Obligation to serve: Discussion turns to subsidy "perversion" potential

By Perry Hoffman

OTTAWA - Talk of the contribution regime and the appropriate level for a high-cost serving area (HCSA) subsidy became heated at times during the fifth day of testimony at the CRTC’s obligation to serve hearing. Len Katz, vice-chair of telecommunications and national commissioner, took the l’Association des companies de téléphone du Québec to task over the importance of the subsidy to their businesses. He suggested that based on the ACTQ’s subsidy proposal, it would actually be more beneficial for its members to lose customers because they could then become takeover targets. “The perversion as I see it is, at the...