CRTC rejects incumbent request to expand Internet Code

The CRTC has rejected a request from a number of large facilities-based internet service providers for the regulator to extend the Internet Code to smaller ISPs and resellers. In a decision released Thursday, the CRTC wrote that, in its determination, the large ISPs had failed to demonstrate that the commission made an error in its original determination restricting the code to ten large ISPs. The large ISPs -- which included BCE Inc., Bragg Communications Inc.’s Eastlink, Cogeco Inc., Quebecor Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., Shaw Communications Inc., Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corp., and Telus Corp. -- had filed a review-and-vary application back in November 2019 asking the regulator to include smaller ISPs in the code. The Internet Code, which came into effect at the end of January 2020, is designed to create better and clearer sales practices in the Internet retail market. In July of 2019, shortly after its release, CRTC chairman Ian Scott said the code would indirectly deal with the type of sales practices in the industry that have seen Bell court-mandated to work with the Competition Bureau and the CRTC deem some industry practices “unacceptable.” In their application to extend the Internet Code to the smaller providers, the bigger ISPs had argued that the code “has left a significant portion of Canadians (as high as 18% in some markets) without the protections that the Code was intended to provide.” “Unless this error is remedied,” they wrote, “the Code will have the harmful unintended consequence of distorting the market for Internet services.” The CRTC rejected the argument saying that there are over a thousand ISPs in the Canadian market and that the commission "must consider various factors based on a robust record before imposing obligations in order to obtain the desired balance between efficient regulation, competition in the market, and consumer protection." The smaller ISPs that will remain exempt from the code, the CRTC wrote Thursday in its rejection of the application, "are necessarily required to provide compelling offers and competitive services in order to win or maintain customers. Although expectations are not regulatory requirements, they do establish the path forward for future policy intervention as necessary." The CRTC also pointed out in its decision that it will review the Internet Code in three years' time, and can reassess whether or not smaller ISPs need to be included. "In the interim," the CRTC continued, "the Commission continues to monitor the extent to which its expectations for the exempt ISPs are being met and can take action earlier to address specific issues or concerns with particular providers, should the need arise." The original application had identified some larger non-facilities-based ISPs -- namely TekSavvy Solutions Inc., Distributel Communications Ltd., and Birch Communications Inc.’s Primus -- as receiving "unfair advantage" by being left out of the Internet Code. The CRTC wrote that "the competitive pressures, the expectation set out in the Internet Code, and the data submitted as part of the Internet Code proceeding that show that exempt ISPs are less likely to have customers with term contracts, all indicate that the limited application of the Internet Code, at this time, will not prevent the Internet Code from achieving its objective of contributing to a dynamic Internet service market." "The Commission considers that the applicants’ position is based on opinion rather than on any identifiable error in fact." — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca

CRTC rejects incumbent request to expand Internet Code

News | April 8, 2021

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CRTC rejects incumbent request to expand Internet Code

News | April 8, 2021

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