Frontier-Eastlink tariff tiff could affect other ISPs, CNOC warns

A dispute between two internet service providers (ISPs) over the interpretation of a wholesale internet tariff could have wider consequences for other small internet providers, according to the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC). Frontier Networks Inc. and Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink are sparring over the whether the wording of Eastlink’s TPIA General Tariff allows a purchaser of third party internet access (TPIA) to resell it to another party. Frontier filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC last week, after Eastlink stopped provisioning service to new customers of two smaller ISPs which were purchasing access from Frontier. Frontier’s reply was published Monday. Eastlink said that the terms of its TPIA tariff only apply to retail customers, not other wholesale providers. If the CRTC agrees with that interpretation, it could change the landscape for a large swath of Canada’s smaller ISPs and their customers, given that reselling wholesale service to other telecoms is common practice, CNOC spokesman and CEO of Distributel Communications Ltd. Matt Stein said in a phone call with The Wire Report. While Eastlink told the CRTC it wasn’t aiming to restrict competition, the effect of a decision in favour of Eastlink would result in “an immediate lessening of competition in the retail market,” said Stein. “Many thousands of Canadians get their internet service through TPIA providers that have resold it to other ISPs,” he noted. He said that if the CRTC agrees with Eastink, “one might assume that the same would apply” to Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., Cogeco Inc. and Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron. CNOC’s director of industry affairs, Chris Hickey, told The Wire Report that because most TPIA agreements are worded exactly the same way, any decision would inherently impact them as well. Frontier is asking the CRTC for expedited interim relief to let it continue hooking up new customers, and for a final ruling determining whether the TPIA tariff terms it agreed to allow for a purchaser of wholesale internet to resell that service to another provider. In its final reply, it said it is adhering to “longstanding regulatory precedents” in offering Eastlink’s TPIA service, and argued Eastlink did not provide adequate evidence to demonstrate bad conduct on Frontier’s part. Eastlink said in its filing that it only found out about the reselling after Frontier clients advertised the use of Eastlink’s network in advertising without its permission. “Eastlink’s concerns are the fact that we have no Agreement, and thus no protections in place for our network, employees and end-customers, with the two companies to whom Frontier is wholesaling our service,” Eastlink wrote. If Eastlink had planned on third-party TPIA reselling, it would have included rules to make sure that the participants would comply with CRTC regulations, it added. In Frontier’s reply, published Monday, it said would provide activity logs to allow Eastlink to monitor is use of internet protocol address allocation, after Eastlink argued that it would have no knowledge of who was using its network under this arrangement. Teksavvy Solutions Inc. also filed an intervention in the proceeding, pointing to its own reselling of TPIA access to smaller players. “In fact, in every TPIA provider’s territory where TekSavvy uses TPIA services for last mile connectivity — currently active or pending in every province from BC to Quebec — TekSavvy has wholesale customers who resell TekSavvy’s services,” it wrote. But in its submission, Eastlink said that a finding in favour of its interpretation of the tariff wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the practice more widely. “If the larger Canadian ISPs choose to enter into off-tariff arrangements due to their size, resources and ability to police all of the various entities in their market, they can choose to do so,” Eastlink wrote. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Frontier-Eastlink tariff tiff could affect other ISPs, CNOC warns

News | April 30, 2018

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Frontier-Eastlink tariff tiff could affect other ISPs, CNOC warns

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