MONTREAL – Just before Christmas, the CRTC halved the wholesale tariffs incumbent telephone companies can charge for providing DSL capability to independent ISPs.
The Commission made the cut “after determining that these proposed rates result in Bell Canada’s double recovery of actual costs for the fiber portion of the local loop facilities,” says a press release from the Quebec Coalition of ISPs.
In addition, the CRTC ordered Bell to extend the naked DSL offering to business customers.
Click here for the decision.
"We hoped for much lower rates but now at least we can consider offering the service at a reasonable price to small and medium businesses as well as residential users in the larger cities of Ontario and Quebec who are willing to pay a few extra dollars to benefit from the great alternatives offered by the coalition members", said Sophie Léger, president of Inter.net Canada and spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition of ISPs.
“With emerging technologies like voice over IP on the rise, this CRTC landmark decision lays the groundwork for a successful future for the coalition members by allowing them to offer VoIP on naked DSL across Quebec and Ontario. However, much remains to be done with regards to the margin squeeze on DSL light and naked DSL in smaller towns.
Also, in the same decision, the CRTC mentioned it would specifically address the margin squeeze issue in its disposition of the November 18, 2005 coalition’s ‘Part VII’ complaint, for which the coalition will post its final comments this week, it said.
"We consider that Bell has an obligation to offer naked DSL in order to remain competitive and stop the erosion of our customer base to the cable companies", continues Léger.
Cable companies are no strangers to the ongoing price war and the coalition intends to file a complaint with the CRTC to correct the current margin squeeze and lack of input equivalence (the balance between retail and wholesale service offering) which results from the retail price strategy of the cablecos.
The Quebec Coalition of Internet Service Providers is a group formed of 15 Quebec ISPs which have come together to defend the best interests of smaller Internet service providers.
“The coalition believes consumers are better served in a market promoting fair competition. The coalition’s mandate, therefore, is to advocate for CRTC regulations to end the problems encountered by unsustainable competition in the Internet and telecommunications market today, as well as to raise public awareness on issues ultimately affecting us all,” says the release.
