SSi asks CRTC to mandate third-party access to fibre in the North, new wholesale rates

Northern broadband provider SSi Canada is asking the CRTC to order BCE Inc.’s Northwestel to provide third-party internet access (TPIA) to its monopoly cable and fibre infrastructure. On Monday, SSi filed a Part 1 with that request, while also asking the Commission to impose interim TPIA wholesale rates on Northwestel, before determining more permanent rates based on cost studies and other research at a later date. At the same time, SSi also filed an intervention arguing against a recent Northwestel tariff application, in which the Bell-owned company is seeking to introduce unlimited internet plans in parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon. In the intervention, SSi also calls for the Commission to step in and enable what it calls "competitive choice" between Northwestel and other competitors in Canada’s North. According to SSi, Northwestel’s competitors would be unable to offer equivalent unlimited services because they rely on wholesale access purchased through Northwestel’s “Wholesale Connect” service. That service only gives SSi and other companies access to Northwestel’s backbone connectivity and transport facilities, but not last-mile cable or fibre to the premises. (At present, SSi covers last mile access via wireless and mobile services.) According to SSi, Wholesale Connect is closer to a business connectivity service rather than a suitable wholesale service for carriers. “A competitor reliant upon Wholesale Connect service could not offer ‘unlimited’ retail internet packages with an acceptable quality of service at a price that is even remotely competitive with the offerings,” the company wrote in its Part 1. Speaking before the Northwest Territories’ Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment earlier this week, SSi CEO and co-founder Jeff Philipp further criticized the Wholesale Connect service, suggesting that it hindered the ability for SSi and other ISPs to compete with Northwestel. “It does not provide the basic connectivity requirements that we, or any other competitor, actually need. It has been intentionally crippled to make it effectively unusable.” Also of concern to SSi is the fact that Northwestel recently received about $62 million from the CRTC’s broadband fund. SSi contends that Northwestel is using that money to improve its infrastructure and introduce unlimited internet services for its retail customers, giving Northwestel a leg-up over competitors. “The Commission must make sure that all customers — including wholesale customers like SSi — benefit from the Commission’s recent Broadband Fund contribution of $62 million ,” Philipp told NWT legislators earlier in the week. The CRTC has already given interim approval to Northwestel’s tariff application for its unlimited service, although its consultation has not yet closed. Responding to that tariff application, SSi wrote that this was an example of the Commission abandoning its duty to foster a competitive telecommunications marketplace. “The Commission has chosen to favour Northwestel’s retail customers over its wholesale customers. The Commission has, in effect, abandoned the commitment it made to ‘provid a choice of service providers and different service options’ in the internet market.” Permanent approval of Northwestel’s unlimited internet plans “will have the irrevocable and undesirable effect of eliminating internet competition, and existing competitors, long before the Commission can conclude its examination of the state of competition in the North”, SSi wrote. SSi’s Part 1 proffers a possible solution: that the Commission mandate third-party internet access (TPIA) to Northwestel’s cable and fibre infrastructure across the North, over which the Bell subsidiary holds a monopoly. (In 2015, the CRTC denied a similar request for Northwestel to be obliged to offer TPIA.). The Commission should also mandate a reduction of Northwestel’s Wholesale Connect rates by at least 40 per cent, SSi said. Northwestel did not respond to a request for a response to SSi’s claims at press time. — Reporting by Tim Forster at tforster@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

SSi asks CRTC to mandate third-party access to fibre in the North, new wholesale rates

News | December 9, 2020

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SSi asks CRTC to mandate third-party access to fibre in the North, new wholesale rates

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