse. Bell Canada requests that the Commission issue an order:directing Vidéotron to permit any customer who subscribes to its cable telephony service to also subscribe or continue subscribing to competitors’ DSL-based Internet services, where the customer desires the DSL-based Internet service and the customer is otherwise eligible to receive the DSL-based service, and to implement procedures to ensure that customers continue to have such choice; directing Vidéotron to also permit any customer who subscribes to its cable telephony service to subscribe or continue subscribing to the telephone service of any competitor, and to implement procedures to ensure that customers continue to have such choice; directing Vidéotron to discontinue its current practice of severing all connection between the customer’s inside wire and the company’s network when Vidéotron installs its cable telephony service at an end-customer location; and directing Vidéotron, in any event, not to disable any Internet, telephony or other telecommunications service connection between the end customer’s inside wire and any competitor’s network which functions at the time Vidéotron performs the installation of its cable telephony service.

Bell Canada fighting Vidéotron over broadband access policy for VoIP

News | March 29, 2006

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