Federal Court grants leave to appeal, stay in wholesale rate cases

The CRTC’s decision to lower wholesale rates for its aggregated regime has now been suspended while the Federal Court of Appeal hears and decides on the appeals brought forward by incumbent telecoms. The court said Friday in a pair of decisions that it will hear the appeals from a group of cablecos and one by BCE Inc. to a decision by the CRTC in August that slashed the wholesale rates at which those incumbents sell their internet to resellers. The court said in separate decisions that the new rates won’t take effect until the court makes its final determination in the cases. The court previously put an interim stay on the rates, but Friday’s decisions mean the rates could now be frozen at the higher level for years while the court process plays out. The consequences of that for companies which already lowered their prices in response to the August CRTC ruling and chose to keep them in place during the interim stay remain to be seen. Matt Stein, president of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC), said in an email it will be up to each ISP to decide whether the “resulting substantial delay in correcting the rates they are being charged by the incumbents will force them to change the prices they charge consumers.” In its Friday decision, the court said that implementing that CRTC decision “could result in a permanent market distortion.” The new wholesale rates have been the subject of fierce fighting between the large telcos and cablecos and smaller, wholesale-based internet service providers. The initial decision to lower the rates was welcomed by the smaller companies, some of whom dropped their retail prices as a result. But the incumbents said the CRTC decision, which also has a retroactive component that would cost the large companies $350 million, would force them to cut investments and in the case of Quebecor Inc., its highest internet speed tier. They filed court appeals, as well as petitions to cabinet to overturn the decision, and in the case of Telus Corp., a review-and-vary application with the CRTC. Wholesale-based ISPs say the battle of over wholesale rates -- which could turn out to only be a preview of what’s to come once the tariffs for fibre-to-the-home access are issued -- means they are at a critical crossroads. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

Federal Court grants leave to appeal, stay in wholesale rate cases

News | November 22, 2019

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Federal Court grants leave to appeal, stay in wholesale rate cases

News | November 22, 2019

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