A couple weeks ago, we warned about Bell‘s application to increase Centrex rates by 10%.

The CRTC gave interim approval to Bell’s tariff filing, but Allstream and the federal government, under the Department of Justice, have filed interventions.

At the heart of both complaints are two fundamental issues: the inflation cannot reasonably be blamed for the price increase; and, customers are not able to escape their contracted terms, despite Bell unilaterally taking this price action, raising the costs of services under the contracts.

Allstream is particularly concerned about the anti-competitive effects, since it acts as a Centrex aggregator.

The Federal Government’s complaint is interesting reading. As a customer, the Government consumes a lot of Centrex: 177,000 directory numbers in 1,500 locations serving 100 departments. The government signed its contract less than a year ago, in November 2005 for a fixed 3-year period, with an additional 3-year option. The tariff increase will cost taxpayers $4M per year or potentially $20M over the full remaining life of the contract.

The government contract was already bitterly fought – with Bell winning on price. The deal was the subject of a trade tribunal review, and judicial review and CRTC complaint. Bell won on price. But now that the contracts are signed, Bell raises the prices.

Nasty business.

How should customers respond? We have a number of strategies to address these issues.

One might start by sending notice of intent not not renew at option time. Send it now. A flood of such letters may help trigger a fresh look at those inflation calculations.

Videotron released its Q2 numbers and it is proving that the company is having success in offering a compelling bundle of services – TV, internet and telephone.

Videotron has always taken a different approach from the other 2 major Canadian cable companies (Shaw and Rogers). Aggressive pricing for local phone service; pushing hard on the internet gas pedal. A wireless component is getting added to the bundle on Thursday.

Among the top items to glean from the release: Videotron grew its Q2 cable base for the first time in 10 years. You need to understand that it seems the entire province of Quebec moves on June 30 because of overly paternalistic micromanagement of the apartment rental markets. But that is another story.

48% of our sales of residential telephone service were to new customers and 70% of them took all three of our products

You have to like what Robert Depatie is doing. A fresh perspective on the telecom sector from a guy who comes from consumer foods (Heinz and Planters).

We have written about privacy in the past, including a few posts during the last week of June, when AT&T made changes to its privacy policy. There is an opportunity to look at privacy issues in depth, coming in October.

The International Privacy Officers Network (IPON) is meeting in Toronto on October 17 to discuss “Canada’s Unique Privacy Challenges: Employment, Outsourcing, Federal-Provincial Jurisdictional Issues“. The meeting is taking place a day before the International Association of Privacy Professionals holds its 6th annual Privacy Academy conference.

The IPON session is being run by our good friends at Privacy Laws and Business, a consultancy of specialists headed by Stewart Dresner. Stewart has been a leader in privacy matters for more than 20 years.

By attending this one day event, you will:

• Learn the most important things you need to know about how privacy issues are regulated in Canada;
• Understand how the private sector is impacted both in the provinces which have specific private sector privacy laws (Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec) and those which do not;
• Focus on the specific issues IPON members have told us they most need to grapple with, including employment issues and outsourcing;
• Exchange experience with your peers on how you and they manage compliance with privacy laws in Canada;
• Have an opportunity to make timely recommendations to the federal legislature’s review of the private sector law.

We plan to attend. Hope to see you there!