CRTC not expanding local calling areas where there is competition

The CRTC announced Wednesday that it will not expand local calling areas in communities where the incumbent phone company faces competitors. A local calling area is a geographic area covered by an incumbent local exchange carrier, or local phone company, where customers can make phone calls without getting long-distance charges. In response to an application by Telus Corp., the CRTC decided to review the regulatory framework surrounding local calling areas. Telus, along with Bell Canada, had argued that local calling areas do not need to be expanded due to market alternatives that allow customers to “meet their calling needs.” The companies said markets with local phone competition can rely on the free market, instead of regulation, to meet customers’ needs. “Internet, wireless, and voice over Internet protocol services have reduced or eliminated distance barriers and have redefined the way customers communicate among themselves and within their communities,” the CRTC said in its decision Wednesday. The commission made an exception for markets where only one incumbent phone company operates. “In markets that contain only regulated exchanges, however, the Commission considers that subscribers would likely not have access to all the services and market alternatives noted above, particularly those provided by other local exchange carriers,” the CRTC said. “Therefore, the Commission considers that market forces alone cannot be relied upon to meet the social and economic needs of customers in these areas.” Commissioner Louise Poirier opposed the decision, however, attaching a dissenting opinion. Poirier said communities with one or more competitors going head-to-head with the incumbent phone company will have to rely on market forces and the decisions of the carriers to expand their local calling areas. She argued that these communities need the regulator to step in to expand local calling areas. “Two basic principles are central to my dissent—that of procedural fairness and the fact that, in some cases, a community still needs a regulatory framework to obtain an expanded local calling area (LCA) for the purposes of that community's economic and social development,” Poirier wrote. “Without the negotiating power that the regulatory framework gives municipalities, their chances of success seem, in practice, very slim.”

CRTC not expanding local calling areas where there is competition

Briefs | 03/31/2010 9:46 pm EDT

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