Bell and Rogers fighting over TPIA disconnection charges

BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. are in a dispute over end-user change charges for third-party internet access (TPIA), with Bell accusing Rogers of charging the company $5 every time a wholesale customer cancels their service. Bell filed a Part 1 application with the CRTC July 7 asking for the charges to be halted and the money returned to it. Bell has been purchasing TPIA service from Rogers for several years now. When it is necessary to cease service to an end-user, Rogers has been applying a $5 fee. Following Rogers’ takeover of Shaw Communications, the Toronto telecom has been applying the fee to western connections as well. “It is inappropriate to apply these specification change fees for a TPIA disconnection, as specification change fees are plainly intended to apply to end-user specification changes, and a TPIA disconnection is not an end-user specification change,” Bell wrote. It added that as far as it is aware, Rogers is the only telecom service provider charging such a fee in the country. Bell is seeking reimbursement of the fees assessed so far under their TPIA agreement. Rogers disagrees with Bell’s assertions. “Bell’s claims are completely without merit….The fee represents CRTC-approved costs incurred by Rogers to deliver TPIA services to wholesale customers and, as such, they are recoverable,” it responded. “As Bell is well aware, Distributel and Primus (now owned by Bell) were early customers of Rogers’ TPIA service and at no time over the past fifteen plus years did they dispute the application of the fee to disconnections,” Rogers adds. “Charging a fee for disconnections has been Rogers’ long standing and accepted practice. In November 2023, subsequent to Rogers’ acquisition of Shaw, Rogers aligned its billing practices between its eastern and western TPIA operations.” Two other telecoms spoke up in favour of Bell’s position on wholesale high-speed access (WHSA). TekSavvy Solutions Inc. filed an intervention asserting that the matter goes beyond a two-way fight between the parties. “Given the issue extends beyond the bilateral dispute between Bell and Rogers, TekSavvy also encourages the commission to require Rogers to stop applying the charge to all WHSA service disconnections and to refund all such charges to all WHSA customers,” the competitive carrier stated. Quebecor Inc. also urged the regulator to order reimbursement to all carriers, including its subsidiaries Videotron and Freedom Mobile. It filed an intervention on the case. ppark@thewirereport.ca

Bell and Rogers fighting over TPIA disconnection charges

Regulatory |
By Paul Park
| August 15, 2025

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Bell and Rogers fighting over TPIA disconnection charges

Regulatory | By Paul Park | August 15, 2025

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