Telus, City of Vancouver urge CRTC to dismiss Globalive complaint for rapid transit access

Telus Corp. and the City of Vancouver have asked the CRTC to force Globalive Wireless Management Corp. to go back to the negotiating table in its aim to build wireless infrastructure in underground tunnels along the city’s rapid transit Canada Line. In documents filed with the CRTC this week, Telus and the City of Vancouver asked the commission to dismiss Globalive’s April 18 request for commission intervention to secure access to the tunnels for its wireless service under the Wind Mobile brand. “TCC requests that the Commission direct Wind Mobile to resume ‘good faith’ negotiations with TCC … to conclude an agreement to access the ,” Telus wrote. In its application, Globalive said the City of Vancouver and transit operator InTransit BC gave Telus an exclusive contract to build infrastructure along the rapid transit line and that no other carrier can do so without Telus’ permission. Globalive said it attempted to negotiate for the right to access Telus’ facilities along the transit route, which Telus shares with BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc., but said those negotiations failed because Telus’ infrastructure-sharing proposal “was considerably more expensive than WIND’s own estimated costs to build an entirely new system.” Globalive said the CRTC has the authority under the Telecommunications Act to force the City of Vancouver or InTransit BC to negotiate with Wind directly for access. Telus said in its response that the two sides discussed an agreement to allow Globalive to share underground infrastructure on a conference call Feb. 24, and that Telus sent a proposed agreement, with costing information, to Globalive on March 1. Telus said Globalive “agreed to virtually every cost” in the proposal, and it believed the two sides were close to an agreement. “There remained only one component of the costs to be resolved, namely WIND’s contribution to invested capital by TCC to build the ,” Telus wrote. Telus said it asked Globalive to pay for some of the capital costs Telus incurred when building the tunnel’s wireless infrastructure. InTransit BC hired Telus in 2008 “to design, install and operate a commercially-based distributed antenna and fibre-optic telecommunications system … to provide in-tunnel wireless coverage” along the Canada Line, Telus said. “Importantly, the capital cost contribution that TCC was seeking from Wind Mobile was comparable (save any specific design differences due to network requirements) to the costs provided by Rogers and Bell to TCC for the initial design and initial costs of the ,” the company wrote. Telus said it learned that Globalive rejected its March 1 proposal on March 30, when the new entrant carrier “provided a significantly lower counter-offer” and threatened to seek a CRTC or Competition Bureau ruling for access if the companies could not negotiate a lower capital cost charge. The company said it sent a counter offer to Globalive on April 16, and that Globalive said it would “re-analyze the project economics.” Globalive filed its CRTC application two days later. Telus said that Globalive’s request for commission intervention under the Telecommunications Act is “unjustified” because the company was not denied access to the transit line but had failed to negotiate access. In a separate documents filed with the commission Tuesday, InTransit BC and the City of Vancouver supported Telus’ request to dismiss the Globalive application. “It is the City’s position that WIND should be required to resume its negotiations with TCC, particularly when the issue is not one of access, but rather the level of contribution of WIND to the capital cost of the infrastructure,” the city wrote. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Ed Antecol, Globalive’s vice-president of regulatory affairs and carrier relations, said Telus imposed roadblocks to prevent Wind from effectively competing in the Vancouver market. He rejected the argument that Globalive should seek access to the tunnels through negotiations with Telus. “We have no negotiating leverage. It’s take it or leave it with Telus and they absolutely don’t want us operating in their territory,” he said. “They will do anything to keep us out.” Shawn Hall, a spokesman for Telus, told The Wire Report Wednesday that Telus entered negotiations in good faith. “We’ve proposed fees for access to our infrastructure based on the price that we paid to install it … Any carrier willing to share a portion of the cost can use it,” he said. “We’ve been negotiating rates with Wind for quite some time now and they haven’t responded to our last offer which was fair and reasonable.” Wind, a new wireless entrant competing against the incumbents for customers in major Canadian markets, launched wireless services in Vancouver in June 2010. The company had more than 430,000 customers nationally in mid-May and added 12,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2012, The Wire Report reported this month. nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Telus, City of Vancouver urge CRTC to dismiss Globalive complaint for rapid transit access

News | May 23, 2012

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