Bell asks CRTC to reconsider aspects of disaggregated regime

BCE Inc. is asking the CRTC to hold off on requiring the company to build new infrastructure as part of the regulator’s new disaggregated wholesale wireline regime, something small Internet Service Providers (ISPs) say they are concerned could further delay the implementation of a system the CRTC decided to establish in 2015. Bell filed a review-and-vary application with the regulator on Dec. 2, asking it to eliminate the requirement for incumbent telcos to “implement an outside meet-me point of interconnection in addition to co-location” inside the central office, which was imposed as part of the CRTC’s implementation plan for its disaggregated wholesale regime, released in September. That means telcos would have to build a point to which small ISPs could connect outside their central office, instead of co-location, or physically connecting inside the central office building. Bell said the “creation of outside meet-me points may be technically feasible, but they incur additional risks that are simply not present” with co-location inside the central office, such as damage from bad weather, wildlife or cars, while establishing meet-me points in manholes would also carry risks. The company also argued that “under the current co-location model, the ISP controls both ends of the fibre and is therefore able to identify the cause and location of a problem, and act to resolve the issue without involving us. However, under a meet-me point model, the ISP would control one end of the fibre and we would control the other end, resulting in us having to be actively involved in all instances of a problem.” It added: “offering a meet-me point co-location option would drive up our costs to provide co-location both in the short term (for design etc.) and in the long term (impacting our ongoing service assurance costs).” That would unfairly affect telcos in comparison to cablecos, who already use meet-me points because they can’t allow access to their network’s equivalent of a central office, Bell said. “It is inequitable to require ILECs to have an additional option for the same disaggregated services, when the cablecos are simply required to offer their current method of interconnection,” it argued. The company said it was asking for a stay because “it would cause irreparable harm for us to incur potentially unnecessary expenses to develop a new solution for interconnection that, ultimately, would not be mandated if the is granted.” Christopher Hickey, director of industry affairs at the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), said in a phone interview that small ISPs have to pay more if they have to connect inside the building. “Obviously, it is a greater barrier to using disaggregated services if an ISP has to then pay all of those additional costs and to establish a physical presence in the central office relative to the lesser costs of using a meet-me configuration point outside.” Hickey said CNOC would reply formally to the Bell application by the January deadline, though it has in the meantime filed a procedural letter asking the CRTC to “dispose of the application in an expeditious and efficient manner.” Hickey added in the interview CNOC is “certainly concerned with continual delays as we move forward to try to implement and finalize the configuration of this new disaggregated ,” he said. “We have been pushing for disaggregated to get implemented as efficiently and quickly as possible. The original direction was as part of the 2015… wholesale service proceeding, and now we’re almost into 2017 and we’re still at the configuration and costing step of this process.” The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) also waded into the process Wednesday, writing a letter to the CRTC in support of CNOC. PIAC said that a stay is a not appropriate and that it does not believe “Bell has demonstrated that its situation warrants an extraordinary remedy.” It added that Bell has sought “in various ways to continuously challenge the Commission’s wholesale framework” and that this “latest application is consistent with that approach.” The CRTC denied a previous review-and-vary application from Bell in June. Bell also appealed the decision through a petition to the federal cabinet, which was denied in May. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Bell asks CRTC to reconsider aspects of disaggregated regime

News | 12/08/2016 9:28 pm EST

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