The CRTC will be ruling this week on an interesting file that started a year ago when Abovenet tried to register as a reseller. Telecom Notice of Consultation 2010-165 asked for public comments:
The Commission calls for comments on whether by lighting dark fibre leased from a third party and providing the lit fibre to third parties for compensation, a service provider is “operating” a “transmission facility” and is a “telecommunications common carrier” as defined in the Act.
Abovenet is a US company – a successor to Metromedia Fiber Network. Its Canadian subsidiary was planning to lease dark fibre from TELUS and attach its electronics. TELUS claimed that this would make Abovenet a carrier.
Under Canadian ownership rules for carriers, this would be a problem. The issue of operating as a carrier versus a reseller also determines the application of a variety of regulatory obligations.
It is an interesting file.
To what extent would this have largely been rendered moot if Canada had acted more quickly to liberalize its rules on foreign direct investment in telecommunications?
Pingback: Tweets that mention Clarifying carrier classification • Telecom Trends -- Topsy.com
Interesting decision today out of the CRTC on this matter. Wondering how this will affect the foreign ownership rules. For instance, what is the impact of the Abovenet decision on carriers like Level3, which own fiber facilities in Canada but cannot meet the ownership restrictions? Would the Abovenet decision, for example, allow Level3 to lease dark fiber to its own affiliate that holds a reseller license, which in turn would then light the fiber and resell it to customers? Hmmmmm…..