Rogers extends modem migration deadline

Rogers Communications Inc. has told the CRTC the pandemic has slowed work down after it was asked by the commission to elaborate on what kind of “new business complexities” have caused it to extend the date at which it will require third-party internet access customers to upgrade their modems. In a Sept. 20 letter to the CRTC obtained by The Wire Report, Rogers wrote that the company has been forced to extend its own migration period to upgrade its customers to new modems due to “a number of events.” “Although Rogers’ customers continue to migrate to DOCSIS 3.1 modems, the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis and the prospect of a fourth wave of infections this fall place an increased risk to the rate and which internet customers migrate,” the company wrote. “A fourth wave has the potential to further disrupt the willingness of customers to migrate to a new device.” Rogers said the number of events that caused the change in the company’s forecast for migrations “remain commercially sensitive and confidential.” The issue before the CRTC began with a Part 1 application -- which was filed by the Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) earlier this year -- asking it to slow the forced migration to new modems for its third-party internet access customers and allow the activation of older modems for two years from the date of a decision on its application from the commission. In April, the CRTC asked Rogers to stop requiring these customers to use a particular kind of modem until it makes a decision. “CNOC members, in line with the broader industry, are gradually upgrading to DOCSIS 3.1 modems,” CNOC wrote to the commission at the time of its application. “Crucially, however, DOCSIS 3.1 modems are in very short supply (with delays of up to one year) and the certification processes are expected to take many months.” Instead of waiting for a decision, CNOC said in a letter to the CRTC in May that Rogers told it that the company would not require modem updates until Dec. 31, 2021. Rogers more recently told the CRTC in a Sept. 14 letter that it would once again be extending the modem stop-sell date from Dec. 31, 2021, to June 30, 2022, to accommodate customers and “new business complexities that have arisen since this proceeding was initiated,” prompting the CRTC’s Sept. 16 request for more information. “The decision to extend the stop-sell was a multi-faceted decision that every facilities-based carrier, who has made and continuously makes enormous network investments, must be able to make in its sole discretion,” Rogers said in that letter. “Resellers, who do not deploy networks themselves but rather ride on those of others, cannot dictate how those networks should be run.” In May, CNOC told the CRTC it has “no assurance” that the commission would reach a decision by the date set by Rogers at that time, and that it has no guarantee that supply problems won’t persist after the end of the year. It had asked the CRTC for a formal declaration requiring the company to keep activating older modems until it makes a decision on the application. In January, CNOC had also asked the regulator to stop Bragg Communications Inc.‘s Eastlink from axing older modems for customers of TPIA service. — Reporting by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Rogers extends modem migration deadline

News | September 21, 2021

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Rogers extends modem migration deadline

News | September 21, 2021

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

Freedom Mobile no longer pursuing full MVNO status

Federal arbitrator releases paid time political broadcast schedule

TV broadcasters denounce streamers’ appeals of CRTC’s broadcasting contribution decision

CRTC considering expanded mandate for Broadcasting Participation Fund

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us