Competition Bureau attempting to ‘hijack’ CRTC process, telecoms say

A request from the Competition Bureau asking the CRTC to require telecoms to disclose detailed, confidential information about their wireless operations is unreasonable, BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. are arguing. Rogers said the request amounts to “an unprecedented and massive data request,” while Bell warned it would challenge the process in court. “The Bureau RFI is unnecessarily broad and akin on its face to a fishing expedition,” Rogers outlined in a letter sent last week. The companies were responding to a March 8 letter from the Competition Bureau to the CRTC regarding the CRTC’s review of its mobile wireless framework, which will look at competition and affordability of Canada’s wireless market, and determine whether mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are granted mandated access to the carriers’ networks. The bureau said it wants to put together economic analyses to help the CRTC with the review, but needs specific information to do so. The analyses would look at questions like how competition differs across Canada, the effect of “market events” like new competitors, and model potential future outcomes. It asked the CRTC to obtain information from carriers and then disclose it to the competition commissioner. “The Commissioner employs a team of highly trained economists with experience in assessing competition issues, including competition issues in wireless services,” the letter outlined. “In addition, the Commissioner has retained an external team of expert economists with significant experience assessing competition in telecommunications markets, including wireless services, to prepare an expert report for the CRTC.” The letter asked that the request for information be sent to all wireless companies currently operating in Canada and “any other entities that have publicly expressed interest in or taken substantive steps toward establishing wireless service.” It asked for a detailed list of information, including revenues, average revenue per user, “new subscriber incentives and customer acquisition costs; average usage of data, minutes, and text; number of subscribers; gross subscriber additions; and net subscriber additions.” While some of that information is currently available from the four publicly-traded wireless providers, the bureau asked for it to be broken down into more specific categories the companies don’t outline in their financial reporting, such as by various brands, pre- and post-paid, by various plans and by province and territory. The bureau also asked for information that companies don’t disclose and some of which would be considered commercially sensitive. It wants details on customers who switch services to and from the company, wholesale roaming agreements, and data on roaming and wholesale fees paid and roaming and wholesale revenue earned. It also requested information about the market share of various companies, and network capacity, usage and quality of service on the network, such as average speeds and latency. It also asked for the companies’ costs to provide retail service, broken down to “the most granular level available,” as well as costs to provide wholesale roaming services, and customer lifetime profitability, among other data. In its March 25 reply to the bureau letter, Rogers said the agency “should not be permitted to hijack this process.” It argued that while the Competition Bureau is right that the Telecom Act allows the CRTC to disclose confidential information to the bureau, it doesn’t have “the right to trump the procedural fairness rights of other parties or co-opt the Commission’s processes.” Rogers argued the bureau doesn’t have the right to “a special process or to file evidence that other interveners have no ability to address prior to the hearing.” In a separate reply, Bell said that the bureau’s request would impose an “unreasonable burden” on carriers, given how detailed the requests are and that many cover a decade-long time period. Bell said if the request for information was accepted, it would “dominate much of the proceeding to the exclusion of other key issues,” given that carriers “will need to devote the majority of their limited resources and efforts to satisfying the Bureau's information request.” It noted that it doesn’t have all of the data requested and speculated that others would not have that information either. The telco also said the consulting company the bureau has asked to do the analysis has a conflict of interest, given that it was previously retained by Bell during its acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., has confidential information about Bell that the bureau does not, and is contractually prevented “from acting potentially adversely to Bell in relation to that work.” Bell cautioned that “it would be difficult for us to agree to respond to the RFIs without further legal challenge due to the need to take a principled stand in favour of the protection of our privileged information and the enforcement of our confidentiality right.” It also said the bureau hasn’t sufficiently outlined how the U.S.-based consulting group, the Brattle Group, will keep information confidential. In its own response sent on March 29, the CRTC asked for others to weigh in on the issue. It wants to hear from carriers or other interested parties by April 2, and the competition commissioner will have until April 5 to file a reply. It said in a separate March 25 letter to competition commissioner Matthew Boswell that the information he's looking for "consists of highly detailed information to be provided on a very granular level and covering a broad range of subjects over a significant period of time." The CRTC noted that it previously reviewed its mobile wireless framework in 2015, and suggested "it may be appropriate that the Commissioner explore ways to further tailor the information sought," such as by focusing on more recent information. "Commission staff therefore respectfully requests that the Commissioner review the procedural request with a view to refining the information sought in order to ensure that the information is unconditionally necessary for the Commissioner to effectively address the competition issues relevant to this proceeding," or otherwise elaborate on why the information the bureau is seeking is reasonably necessary. The response to that letter was due Monday. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Competition Bureau attempting to ‘hijack’ CRTC process, telecoms say

News | 04/02/2019 5:40 pm EDT

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