Telus backs Bell request on TTC; Quebecor does not

Telus Inc. has lent its support to BCE Inc.’s complaint about Rogers Communications Inc.’s handling of connectivity in the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) subway system, calling for the commission to approve Bell’s request and prohibit Rogers from providing connectivity until it negotiates access with other wireless service providers. In a July 17 intervention to Bell’s June Part 1 application, Telus alleged that Rogers is conferring itself an undue preference, contravening Section 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act. “Because other carriers cannot build their own infrastructure in the TTC, Rogers is able to play a gatekeeping role to the . It has shown that its main motivation is not to negotiate but to delay access to the DAS for other carriers and their customers,” Telus wrote. “Given that Rogers’ exclusive right arises only via a breach of , Rogers’ actions constitute unjust discrimination against other carriers and it is conferring upon itself an undue preference.” Telus claimed that without a CRTC intercession, Rogers “will continue to use the negotiation process to delay access for other wireless carriers while its own customers will obtain mobile connectivity.” The Vancouver-based company wrote that it has also engaged the department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) to order Rogers to waive its exclusive access rights to the network in the TTC as a remedy to what Telus said is a breach of Rogers’ conditions of license. “This enforcement is critical so that Rogers cannot prevent other carriers from being able to negotiate with the TTC to install their own infrastructure,” Telus wrote of ISED intervention. “Furthermore, ISED must enforce the COL to ensure that the COL remains an integral feature of the facilities-based competition regime that ISED has a spectrum objective.” Rogers, for its part, wrote in its own intervention that access to the DAS that Bell seeks is purely a matter between Rogers, Bell, and other carriers. “Commission intervention in the manner proposed by Bell in what are ordinary course contractual and technical discussions among sophisticated parties is inappropriate, unprecedented, and simply unnecessary in the present circumstances.” Rogers added that it has now provided Bell and Telus with a proposal for commercial negotiations going forward, and should foreclose any involvement from the regulator. “This model is entirely appropriate as it: will provide a path to wireless access in the TTC for all customers; is commercially reasonable, as evidenced by the fact that it is based on an existing negotiated agreement; and is appropriate to the specific circumstances of the TTC,” Rogers wrote, “including the legacy network and commercial arrangements in place prior to Rogers’ acquisition of BAI.” Rogers’ intervention also echoed a note struck by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) in an intervention on the same Part 1 application: that Bell is not motivated by concerns about public safety. “Contrary to Bell’s claims, the Application does not disclose any pressing safety or public interest concerns that justify the urgency asserted throughout Bell’s Application,” Rogers wrote. PIAC had submitted that BAI Communications’ exclusivity in the TTC system was not a problem for Bell in the years before Rogers’ owned BAI. Quebecor Inc., which now owns the Freedom Mobile brand that has enjoyed a level of access to the TTC system, called for the CRTC to reject Bell’s application in its own intervention. It said that Bell is the more anti-competitive actor in the Canadian telecommunications sector. The Quebec-based company added that Rogers has established a negotiation framework that will allow other carriers access to the system. -Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Telus backs Bell request on TTC; Quebecor does not

News | July 19, 2023

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