With all of the attention on the CRTC’s broadcast decision last Thursday afternoon, you may have missed a Telecom Order that was also released that day which gives many customers of Bell and Bell Aliant a rate reduction.
The issue is that the companies have been charging too much, which resulted in a $16.3M recurring surplus for residential customers that are in non-high cost serving areas.
Bell had proposed to refund $1.3M to those in non-forborne areas and keep the amount attributable to the forborne areas.
Bells argument was that
if they were directed to implement the required rate reductions in non-HCSAs … they could, under the current regulatory environment, simply offset them by implementing corresponding rate increases to these services.
The CRTC wasn’t happy with this $15M annual windfall to Bell and so it has ordered Bell to reduce the price ceilings for those in competitive markets.
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CRTC, deferral account