Access Communications criticizes new local forbearance regime

Access Communications is complaining to Industry Canada that Minister Maxime Bernier’s new local forbearance regime will not bring the benefits of competition to Saskatchewan consumers. Below is an edited excerpt from the company’s complaint to the department. It is Access Communications’ respectful opinion that the proposed order, varying Telecom Decision CRTC 2006-15, is seriously flawed. The proposed order would require the commission to forbear from regulating the retail local exchange services provided by the ILECs even in markets where the ILEC has lost little or no market share and where there is no evidence of rivalrous behaviour. The proposed order would retard the development of competition in larger Canadian markets where it has only recently begun to appear and would prevent, altogether, any facilities-based competition from developing in retail local exchange markets in rural parts of Canada and in smaller Canadian communities, which would include all of Saskatchewan. Given the nature of the proposed order that was announced by the Governor-in-Council, we are now beginning to question our decision to enter that market, which will have no mechanisms in place to limit the ILECs’ ability to use their significant market power to undermine the development of a sustainable competitive market.Access Communications has been operating licensed and exempted cable television systems in Regina and in other smaller communities in Saskatchewan for more than three decades. Recently, Access Communications made the decision to expand the scope and the nature of the services we provide in the communities we serve to include retail local exchange services. In making that decision to enter the local exchange market in Regina, Access Communications relied on the fact that the commission had put in place a fair and reasonable framework for ILEC forbearance that would prevent the ILEC (SaskTel) from using its monopoly position in Regina to stamp out competition. We continue to believe that the market share threshold criteria established by the commission in Decision 2006-15 (along with the additional requirements relating to quality of service indicators) is the most appropriate framework to ensure that sustainable competition develops throughout Canada in the retail local exchange market. We have invested considerable resources into this new endeavour. That investment is now at risk. By eliminating a market share threshold test for forbearance and any requirement to demonstrate the existence of rivalrous behaviour in the local exchange market, the proposed order would allow an ILEC to use its dominant position in a given market to destroy the development of any competition. While Access Communications is committed to launching our local exchange service in Regina, because we have already made the investment to upgrade our facilities and to hire new staff, our launch plans for other smaller communities in Saskatchewan have now been put on hold. By failing to include in the proposed order any measures that would limit the ILECs’ ability to use their market power to dominate the retail local exchange market and impede the development of a competitive marketplace the Governor-in-Council has created an enormous disincentive for us - and other potential facilities-based CLECs- to enter the retail local exchange market. This will mean that smaller communities and rural residents will not get to enjoy the benefits of competition. Instead, those Canadians will only have one option – to continue to receive local exchange services from a monopoly ILEC.

Access Communications criticizes new local forbearance regime

News | February 2, 2007

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