CRTC doesn’t have authority to regulate roaming rates: Bell, Telus

The CRTC lacks the legal foundation or jurisdiction to regulate wireless carriers’ roaming agreements and retail prices, and any effort to do so would undermine Industry Canada’s current roaming rules, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. said. In regulatory documents filed with the commission on Friday, BCE said market forces and existing regulations are sufficient to keep roaming prices in check, and that new CRTC regulations would create “operational conflict” and confusion in the industry. "e believe the Information Requests themselves and any related process the Commission may be considering are without legal foundation,” BCE said in its filing. Bell and Telus filed comments as part of a CRTC request for roaming data after the regulator said it heard concerns over the past year from consumers and new entrant carriers about high roaming fees. The CRTC has said it has not yet decided whether it will take any action on the file. It had requested information about the Canadian carriers’ roaming agreements with each other, their agreements with U.S. carriers, and the retail rates they charge subscribers to roam in Canada and the U.S. It did not ask carriers for their comment about possible new roaming requirements or regulations. BCE said that under the Telecommunications Act, a 1994 CRTC decision to deregulate the wireless industry restricts the commission’s ability to regulate aspects of the wireless industry. CRTC roaming regulations, it added, would also conflict with Industry Canada rules that Canadian wireless providers offer each other roaming services at negotiated rates, with the option of using a binding arbitration process if they can’t reach an agreement. “Any attempt by the Commission to regulate wholesale domestic roaming runs a significant risk of direct operational conflict with the Industry Canada regime imposed upon and reflected in their contractual rights and obligations entered into pursuant to the rules imposed by Industry Canada,” BCE said. “Even the threat of Commission regulation would undermine the negotiation regime established by Industry Canada,” the company added. In a separate response to the commission, also filed Friday, Telus said the Industry Canada roaming rules are “well-understood by Canadian carriers,” and asked that the commission recognize that any additional roaming regulations would “conflict” with the Industry Canada regime. Telus also argued that the CRTC has “no jurisdiction” to regulate Canadian carriers’ agreements with U.S. providers, and said it believes the commission lacks “any means” to regulate those agreements. “TELUS’ roaming arrangements with United States based carriers are the product of commercial negotiation between TELUS and each respective carrier,” the company said. “Because these agreements involve service coverage in the United States, the CRTC has no jurisdiction to regulate how these agreements are negotiated or any of the terms and conditions therein.” Telus said it would be “problematic” if the commission tried to regulate how much Canadian providers charge their subscribers to roam on U.S. carriers’ networks, since those rates are affected by the wholesale agreements Canadian carriers sign with the American providers. BCE, which filed with the commission confidential information about how much U.S. providers charge the company to let its subscribers piggyback on their networks, said it would be “inappropriate” to consider the retail rates it charges for roaming services “in isolation.” It said wireless providers “make very large fixed investments” in their businesses, and recover those costs through “the total payments” made by their consumers. Providers also compete for those customers, the company added, and offer different prices for different wireless services. “As a result, our price for each individual element will sometimes differ from our competitors’ and there may be differences in the apparent profitability of the various elements of our service,” the company said in reference to the mark-up it applies to roaming, among other wireless services. “Such differences do not suggest unreasonable prices or ineffective competition in any area but rather are the product of a dynamic and complex competitive market.” The Wire Report reported last month that regulators and industry players around the world are using different strategies to reduce retail roaming rates, including a recent proposal to effectively ban roaming charges across the European Union. Both BCE and Telus said in their comments to the commission that their retail roaming rates have fallen in recent years. BCE said Bell Mobility customers who roamed in the U.S. in 2007 would have paid $280 for 100 MB of wireless data usage and $40 for 100 minutes of calling, compared to $20 for either 100 MB of data or 100 minutes of calling at current prices. Telus said its subscribers would have paid $1.45 per calling minute and $1.45 for each megabyte of data used while roaming in the U.S. in 2007, compared to 25 cents per calling minute and $1 per megabyte at the end of 2012. Telus customers, the company added, can also subscribe to a “travel pass” that reduces U.S. roaming rates to as little as seven cents per calling minute or megabyte of data used, depending on their plan, and are not charged for roaming anywhere in Canada. BCE and Rogers Communications Inc. both announced new roaming rates this year. Rogers launched in May a new U.S. roaming package that offers 50 MB of data usage per day at a daily cost of $8. BCE said last month that it was cutting the cost of its monthly U.S. roaming package in half, from $50 to $25, for 50 MB of monthly data usage, 50 minutes of calls to the U.S. or Canada, unlimited incoming text messages and 200 outgoing texts. Telus spokeswoman Donna Ramirez said in a brief telephone interview Wednesday that Telus also released last month new U.S. travel pass rates that cut its subscribers’ roaming costs by up to 50 per cent, for some services. Other wireless providers that submitted responses and confidential information to the CRTC included MTS Allstream Inc., Quebecor Media Inc., SaskTel, Eastlink (owned by Bragg Communications Inc.) and Globalive Wireless Management Corp. (which operates new entrant carrier Wind Mobile). The CRTC declined to comment for this story. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

CRTC doesn’t have authority to regulate roaming rates: Bell, Telus

News | October 2, 2013

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