Rogers calls for regs to bring mobile providers into shared-cost interconnection regime

GATINEAU—Wireline telcos should face regulations ensuring that wireless providers can interconnect to their networks on a shared-cost basis, executives from Rogers Communications Inc. told CRTC commissioners at a hearing Tuesday. But the company added that Canada's mobile sector is competitive enough that wireless carriers should remain free of regulations requiring “equal access” to competing long distance services. Speaking during the commission’s second day of hearings into the interconnection regime for tele-service providers, David Watt, Rogers’ vice-president of regulatory affairs for telecommunications, said the company no longer believes “equal access” provisions are needed—representing a change from the company’s earlier position. “Equal access was a concept that made sense in the early '90s when long distance competition was first introduced,” Watt said. “Today, 14 years later, there are no longer any dominant long distance service providers ... It would be poor public policy and contrary to the policy direction to impose equal access costs on the wireless industry given the competitive marketplace of today.” Under the current regulatory regime, wireline telcos are required to offer shared-cost interconnection to other wireline telcos—permitting the providers' customers to call people operating on either network. They are also required to offer “equal access” to long-distance service providers and to operate their interconnections on a bill-and-keep basis in which each party waives the charges of disconnecting calls originating from the others' network. But these same privileges and requirements are not extended to wireless operators. Instead, wireless providers typically resort to one of three options to ensure interconnection, Watt said. They can become a full-fledged local exchange carrier, use an affiliated exchange carrier, or negotiate interconnection with an incumbent telco that tacks on an additional tariff. The commission has asked hearing participants to consider whether wireless carriers should be treated as equal carriers with the telcos for the purposes of interconnection, and if so, under what conditions. It also asked what measures should be taken to ensure both vertically integrated and independent wireless carriers shared the same benefits and obligations. At the hearing Tuesday, Watt said Rogers is sensitive to the arguments made by new entrants in the wireless field that it is too costly and complex to optimize their networks to serve as exchange carriers or to integrate with an existing exchange carrier. For this reason, he suggested, the commission should make it easier for wireless carriers to have interconnection access to other telcos. He also drew from Rogers’ experience operating Fido Solutions—the only Canadian wireless provider to have taken on interconnection capabilities—to note the technical difficulties that would result for wireless carriers if they were required to offer equal access provisions. He said Fido is required to separately examine the long distance calls made by subscribers who elect to use other long distance providers and to manually suppress those charges in some cases. He noted that only about one per cent of long distance minutes used by Fido customers go through another long distance provider. “The call record keeps track of those minutes because, on the local side, we have to keep track of those minutes. Then, on the long-distance side, we have to suppress and not charge ,” he said. “It is a very significant IT operation to do that.” MTS Allstream Inc. also called Tuesday for a “transitional POI regime that allows all carriers, including wireless, to interconnect via a POI using shared-cost facilities.” Teresa Griffin-Muir, MTS Allstream’s vice-president of regulatory affairs, said that under such a system telcos would have to find suitable points to interconnect over time but that there should eventually be only two interconnection points per province. “Experience has shown us that this is the most efficient arrangement,” Griffin-Muir said, adding that her company reached several interconnection arrangements with competing carriers based on shared-cost interconnection facilities. Griffin-Muir did not to take a firm stance on whether the commission should impose equal access requirements on wireless providers, but suggested those provisions are not as important to ensuring competition as they were in the 1990s. “I don’t know how many stand-alone long distance providers there are in the market anymore,” she said. Watt also pointed to a deluge of alternative long-distance options available to Canadian consumers, such as calling cards and services like Skype. Griffin-Muir suggested that the commission must do what it views as best for competition and for Canadian consumers. “The more competitive the wireless industry becomes, we believe that the rates for those services will start to come in line with one another,” she said in response to commissioners who suggested wireless providers are offering expensive long-distance rates. “It’s a question of whether forcing the wireless service providers to have equal access, and the cost of that ... will actually deliver the results of lower toll prices better than leaving the wireless market to become more competitive.” CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein questioned whether MTS Allstream’s proposed point-of-interconnection regime would be as widely beneficial for the wireline telcos as Griffin-Muir suggested. He noted the proposal would allow wireless providers to escape the costs they now incur for interconnection as well as the burdens and responsibilities imposed on exchange carriers. “Clearly the wireless guys will be the winners,” von Finckenstein said. “If you’re a winner in this business, presumably there’s a loser too.” Representatives from Atlantic Canada telco Eastlink and the Canadian Independent Telephone Company Joint Task Force also appeared at the hearing Tuesday. Representing 30 smaller incumbent telcos located in rural and remote areas of Ontario and Quebec, the joint task force called on the commission to correct a “leak” in the regulations that allows other telcos to disconnect calls in their service areas without paying the appropriate fees. The task force also asked the commission to ensure that wireless providers interconnect with small, local wireline carriers when offering services to customers rather than bypassing them by piggybacking on larger telcos' local area calling switch. “WSPs should no longer enjoy the free ride they have experienced in the past,” Robert Olenick, one of the group’s representatives from TBayTel, told the commission. Hearings continue Wednesday with time allotted for Cogeco Cable Inc., Quebecor Media Inc. (on behalf of subsidiary Videotron), SSi Micro Ltd., and a joint-presentation by Globalive Communications Corp. subsidiaries Yak Communications Canada Inc. and Wind Mobile. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Rogers calls for regs to bring mobile providers into shared-cost interconnection regime

News | October 25, 2011

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