ITPA asks CRTC to compel release of limited customer data for NG911

The Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA) is asking the CRTC to force large telecom service providers to give the association a list of the wireless service numbers with billing addresses in geographic areas covered by the small incumbent local exchanges (SILECs) represented by the ITPA. Such an order, the ITPA argued in a Part 1 filed with the CRTC this week and posted to the regulator's website Thursday, will facilitate the rollout of so-called next generation 911 networks. The ITPA is not asking for phone numbers or billing addresses themselves, but rather a report of the amount of wireless numbers with billing addresses in SILEC coverage areas. In the filing, the ITPA explained that in the past, "SILECs entered into bilateral agreements with the surrounding large ILECs to accept and route 9-1-1 calls from end-users in SILEC exchanges to the correct and vice versa." With the coming advent of NG911 services, however, SILECs represented by the ITPA will have to ensure that the NG911 system functions properly in their operating territories, and therefore need new information from the large telecom providers on their wireless customers living in areas covered by SILEC exchanges. The ITPA complained in the Part 1 that after requesting the necessary data from the large incumbent telecom companies, these wireless service providers either rejected the request or gave information the ITPA argues is insufficient for the transition to NG911. The Part 1 complaint asks the CRTC to compel the release of data from BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Telus Corp., Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron, and Shaw Communications Inc.'s Freedom Mobile. In a Jan. 15 correspondence with Rogers included in the complaint, Rogers told the ITPA that the number of subscribers it seeks based on billing addresses would not provide accurate data. "Specifically, it would fail to accurately report Wireless Customer counts per SILEC because a substantial amount of billing addresses may not match with the 'primary location' of the wireless customers," Rogers told the ITPA, using the example of a wireless customer who worked in Sudbury, Ont., and had a Sudbury telephone number, but had a billing address in Cochrane, Ont., (which is in a SILEC exchange area). In its Part 1, the ITPA rejects the example, given that Cochrane and Sudbury are a five-hour drive apart. "A better, more typical example would be that of an end-user resident in Burgessville, Ontario, with a Woodstock, Ontario wireless number. Burgessville is in a SILEC exchange, while Woodstock is a Bell Canada exchange. It is a fifteen-minute drive between the two communities," the ITPA wrote in the filing. The billing address of the Burgessville resident, the ITPA argument goes, would allow ITPA-member companies to more accurately assess the cost of providing NG911 services to wireless customers living in areas served by their exchanges. Without a CRTC order compelling the number of subscribers based on the billing addresses, the ITPA wrote, "crucial revenue will be directed away from the underlying carriers that are responsible for NG9-1-1 in a given geographic area as TSPs take advantage of a least cost routing opportunity to avoid SILEC NG9-1-1 rates." At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CRTC delayed several key deadlines by nine months — under the new plan, providers are to have their networks ready to support voice components of the internet-based NG911 service by March 30, 2021 (instead of June 30, 2020). They will then have until March 2024 to decommission existing 911 networks (pushed back from June 2023). These delays have been opposed by many large telecom providers. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@hilltimes.com CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story did not clearly articulate the exact type of data the ITPA is seeking, and incorrectly stated that the ITPA was seeking billing addresses. The story has been corrected.

ITPA asks CRTC to compel release of limited customer data for NG911

News | March 5, 2021

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ITPA asks CRTC to compel release of limited customer data for NG911

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