Iristel arguments in interconnection fight with Bell, Northwestel dismissed again by CRTC

Iristel Inc.’s arguments that the CRTC was wrong to dismiss its allegations of tariff violations in the company’s dispute with BCE Inc. have once again been rejected by the regulator – a decision which has raised concerns from two of the CRTC’s commissioners. Last June, the CRTC told Iristel to pay overdue fees after the telecom alleged that Bell and Northwestel were not providing all the services the competitor wanted, following a dispute dating back several years over requests for local network interconnection (LNI) made by Iristel. The commission said Iristel had not given it enough evidence that it was denied interconnection service by either Bell or Northwestel, and said it did not see enough proof that Iristel had tried to get the commission’s help to resolve the dispute before filing its application. The next month, Iristel filed another application with the CRTC demanding it review the finding that there was a lack of evidence. The CRTC said in a decision released Monday, June 23 that the information on the record “does not establish substantial doubt as to the correctness” of its June 2024 decision, denying Iristel’s bid for another look at the matter. Iristel CEO Samer Bishay declined to comment on the decision Monday. Iristel asks CRTC to request more information from Bell, Northwestel Iristel had asked in July 2024 that the CRTC send Bell a request for information to get evidence of Iristel’s “repeated requests to obtain tariffed LNI service from Bell Canada in Kuujjuaq” in addition to evidence of Bell’s alleged “refusal to do so.” Iristel suggested the regulator should make Bell give it statements from current and former staff about past meetings between Iristel and Bell. Iristel wanted a similar request for information be sent to Northwestel to get evidence of Iristel’s “repeated requests to obtain tariffed services” in Whitehorse with a similar suggestion that current and ex-staff should provide statements about meetings between the two firms. But according to the CRTC, the records in front of it which led to its June 2024 decision “demonstrated that Bell Canada had made several offers to accommodate Iristel.” It notes that in making its June 2024 decision, it determined it would have been wrong to “try to improve the application” by asking Iristel for more information. “The commission considers that it is an applicant’s responsibility to supply evidence to support its claims,” it said in its most recent decision. “As part of its review and vary application, Iristel provided additional evidence to support its allegations. The new evidence submitted by Iristel was available to Iristel at the time of its original application and should have been included in that application if it was deemed relevant,” the commission wrote. The CRTC noted that Bell and Northwestel submitted documents including valid off-tariff agreements (OTAs), written negotiations for alternative services, CRTC-approved tariff modifications, and written communications that “appeared to contradict Iristel’s allegations.” “The OTAs had been in place since 2015, and Iristel waited eight years to raise the issue with the Commission, which indicated that this was not a significant issue for Iristel,” the CRTC said. “The commission considers that if Iristel had requested or been denied service, it should have been in possession of such evidence to demonstrate this, which it could have filed on the record. In addition, Iristel had ample opportunity to raise the matter with the commission by filing an application earlier during the eight-year period that preceded the original application filing date,” it said elsewhere in its decision. Commissioner for B.C. & Yukon dissents; Ontario commissioner raises concerns British Columbia and Yukon commissioner Claire Anderson disagrees with the CRTC’s conclusion that it would have been wrong for the commission to ask for more information to “improve” the Iristel application. “Our error was compounded by our lack of exercising any regulatory powers, like the issuance of requests for information (RFIs), if we had evidentiary concerns that needed to be addressed,” Anderson wrote. “As an administrative tribunal, the commission has repeatedly confirmed that it is the master of its own process and has the flexibility to modify its processes in response to requests or on its own initiative, while considering the public interest,” she said. “If the commission had or has concerns about uncontested statements of fact, it ought to have exercised its regulatory powers and issued an RFI to all parties before determining that there was insufficient evidence of tariff violations…” Ontario commissioner Bram Ambramson wrote that while he ultimately agrees with the most recent decision reached by the CRTC in the matter, he has concerns about how the regulator approached the June 2024 decision and how it dismissed Iristel’s review and vary application. “The threshold to be met for us to review and vary has not, I agree, been reached. But our approach lays bare systemic issues in how we enforce tariffs, approach evidence, and resolve complex regulated disputes,” Abramson wrote. “These systemic issues weaken our ability to serve as a trusted steward of Canadian telecommunications markets in a competitive environment. In failing to address these systemic issues, we only burrow further into the breach.” “If timely performance of tariffs matters, as it must if our supervisory framework is to inspire confidence; and if, as a corollary, getting to the bottom of breaches in performance must matter, too… then good-faith that do not abuse process but do help get to the bottom of things are fundamental,” Ambramson said. hdaley@thewirereport.ca With files from The Wire Report’s archives.

Iristel arguments in interconnection fight with Bell, Northwestel dismissed again by CRTC

Regulatory |
By Hannah Daley
| June 23, 2025

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Iristel arguments in interconnection fight with Bell, Northwestel dismissed again by CRTC

Regulatory | By Hannah Daley | June 23, 2025

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