Telus says it has ‘serious concerns’ about CRTC proceeding extension

Telus Corp. has told the CRTC it has “serious concerns” about the commission’s 30-day extension of a proceeding to look at “regulatory symmetry” for customers jumping between cable and telecom companies for services. Regulations that apply to phone services state that when customers change telephone providers, the companies must communicate with one another to assist with the transfer of service. But it’s not clear whether those phone regulations apply to customers who switch television providers, which is emerging as a prickly issue as Telus and Shaw Communications Inc. step up their competition for TV customers in the West. Telus says it is concerned that customers who want to change their television provider can’t simply call up Telus. They also have to call Shaw to cancel, which gives Shaw the opportunity to offer deals to retain customers. In a letter to the commission, Telus alleges that Shaw is abusing the customer transfer process for subscribers who have moved to Telus’ Optik TV service. “TELUS has been deeply frustrated by the inability of the CRTC and CRTC staff to resolve this abuse of process by Shaw. It has now been 8 weeks since TELUS filed its first letter requesting for immediate relief (after oral handling by Commission staff),” Michael Hennessy, senior vice-president of government and regulatory affairs, wrote in a July 23 letter to the commission. “By this letter we are asking for immediate interim relief from the CRTC so our ability to provide a competitive alternative to Shaw is no longer frustrated by ongoing delays to enforce minimum standard requirements regarding use of confidential customer information.” Telus is complaining that the CRTC recently delayed by 30 days the deadline to file comments for a proceeding on the issue, and is calling for interim rules to force distributors to process customer cancellation orders. But Jean Brazeau, Shaw’s senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, told The Globe and Mail this week that Telus’ complaint is “totally bogus.” Telus, he said, tends to install new customers’ service by the time that Shaw gets a list of cancellations to process. He said Telus wants to ensure that Shaw does not to try to call lost customers to win them back. The commission proceeding is looking at competitive business practices, including the transfer of customers from one provider to another, wireless customer cancellation, and other issues. The commission added wireless services to the proceeding this month, and extended the deadline for interested parties to submit comments until Aug. 23. Replies to comments are due by Sept. 9, 2010.

Telus says it has ‘serious concerns’ about CRTC proceeding extension

Brief | July 29, 2010

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