Rogers seeks review and vary of paper bills costs decision

Rogers Communications Inc. is asking the CRTC to review and vary a costs award flowing from a decision on paper bills to consumers. The original decision came in February with the awards being announced a week later. “Rogers is not disputing the final amounts awarded to the recipients of the costs awards,” Rogers wrote in a May 12 filing. “However, we make this application to review and vary the respondents’ individual payments because there is substantial reason to doubt the correctness of the manner in which the awarded costs were allocated among the cost respondents.” Rogers argued that the company is paying too large a portion of the costs. The commission used telecommunications operating revenues (TOR) to determine the amount each company should pay. Some payments were attributed to Rogers, Telus Corp. and BCE Inc.; others to Rogers and Telus only; and some to Rogers alone. Rogers cited the example of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, which received the following cost awards: from Rogers, $5,619.23 or 36.3 per cent; from Telus, $5,585.76 or 36.1 per cent; and from Bell Canada $4,258.98 or 27.5 per cent. Rogers stated that the formula assumes that Bell is the smallest based on TORs but that assumption is in error. BCE submitted its interventions on behalf of Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, Bell Mobility, and Bell MTS, as well as subsidiaries Cablevision du Nord de Quebec, DMTS, KMTS, Groupe Maskatel, NorthernTel, Ontera and Télébec Société en commandite. “It appears to Rogers that the commission has not included all of Bell Canada’s TORs to calculate allocations and potentially based its allocation on Bell’s wireless revenues alone (Bell Mobility), while instead using all TORs for ,” the letter asserted. The review and vary application compared the current awards decision with a 2020 order that saw Bell pay 43.9 per cent, Telus 28.5 per cent and Rogers 27.6 per cent based on TORs. An order from last year based on wireless revenues rather than TORs had Rogers paying 36.7 per cent, Bell paying 32.6 per cent and Telus 30.7 per cent. Rogers told the regulator that the company will pay the cost awards as currently mandated but is seeking that Bell reimburse the Toronto telecom if the commission accepts the review and vary complaint.

Rogers seeks review and vary of paper bills costs decision

Brief | May 16, 2022

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Rogers seeks review and vary of paper bills costs decision

Brief | May 16, 2022

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