CRTC tells Bell and Quebecor to play nicer in Part 1 roaming decision

BCE Inc. must keep providing Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron with wholesale roaming on an ongoing basis, the CRTC said Wednesday in a decision that also took the two perennial rivals to task for not first working together to solve the issue. Had the two companies looked into what was an acceptable level of incidental roaming and Videotron’s safeguards against permanent roaming, “Bell and Videotron would have allowed the Commission and themselves to save precious time and significant resources, given the quantity of information exchanged in this proceeding.” The decision was the final one in a case that began when Bell filed a Part 1 application in June, alleging that many of Videotron’s customers were permanently roaming on Bell’s network. The CRTC issued an interim decision in September ordering Bell to keep providing wholesale service until a final decision was issued. In that final decision, the CRTC found that Videotron did violate the permanent roaming tariff in two cases: involving customers of its flanker brand Fizz and customers affected by a technical issue preventing them from receiving a notification regarding their usage. “However, Videotron demonstrated an effective application of certain reasonable measures to ensure that end-users were not permanently roaming. No proof was submitted that Videotron was reselling wireless services through roaming on the Bell Mobility network,” the decision said. It added that “it would be inappropriate to order Videotron to issue a notice of suspension for violations that took place over a year ago.” The CRTC said Videotron must confirm by Feb. 17 that “the technical issue has been resolved and that the usage of all end-users, whether they are Videotron or Fizz subscribers, is appropriately tracked.” It said that “Videotron has generally implemented reasonable measures to ensure that the roaming service is not used inappropriately. Nevertheless, Videotron’s tracking of end-users’ usage should be improved.” In the decision, the CRTC told the two companies -- who have been fighting over various services for the past year, since a dispute over wholesale rates led to Quebecor’s pulling of TVA Sports from Bell customers -- to communicate better in the future. The CRTC said it “expects Bell and Videotron to exchange information on a regular basis and to discuss issues affecting the provision of services set out in the tariffs before issuing notices of suspension or submitting applications to the Commission.” In a December decision on two other applications involving TVA Sports, the regulator also told the companies they should have tried to deal with the issues as part of ongoing negotiations.

CRTC tells Bell and Quebecor to play nicer in Part 1 roaming decision

Brief | February 5, 2020

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CRTC tells Bell and Quebecor to play nicer in Part 1 roaming decision

Brief | February 5, 2020

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