Bell calls for new in-building wire tariff to be put on ice

A process to create a tariff for access to in-building wire in multi-dwelling units should be put on hold until after the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, or until BCE Inc. has been given sufficient time to check every existing connection, Bell has argued in a Part 1 application lodged with the CRTC. In its application -- seen by The Wire Report but not yet published on the regulator’s website -- Bell said the CRTC’s consultation about an appropriate fee for accessing in-building wire should be delayed until the regulator determines the “unprecedented situation” resulting from the pandemic had abated, Bell had been given “sufficient” time to examine its wiring, or any other date considered just and reasonable by the CRTC. The deadline for interventions was delayed earlier this month by the CRTC because of COVID-19, with the regulator pushing it back from April 2 to May 7. But Bell argued the deadline should be suspended because the consultation “requires extensive technical discussions with our network engineering designers and field technicians” and because the regulator’s April 9 determination that Cloudwifi Inc. and every other internet service provider who had used Bell’s in-building wire should provide the company with a list of connections. That information is not required to be given to Bell until May 11, but the provider argued in its application that the lists are “virtually certain to generate new evidence that is relevant in this proceeding,” arguing they had recently become aware of a new “damaging and invasive way” Cloudwifi had accessed its wiring. “Understanding this, and conceivably, other ways that CWF (and other and carrier ISPs) used and potentially misused and improperly interconnected with our fibre IBW, not to mention the scope of such improper conduct, will inevitably inform the relevant rates, terms and conditions for a proposed fibre IBW tariff in our forthcoming intervention,” Bell said in its application. Bell and Cloudwifi have been involved in a long-running dispute over Cloudwifi’s use of Bell’s in-building wire in three condo buildings in the Toronto area. In June last year, the CRTC ruled that all connection to in-building wire in MDUs could occur until an “appropriate” rate for access to it had been set through the consultation process. It later banned all connections except for Cloudwifi’s existing ones, until an access rate had been set, in a December 2019 ruling. Bell argued in its application it would have likely applied for a two or three month extension without the COVID-19 pandemic, but said the crisis and a limitation of field technicians meant it would not be able to survey the sites where Cloudwifi and other local exchange carriers had used its wire. Cloudwifi co-founder Gary Kenning said in an email that the submission was “yet another stall tactic by Bell that is meant to keep prices as high as possible in Canada, protect their high profit margins, and once again further delay competition in this country.” “The CRTC has already delayed submissions for this and all other proceedings as a result of COVID-19, so for Bell to use this crisis as justification to further delay a submission that has been known since Dec. 16, 2019 is simply unacceptable and not what the country needs right now,” Kenning said. “A large, national company like Bell should be stepping up and helping Canadians at a time like this, yet instead they have chosen to use this crisis as an opportunity to further deprive Canadians access to better and more affordable Internet services when they need it most. Bell has already succeeded at dragging out this important matter for nearly two years, and with yesterday's submission, it's clear they will do everything in their power to drag it out for two more years.” Cloudwifi has argued for an interim tariff for in-building wire connections to be established while the CRTC consults on an appropriate fee, at a rate of 52 cents per month, for each subscriber. The CRTC intervened in another dispute between Bell and Cloudwifi again last month, when it ordered Bell to sign a Special Master Agreement for Local Interconnection (MALI), necessary for Cloudwifi’s application to become a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) to progress. — WIth reporting by Adam Langenberg at alangenberg@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Bell calls for new in-building wire tariff to be put on ice

News | April 16, 2020

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Bell calls for new in-building wire tariff to be put on ice

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