Telecoms at odds on mandatory-roaming licence conditions

The CRTC’s 2015 decision to regulate wholesale wireless roaming has made an Innovation Canada condition of licence unnecessary, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. told the department — an argument refuted by their competitors, large and small, as companies weigh in on the process for renewing AWS-1 and other spectrum licences. The condition of licence first introduced by then-Industry Canada back in 2008 applies “to all holders of commercial mobile spectrum licences, not just those that provide GSM-based roaming services pursuant to the regime established by the CRTC,” Shaw Communications Inc. said in reply comments posted to Innovation Canada’s website Monday. Bell and Telus both argued in their initial interventions that keeping the mandatory roaming conditions is redundant and introduces regulatory uncertainty following the CRTC’s regulation of the wholesale wireless rates Bell, Telus and Rogers Communications Inc. charge smaller carriers. With the CRTC only mandating one type of roaming, Shaw said that it’s “evident therefore, that when parties offer and/or subscribe to these services, they are subject to the regulatory regime that was established by the CRTC for these services. However, all other roaming arrangements remain subject to the Department’s rules and regulatory framework for mandatory roaming.” Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink noted in its reply comments that the commission’s “framework is established in keeping with the Department’s Mandatory Roaming framework, in that it sets the rates and terms for a service mandated by the Department.” According to Telus, mandated roaming and spectrum deployment requirements have to be looked at hand-in-hand. “Deployment requirements drive investment, particularly in less populated regions of the country while mandated roaming provisions do the exact opposite,” Telus said. “Mandated roaming reduces the incentive to invest in facilities in less populated regions.” Telus said that the “purpose of network deployment requirements is to ensure that licensees work to fulfill the Department’s stated objective of utilizing scare spectrum resources to deliver the benefits of wireless coverage and competition to Canadians,” and that this is “wholly independent of the availability of mandated roaming.” The arguments by the telecoms echo the ones made during a 2012 Industry Canada consultation on roaming and tower sharing, as well as during the CRTC’s 2014 wholesale wireless proceeding. Having a condition of licence mandating roaming “is unnecessary,” Bell said in its reply comments, since the CRTC found that “the provision of wholesale roaming by Bell, Rogers, and Telus to each other is subject to a level of competition that is sufficient to protect the interests of users.” Not only is it at odds, generally, with “the principles of facilities-based competition” and network investment, Bell added that more specifically, the condition of licence “creates an opportunity for network arbitrage whereby one carrier can make the strategic decision not to invest in or upgrade its own network in favour of roaming on one or more of its competitors’ networks.” Mandated roaming doesn’t impede investment, Rogers said in its reply, adding that it “has continued to invest billions of dollars into its network during the mandatory roaming regime.” “Furthermore,” Rogers said, “roaming carriers are only entitled to services they deliver themselves and at a level of quality they provide their own customers. This necessitates continuous investment by Rogers and all roaming carriers.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Telecoms at odds on mandatory-roaming licence conditions

News | August 22, 2017

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Telecoms at odds on mandatory-roaming licence conditions

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