Down to the wire for wireline forbearance
This week, we learn the nature of Cabinet’s intervention into the CRTC’s rules on local service deregulation.
Following two months of review, the Parliamentary industry committee has recommended that the Minister withdraw the variance, and instead table
a comprehensive package of policy, statutory and regulatory reforms to modernize the telecommunications services industry.
While some suggest that this would be an opportunity to introduce legislation regarding net neutrality and spam, the intent is likely much more broad – to adopt more completely the recommendations of the Telecom Policy Review panel. As I have noted numerous times, net neutrality advocates cannot take comfort if the TPR report is adopted as written. In any case, the legislative exercise will likely have to wait until after the next election.
There was a flare-up this week when the CRTC told TELUS that it was deregulating Fort McMurray, just as soon as TELUS meets the quality of service standards that have been set.
What was with the dust up?
The law of the land, as it currently stands, is what is set out in last April’s CRTC ruling on Local Forbearance. Those rules are expected to change in the next few days, with the release of Cabinet’s final version of its variance order from last December. Both the CRTC’s original ruling and the Minister’s preliminary variance had a two-stage test prior to forbearance: the existence of sufficient competition; and, acceptable levels of service being provided to competitors.
Didn’t the CRTC accommodate the possible Cabinet changes in their phrasing?
The Commission approves the introduction of local forbearance in the Fort McMurray residential relevant market once [TELUS] has demonstrated that it has met the CQ of S [Competitor Quality of Service] criterion that will be in effect at the time of its CQ of S filing.
Doesn’t that say that local service will be forborne under whatever rules are in place at the relevant time?
What are the hidden agendas?
