CRTC adds wholesale internet to quality of service regime

The rules governing quality of wholesale services provided by large telecoms to smaller providers will now apply to wireline internet service, the CRTC said in a decision Friday. The competitor quality of service regime, which previously covered landline service, has been in place since 2005, and the regulator launched a consultation last year on how it should be updated. Citing changes in the telecommunications market that are seeing Canadians become “increasingly reliant on broadband and mobile wireless services,” the CRTC said the competitor quality of service rules will no longer apply to landline services but going forward, both disaggregated and aggregated wholesale wireline regimes will fall under the regulations. During the consultation process, small ISPs had asked the CRTC to put protections in place for wholesale internet service, citing problems such as delays in installing service or carrying out repairs on the part of the incumbents, who maintained there is no proof of such service issues. The large telecoms also argued that “a formal regime is no longer required to foster competition, and that market forces can be relied upon to ensure an adequate level of service for competitors,” the CRTC noted. But in its decision, the CRTC concluded there are “incentives for wholesale service providers to treat their competitors’ end-users and their own customers differently,” given that having those individuals as their own retail customers is more profitable than having them as a wholesale customer. It also said that “the general absence of competitor provisions in off-tariff negotiations suggests that market forces may not be sufficient to ensure that competitors receive adequate service quality.” Small ISPs are limited in their ability to change wholesale providers, according to the CRTC, given the market power the larger players hold. Switching wholesale providers would also mean end users might have to buy a new modem or need to pay installation fees, it said. To tackle the problem, it set indicators to monitor how many installation and repair appointments are met by the large providers, and said that it would keep track of information about how long the average installation and repair appointments take. Such data would help “assess whether wholesale HSA services are provided on a discriminatory basis and would enable the Commission and competitors to identify potential issues with the delivery of these services,” it said. However, it declined to put in place specific penalties for violations of the new regime, saying doing so would be premature. It said the monitoring process it put in place will give it the necessary information to determine whether regulatory measures, such as rate rebates or monetary penalties, would be appropriate. The CRTC also declined to extend the updated regime to wireless roaming service, saying that the consultation turned up no evidence “that the incumbent wireless carriers have been providing a substandard level of service to competitors for wholesale roaming services.” It also said the nature of wireless services is such that “wholesale providers generally cannot degrade the service they provide to their wholesale customers’ end-users without affecting the service they offer to their own retail end-users, which means that they would have little incentive to provide a substandard level of service to competitors.” Wireless service also means companies don’t have to, for example, send technicians to a new customers’ house, it added, noting that there are also protections in place covering wireless quality of service in the final terms and conditions for wholesale roaming services it released on March 1. Internet advocacy group OpenMedia said in a press release Friday afternoon that represents a missed opportunity, though it did praise the move to include wholesale internet service, with digital rights advocate Katy Anderson saying in the release the decision is “an important step towards ensuring our future high speed Internet access is not held captive by anti-competitive practices of incumbents.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca

CRTC adds wholesale internet to quality of service regime

News | April 13, 2018

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CRTC adds wholesale internet to quality of service regime

News | April 13, 2018

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