CRTC moves ahead with implementation of capacity billing

The CRTC said Friday it will move ahead with a Feb. 1 implementation of its new capacity wholesale Internet billing model. On an interim basis, incumbent telephone and cable providers will proceed as scheduled with their proposed implementation plans, with the exception of BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada and Bell Aliant, the CRTC said. The Bell companies' implementation has been modified as the CRTC resolves issues raised by the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), a coalition of small ISPs, the commission said. Those issues relate in part to “realm splitting,” Bell's practice of segregating the residential and business traffic of an independent ISP into separate data flows, the commission said. “As an interim measure, independent ISPs who are customers of the Bell companies will have the flexibility to either merge their business and residential Internet traffic, or keep them separate,” a CRTC release said. In a decision last November, the CRTC issued a revised wholesale usage-based billing framework, establishing how incumbent Internet providers can charge small ISPs for access to their network infrastructure. The new capacity-based model provides incumbents with fixed rates they can charge small ISPs based on the incumbent’s network operation costs and the maximum theoretical speeds the resellers want to offer to their residential customers. Small providers took issue with the commission's rates, which vary between incumbents and were determined based on the costs of providing wholesale access. CNOC had requested that the commission conduct an expedited review of the new model's implementation, but the CRTC denied that request this month. “Given that the resolution of CNOC’s application could result in changes to how the approved capacity model is implemented, the Commission makes all the terms and conditions of the approved capacity model interim, effective 1 February 2012,” the CRTC said.

CRTC moves ahead with implementation of capacity billing

Briefs | 01/27/2012 9:42 pm EST

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