CRTC receives final replies on service to Far North

Stakeholders have sent their final replies on telecom service in the Far North to the CRTC. The incumbent telecoms are at odds with most other applicants when it comes to the remedy for competition in the region. BCE Inc. subsidiary Northwestel and Telus Corp. are the ILECs in the area. They quarrel with many of the proposed solutions to competitiveness in the district. Low earth orbit carriers like Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) division Starlink and OneWeb Ltd. are more than adequate, the established firms state. “We strongly oppose a mandated wholesale HSA service,” Northwestel wrote. “The introduction of LEO-based providers is bringing the benefits of competition to the Far North without introducing significant costs that cannot be easily recovered.” Starlink has only been operating in the North for less than a year, the Bell company said, and already it is cutting into Northwestel’s customer base. It expects the situation to continue. Telus stated that wholesale HSA would not improve connectivity and affordability. It believes it would have the opposite effect, by raising costs while not producing an improvement in services. SSi Micro Ltd. had argued that Northwestel was gaming the system by getting approval for new services without proving that Starlink competition would benefit customers. The ILEC dismissed these claims as “nonsensical”. “Northwestel is not seeking to be protected from competition; instead it is seeking the ability to compete effectively with Starlink, to the benefit of consumers,” it asserted. SSi points out that Northwestel is a reseller of LEO operator OneWeb. For its part, SSi promotes the idea of unfettered competition . “It is true in the Far North no less than anywhere else in Canada that competition is the best way to enhance consumer choice to improve the affordability, reliability, quality, and innovation of telecommunications,” the CLEC posited. “Only a healthy competitive market can deliver the affordable, high-quality internet access services that northerners need to be full participants in Canada’s digital economy.” SSi said competition in the western Arctic is hindered by the “protected privilege” of the BCE company. Its fellow ILEC is not much better, the competitor asserted. “We need hardly remind the commission that its job is not to make the incumbents whole–including, as Telus apparently does here, guaranteeing ILECs the margin to ensure that their own retail services continue to outflank anything a competitor might offer,” the CLEC said. “An ILEC should provide better service, innovation, diversity and all the other benefits of a competitive market in order to succeed on a retail level.” On the question of affordability, Northwestel rejects the notion of a subsidy involving an affordability standard. The government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) had offered such a proposition. Any such guidance would be burdensome and confusing, the Bell subsidiary wrote. Telus also opposes a subsidy. “A uniform subsidy would be highly inefficient in addressing affordability, because it would take the available funds and spread them amongst all customers instead of targeting them to the consumers who need them the most,” the western telecom opined. It does not believe a subsidy would increase adoption rates for the district. It is strictly against subsidizing business as suggested by the governments of NWT, Yukon and Nunavut. The GNWT is suggesting subsidies be set at $25 per month for residential customers and $50 a month for business clients. It does not think such a levy would have an impact on efficiency or affordability. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre called on the regulator to set aside $25 million of the $148 million unawarded broadband fund amounts for a trial subsidy in the Far North. Northwestel says it is striving to advance reconciliation with Indigenous people in the area. It notes the difference between consultation and engagement. It cautioned the commission to go slow on any regulatory remedies. “Imposing formal engagement reporting requirements inserts a level of rigidity to the engagement process, which could change the nature of the conversations and could introduce barriers to full and transparent communication,” the telecom stated. Telus is in favour of broad guidelines rather than prescriptive processes to promote reconciliation. “Overly prescriptive measures have the potential to create additional barriers to connectivity that are not experienced by non-Indigenous communities and to emphasize form-filling over meaningful engagement,” the company wrote. Telus argued that the Great Slave Lake fibre proposal and customer transfer issues should be deleted as topics for the commission to consider in the proceedings. The GNWT is advocating for the CRTC to establish an Indigenous and Far North unit within its structure. The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND) endorsed the idea as has PIAC. “An ‘Indigenous Affairs Directorate’ could also serve a valuable purpose in working with Indigenous groups to identify project opportunities to apply for Broadband Fund support and more proactively engage with Indigenous groups to co-develop solutions to meet their specific needs and interests,” FNNND stated. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

CRTC receives final replies on service to Far North

News | 01/25/2024 3:26 pm EST

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