CRTC erred in finding of unjust discrimination against Iristel in 867 fight: Telus

In a years-long dispute over traffic stimulation to the 867 area code, Telus Corp. is asking the CRTC to review its assessment that measures taken by the company to "protect itself" against an "unlawful arbitrage scheme" by Iristel Inc. amounted to "unjust discrimination" against Iristel, and the customers of both companies. The measures -- which Telus says were taken to stop itself from making "sizable overpayments" to Iristel while the regulator assessed a Part 1 complaint on the topic -- were instead "careful, reasonable" efforts designed to have minimal impact on any third parties, Telus argued in a Nov. 6 review-and-vary request posted to the CRTC website Thursday. The commission, Telus continued in the filing, "made a number of factual and legal errors in its assessment of TELUS’ actions. Those errors are fatal to the conclusion that TELUS unjustly discriminated." The dispute over traffic simulation goes all the way back to 2016, when Rogers accused Iristel of engaging in traffic stimulation, prompting the regulator to order Iristel in December 2017 to cease the use of 867 area code numbers to connect callers to a Toronto-area radio station audio stream. In August 2018, Telus and Iristel filed dueling Part 1 applications, with Telus complaining that Iristel's traffic stimulation had resumed, and Iristel countering that Telus was causing calls from Telus users to Iristel users to fail. In August of this year, the regulator ruled that Iristel had granted itself an undue advantage by allowing the use of 867 numbers by “certain customers based in distant locations,” increasing connection costs for others and generating revenue for itself. The regulator also set a new long distance termination rate 74 per cent below its interim rate. The regulator also ruled in the August decision that Telus unjustly discriminated against Iristel "by deliberately reducing the ability to complete calls to telephone numbers in the 867 .” The regulator is currently assessing in a separate proceeding what fines it should levy on the companies. In its review-and-vary application this month, Telus argued that it did not "discriminate" against any one set of customers. "Each customer was treated like the others," Telus wrote. "There were no comparable entities or groups which were being treated differently. The reduction of toll circuit capacity did not directly target, or impact, any particular end-customer or group of customers. All customers placing calls to NPA 867 were affected in the same way, with the same chance of successful call completion at any given time," Telus wrote. In the filing, Telus argues that it was engaging in a "self-help" practice in reducing traffic to what it called "unstimulated levels," a practice which it argued should "be examined in an upcoming review of wholesale wireline services and interconnection proceedings," rather that in the August decision.

CRTC erred in finding of unjust discrimination against Iristel in 867 fight: Telus

Brief | November 13, 2020

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CRTC erred in finding of unjust discrimination against Iristel in 867 fight: Telus

Brief | November 13, 2020

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