Regulation & Policy: Feds’ light touch graces business links

The CRTC released details of its new light-touch approach to telecom regulation earlier this summer and there will be some near-term impact on business communications services. Telecom Public Notice 2007-12 launched a proceeding to review the general tariff bundling rules as well as those regarding market trials. Bell Canada, which has been pushing hard for changes to bundling rules, is pleased the commission decided initiate the review. And the company is satisfied that the market trial regulations will also get reevaluated. The market trial rules have also been a bone of contention for incumbent telephone companies because according to current CRTC rules, ILECs have to file information on the public record that competitors are allowed to examine unless there is a confidentiality claim attached. "We don't know if we're going to be offering on a permanent basis, we just want to test things," said Mirko Bibic, Bell's chief of regulatory affairs. "We want to test pricing points, marketing strategies, and to make us do all the work in advance to get approval is inefficient and there's also the significant issue of...we've got to file this stuff and give competitors potentially a heads up." Other matters to be studied and a timeline of when those reassessments are to take place are detailed in the CRTC's Policy Direction action plan.RFP issued for telemarketing list operatorThe industry is one step closer to getting a functioning national do-not-call (DNC) registry. The CRTC issued a request for proposals (RFP) to solicit bids for an operator of the telemarketing list. CRTC chair Konrad von Finckentstein said at the Canadian Telecom Summit in June that the commission was close to issuing an RFP to find an operator. This has been a long time coming as it's been two years since the federal government passed legislation that created a national DNC and approximately 15 months since the commission held public hearings to create a DNC framework. The telemarketing regulations were released on July 3. While many recognize the importance of having a national DNC list, not everyone agrees with the rules the way they have been set out. Critics argue the number of exemptions make the DNCL virtually useless, while supporters say the exemptions were absolutely necessary to make an effective list that balances both consumers' rights and commercial transactions. Telemanagement will continue to monitor the search for a DNCL operator.Competition review panel revealedThe government appears to take its review of competition policies seriously based on the quality of people manning the Competition Policy Review Panel. Headed up by Red Wilson, former CEO of BCE Inc. and current chair of aviation training firm CAE Inc., the panel will have as a core mandate to review the Competition Act and the Investment Canada Act. But the scope of the review is broad enough that the panel will have the opportunity to study a wide range of competition policies, including labour mobility, taxation and foreign investment. There are still some unanswered questions as to how the panel will conduct its consultations. Some suspect it will have to issue a series of questions, similar to what the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel did in 2005, as way to guide and focus the discussion on the most critical issues.Forbearance granted, complaints commissioner gets to workTwo days after the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) began accepting complaints from consumers, the CRTC granted forbearance to Bell Aliant in several markets in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The commission also granted Telus Corp. forbearance in Fort McMurray AB. The commission has since forborne from regulating local telephony in a number of additional markets for Telus. The CRTC also granted forbearance for several Bell markets as well as Saskatoon for SaskTel and Winnipeg for MTS Allstream.Some industry observers believed that the commission would first approve the body before granting forbearance, and some suggested that chair Konrad von Finckentstein pulled the trigger too soon after allowing the CCTS to begin operating on an interim basis. Joe Parent, VP of business development with Vonage Canada, was surprised the commission went ahead with forbearance so soon after the application to create the CCTS was filed. "My expectation was that we would file with the CRTC and the CRTC would go through an approvals process before approving some of the forbearance applications," he told Telemanagement.

Regulation & Policy: Feds’ light touch graces business links

News | August 8, 2007

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