CRTC dismisses Globalive roaming complaint against Rogers

The CRTC dismissed on Friday Globalive Wireless Management Corp.’s complaint that Rogers Communications Inc. is discriminating against it in the companies’ roaming arrangements. Globalive had claimed that Rogers gave itself an undue preference and disadvantaged Globalive’s Wind Mobile brand by not providing seamless call handoffs to Wind users transferring from its network onto Rogers'. Wind’s service distinguishes between Wind zones and away zones, so that subscribers can use Rogers’ network with roaming charges. But Wind said its customers' calls are dropped when they switch networks, while the calls of customers of Rogers’ Chatr brand, which offers similar pricing as Wind but is run entirely on Rogers’ network, are not. Globalive filed a complaint with the commission last October under section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act, which says that no carrier can provide telecom services that “unjustly discriminate or give an undue or unreasonable preference” toward itself, others, or “subject any person to an undue or unreasonable disadvantage.” In the complaint, filed under Part VII of the CRTC’s telecom procedural rules, Wind asked the commission to direct Rogers to offer the company the same seamless call handoffs that it provides to Rogers customers, including services provided under the Chatr and Fido brands. New entrant Mobilicity submitted arguments to the commission in support of Globalive. Telus Corp. and Bell Canada filed submissions supporting Rogers. The three incumbents argued that the CRTC didn’t have the jurisdiction to hear the complaint because Industry Canada governs spectrum licences whose conditions call for mandatory roaming but not seamless call transitions. But the CRTC determined it had the authority to rule on questions of preference and discrimination. Still, the commission did not find any issues of discrimination. The commission said Friday that, since the roaming agreement Wind and Rogers negotiated does not require seamless roaming, it “is not persuaded that Wind has demonstrated the existence of a preference in the circumstances of this case.” Rogers had argued that Chatr “is not a separate entity, does not have its own network, and does not own spectrum,” and that Chatr subscribers do not roam from a separate network onto that of Rogers, as Wind subscribers do, the CRTC decision said. It added that “it would be inappropriate to deal with the issue of mandating seamless roaming” and that “parties are free to negotiate any seamless roaming arrangement in good faith.” Globalive had also complained about Rogers’ advertising campaign for Chatr. Wind and Mobilicity filed a complaint to the Competition Bureau on the brand's advertising last October. Globalive noted to the CRTC that Chatr advertised “fewer dropped calls than new wireless carriers” owing partly to “seamless call transition when moving out of zone.” Globalive had said Chatr’s ads undermined consumer confidence in Wind’s network and that Chatr doesn’t provide any mailing address on its website connecting it to Rogers. But in an interview last October, Rogers’ senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, Ken Engelhart, told The Wire Report that Globalive knew when it entered the 2008 spectrum auction that Industry Canada would not regulate roaming handoffs. “Globalive went into the auction knowing they weren’t going to get seamless handoffs,” Engelhart said. In an interview Thursday, before the CRTC decision was released, Globalive chairman Anthony Lacavera said carriers in other countries handoff calls seamlessly, and accused the incumbents of exploiting a regulatory loophole. “There’s no technical reason whatsoever they should be dropping our calls,” he said. Rogers spokeswoman Patricia Trott said in an email her company is pleased with the ruling and disagrees with Lacavera’s comments about other countries. “The claim that we are providing undue preference is baseless—Rogers has one network that it uses for all its wireless services,” she wrote. “We support competition but what they were asking for—seamless handovers between different networks—is extremely complicated and expensive. This is why it is not industry standard practice anywhere in the world.” news@thewirereport.ca

CRTC dismisses Globalive roaming complaint against Rogers

News | June 3, 2011

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