‘Abuses’ exist due to wholesale wireless ‘oligopoly’: Wind

Canada’s wholesale wireless market is “dominated by an oligopoly” and is not competitive enough to “stem abuses” from the three incumbent wireless providers, Wind Mobile told the CRTC in an intervention it filed as part of the regulator’s review of wholesale wireless services. The document, submitted by Wind Mobile’s parent company Globalive Wireless Management Corp. on May 15, said there is a “pressing need” for the CRTC to intervene in the wholesale wireless market on services including roaming and site and tower sharing. It noted that about 90 per cent of Canada’s wireless subscribers are customers of one the three incumbents — Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp., which collectively control around 85 per cent of the “available mobile spectrum as weighted by population.” Globalive added that the recent 700 MHz auction did not change that situation, as “the amount of useable spectrum anyone but the Incumbents acquired in the 700 MHz spectrum auction was 5 MHz paired in any given licence area, which is simply and physically not enough to meaningfully impact this imbalance.” It noted that in order to provide national coverage to its customers, Wind needs domestic roaming due to its “quite limited” wireless network footprint, and that the most important roaming areas are those adjacent to that network. “At times, this has dramatic implications to WIND customers. For instance, a WIND customer based in downtown Toronto requires roaming in order to use wireless services upon traveling north of Toronto’s Major Mackenzie Drive,” it said. “This is a significant impediment to WIND’s competitiveness and its ability to attract and retain customers living within WIND’s wireless footprint.” It can only obtain roaming services in areas around its own network footprint from the incumbents, it added; when it first acquired its AWS spectrum, only Rogers was “technologically capable of providing roaming services to WIND,” and the two signed a roaming agreement. Wind said that at due to its customers with older wireless devices, it “continues to require a roaming agreement with Rogers.” Globalive said in the document that the wholesale roaming rates it pays under its roaming current agreement are higher than what a reasonable rate would be, higher than retail rates and higher than the rates the incumbents charge U.S. carriers. It previously told the CRTC that “a large differential” exists in the roaming rates Rogers charges Wind, in comparison to what Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron unit pays. In an emailed statement Wednesday, Rogers spokeswoman Jennifer Kett said that Wind agreed to Rogers’ roaming rates “five years ago after a vigorous negotiation where both sides gave ground. They did not avail themselves of a mandatory arbitration at that time because they were satisfied with the rates they negotiated.” Globalive said Wind has to pass on the high roaming rates it is charged to its customers, which has “resulted in its rate of customer acquisition being significantly slowed.” The government’s recent move to cap wholesale roaming rates to average retail revenue has resulted in Wind being offered new roaming rates that are “substantially lower than the rates payable by WIND under our existing roaming agreement,” the company said. The new rates, it added, are still “greatly in excess of what is reasonable given that the cost of providing wholesale roaming services are substantially less than the provision of similar services at the retail services.” Rogers’ Kett said Wind’s contract “came up this year and they can take advantage of both an arbitration and the roaming cap contained in the budget bill. Wholesale roaming is a small part of the cost for carriers like Wind. The rates they have charged their customers for roaming are far higher than their wholesale roaming costs.” Globalive said that some incumbents are refusing to allow Wind to provide services to resellers or mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), or putting limits on the MVNOs that Wind can sell to. It asked the CRTC to ensure wholesale roaming agreements “do not unfairly limit” arrangements it can make with MVNOs. It added that “certain Incumbents” have been engaged in “delay tactics” regarding tower-sharing agreements, such as delaying courtesy rooftop collocation approvals or site licence agreements. Globalive also asked the CRTC to ensure that the incumbents don’t make deals with owners of buildings, such as shopping malls or sports stadiums, that stop Wind from placing its equipment in the same buildings. “While the Conditions of Licence explicitly prohibit exclusive site licences, the Incumbents have found ways to work around these prohibitions by incenting landlords to move exclusively to indoor shared antennae systems without the participation of WIND, or to otherwise convince certain major landlords not to allow WIND similar indoor access,” it said. Globalive asked the CRTC to impose rules similar to those it has in place for multiple dwelling units, and mandate that indoor antenna systems have to be open to all providers. When reached for reaction, Bell spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis said by email that the company would not comment. Bell said in its own intervention last week that meddling in wholesale roaming rates could affect the “vigorous competition” that exists in the wireless market. Telus spokeswoman Jacinthe Beaulieu said in an email that the company would not comment because it has no roaming agreements with new entrants. Aug. 20 has been set as the next deadline for interventions to the CRTC for this review before the Sept. 29 public hearing, after which there is another chance to provide submissions up until Oct. 17. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

‘Abuses’ exist due to wholesale wireless ‘oligopoly’: Wind

News | May 21, 2014

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‘Abuses’ exist due to wholesale wireless ‘oligopoly’: Wind

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