SaskTel appeals part of price caps decision

Saskatchewan's provincial incumbent telephone company is unhappy that the CRTC raised rates in high-cost serving areas (HCSAs) for the purpose of calculating the local telephone service subsidy required for these regions. The commission altered the HCSA subsidy calculation (also known as contribution) in the price cap ruling, and SaskTel writes in a Part VII that the CRTC shouldn't have done that because the commission hadn't identified the matter in the proceeding that led to the price cap ruling. Therefore, the company notes, it was inappropriate for the commission to make those changes. The company says that affected and other interested parties should have had an opportunity to address the subsidy issue. "It is the most basic rule of procedural fairness that parties likely to be affected by actions the decision maker is contemplating be given fair notice," reads SaskTel's application. The provincial telephone company acknowledges that the CRTC had explored possible rate increases for HCSAs in the price cap proceeding, but notes this was a cursory review at best. SaskTel states in its Part VII that parties were given less than five working days to address an interrogatory on the matter prior to the public hearing. "SaskTel finds it remarkable that the commission could arrive so definitely at its determination to implement imputed rate increases, at the appropriate annual permitted increase, and to a target level that would ensure rates remain affordable in light of it being presented with only the limited information it acquired by means of responses to one interrogatory," the company writes in its application. "Significant changes to the contribution regime require consultation with the industry and other interested parties before being set in stone. The commission has failed to provide an adequate opportunity for that necessary consultation," states SaskTel. The company wants the commission to immediately rescind the section of Decision 2007-27 that implements changes to the contribution regime and also requests the CRTC to initiate a proceeding to fully study the matter of rate increases to local residential service in HCSAs.

SaskTel appeals part of price caps decision

News | July 18, 2007

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