The CRTC released a Circular before the holidays that announced the Commission’s plan to delay consideration of two files because of the Minister’s proposed variance of the Local Forbearance Decision.
A little history. On September 1, the CRTC started a review of its market share loss criteria for local forbearance under a Public Notice. The CRTC has suspended that proceeding as well as consideration of TELUS’ application to substantially modify the quality of service criteria for forbearance.
Both proceedings could be rendered moot when the Minister’s proposed variance comes into effect.
I found it interesting that the Minister’s intervention, which was designed to accelerate forbearance, has the immediate effect of slowing down the CRTC’s review of these two forbearance related files.