Bell Canada is satisfied with CRTC ruling on DND contract

Despite not getting more money out of the Canadian government for the Department of National Defence's continued use of its network, Bell Canada says that it's satisfied with the end result and plans to accept the deal. While the company couldn't talk specifics because of confidential provisions, Mirko Bibic, Bell's senior VP of regulatory and government affairs, tells Network Letter that the company made five offers throughout the process. "It would be inappropriate of me to even give you a ballpark of how much we moved given the confidential nature of this," he says. With each offer and counter offer from Public Works and Government Services Canada, the two sides appeared to inch closer to an acceptable agreement. The CRTC ultimately settled on Bell's final offer, closing the books on the contract dispute. One of the key matters being discussed at the hearing was whether the rates being proposed by Bell were just and reasonable under the Telecommunications Act. Bell maintained they were while PWGSC questioned this assertion. "I think all of our offers were just and reasonable," Bibic says. "As I said in the opening statement on the very first day on Thursday, January 22, just and reasonable isn't one number, there's a broad range. And I firmly believe that each and every one of our offers was within that range." During the process, the CRTC set high and low bookends for offers from both sides. . According to Bibic, Public Works' initial offer was too low. "I can say that where the other side started at the beginning of all this was on the wrong side of the bookend," he says. Public Works declined a Network Letter request for an interview. "To ensure continuity of service for DND, PWGSC needed to negotiate a new contract with Bell Canada while Telus completes implementation. This was the subject of a determination rendered by the CRTC on January 30, 2009. PWGSC is unable to comment further due the confidential nature of the CRTC hearing and decision," reads a note from PWGSC communications advisor Nathalie Bétoté Akwa. Telus tried to delay the hearing by one week so that it could set the record straight on what it claimed was mis-information being provided to the commission. The CRTC denied Telus' request. Bibic agrees with the commission decision, noting that it "was more than sensible that on the eve of a decision one doesn't write and say ‘I've got an issue with being excluded from a process' which frankly they shouldn't have been included in at all."

Bell Canada is satisfied with CRTC ruling on DND contract

News | February 5, 2009

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