Rogers protests Bell’s toll-free trunk time extension

Rogers Communications Inc. is protesting the CRTC's decision to extend a deadline it had previously set for BCE Inc. to install trunk connections to carry toll-free traffic between their networks. In a Part 1 application dated May 20, and uploaded to the commission's website on Wednesday, Rogers says that the regulator should have given it a chance to comment before it pushed back Bell's deadline. The commission had initially required Bell to install the trunk connections within 150 days of the December 2, 2019 decision, a deadline now pushed back to August 17. The CRTC's "failure to give Rogers notice of its intention to vary its initial Decision, and its failure to give the parties an opportunity to comment, constitutes an error of law justifying a variance of the Letter Decision," Rogers argues. The decision to extend Bell's deadline, Rogers writes in its Part 1, will cost Rogers an undisclosed greater amount of money "in overage imbalance fees than would otherwise be the case - not only because of the extended period of time Bell has been given to construct its trunks - but also because the amount of traffic destined for Bell’s numbers has more than doubled since the advent of the COVID-19 outbreak," Rogers writes in its application. Rogers further says that the CRTC could have given Bell the extension to construct the necessary infrastructure, while allowing Rogers "the ability to deduct the traffic in question from its calculation of the traffic imbalance between the companies," as well as "suspending the application of Bell’s tariff to this class of traffic." In its request, Rogers asks the commission to require Bell to install the trunks within 30 days of a decision, and allow Rogers to deduct the cost of Bell's toll-free traffic from its calculation of the local traffic imbalance between the two companies. In a CRTC letter dated Thursday, the regulator writes that Rogers has given a "reasonable explanation as to why an expedited process would be warranted," and orders Bell -- and anyone else -- to file responses by June 8.

Rogers protests Bell’s toll-free trunk time extension

Brief | May 29, 2020

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Rogers protests Bell’s toll-free trunk time extension

Brief | May 29, 2020

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