Bell renews request for CRTC to intervene on Videotron permanent roaming claims

Bell Mobility Inc. is asking the CRTC to put in place new measures for Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron after it was ordered by the regulator last year to keep providing Videotron with wholesale roaming following allegations of permanent roaming by its users. Bell claims in a Part 1 application filed with the commission Friday that some of Videtron’s customers continue to permanently roam on its network and that the CRTC should -- “on an urgent basis” -- apply a “mandated, non-incidental roaming test” when Videotron uses Bell’s wholesale tariffed roaming service. Bell says there have been two key developments since it was ordered in February 2020 to continue providing Videotron with wholesale roaming, as the company “continues to benefit” from its own current roaming test. For one, Bell claims Videotron is violating its tariff by granting itself a “continuing unilateral suspension exemption that allows some of its end-user customers to engage in permanent roaming.” Bell claims there is also evidence from Videotron’s monthly reports to the commission and Bell -- submitted as a result of the 2020 decision -- that shows Videotron is failing to apply compliance measures. “The net result of these two developments is that Videotron is in continuing non-compliance with our tariff and a mandatory commission direction,” Bell said in its application. In its decision last year, the CRTC said it 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. The CRTC gave Videotron a bit of time following its decision to confirm 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.” Bell is now asking that the CRTC impose a new permanent roaming test on Videotron. It includes a mathematical formula for identifying permanent roaming based on a cumulative assessment period of six consecutive months, new suspension provisions, and enhanced monthly reporting obligations -- reinforced with an annual right for Bell to request an independent compliance audit. The proposed roaming test is in addition to a proposed administrative monetary penalty against Videotron “in recognition of Videotron's pattern of intentional and persistent non-compliance,” Bell said. To back up its claims, Bell said there are “at least three ways in which Videotron is violating the Commission's directive” to continue applying its current roaming test. First, Bell said Videotron does not always apply its system of issuing two-month warning notices followed by a three-month suspension notice to permanent roamers. Secondly, it said Videotron has not consistently been applying a limit of one suspension before permanently revoking roaming privileges. Thirdly, the company said suspensions of Bell roaming privileges are not consistently applied following three-month suspension notifications. “The net result is that Videotron retains permanent roamers as customers who would otherwise have migrated their mobile services to Bell (or other carriers) capable of providing these end-users with the form of network connectivity that Videotron's home network cannot,” Bell claims. Bell wants the CRTC to order Videotron to suspend the roaming privileges of a permanent roamer on Bell’s network within three days of that end-user becoming a so-called permanent roamer, and for no less than one year, except in certain circumstances. According to Bell’s application, Videotron’s current roaming test counts an end-user as a non-incidental roamer, or permanent roamer, when their usage ratio exceeds 50 per cent each month over the course of a three-month assessment period. “Clearly, a Videotron permanent roamer who permanently roams for three successive billing months, but whose Bell roaming privileges are suspended thereafter for just a single billing month, is not availing themselves of the Bell roaming service in an “incidental” manner.” Bell claims not only is Videotron not applying the one-suspension limit, its own data shows in some instances end-users are getting several suspension notices over the course of nine months. “Worse still, Videotron is demonstrably failing to suspend those of its roamers who are captured by Videotron's own definition of a permanent roamer,” Bell said. “The fact that Videotron apparently reinstates suspended roaming privileges after as little as one month makes a mockery of the commission's use of the term "incidental" to describe the essence of the wholesale roaming service.” Bell has also taken the issue to the courts, claiming Videotron has not been preventing permanent roaming, as it is supposed to, and that Videotron customers may not know in most instances that the service is provided by Bell. Bell first filed a Part 1 application in June 2019, alleging that many of Videotron’s customers were permanently roaming on its network. The CRTC issued an interim decision that September ordering Bell to keep providing wholesale service until a final decision was issued, which came in February 2020. In that decision, the CRTC also told the two companies to communicate better in the future, saying 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.” According to Bell’s latest Part 1, because the two companies have failed to reach an agreement after 15 months of negotiations, resolving the issue in this way “is the most appropriate procedure.” - Reporting by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Bell renews request for CRTC to intervene on Videotron permanent roaming claims

News | 05/28/2021 5:57 pm EDT

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