THE INSTANT REACTION to the CRTC’s Tuesday decision to rate-regulate the domestic wholesale wireless roaming business was met with a range of reactions, including complete silence from the big three wireless operators at whom this decision was directed.
From Quebecor, owner of Vidéotron: The company “welcomed the move to regulate roaming rates as a step in the right direction. Quebecor shares the CRTC's goal of offering Canadian consumers more competition and greater freedom of choice.
“Quebecor intends to actively participate in the regulatory process established by the CRTC and hopes that it will be completed quickly. The final rates set by the CRTC will be decisively important for the viability of genuine competition. Quebecor is pleased to note that the CRTC decision favours mobile carriers that invest in their own state-of-the-art facilities for the benefit of Canadian consumers. Through its Videotron subsidiary, Quebecor has invested more than $2 billion in its mobile network since 2008 and created thousands of good jobs.
From Wind Mobile: "A fair, cost-based wholesale roaming regime will allow Wind Mobile to both better serve its existing customers and better provide choice to all Canadians in our markets," said Alek Krstajic, CEO. "Enabling all Canadians – with all carriers – fair access to networks across the country will improve service and reduce prices."
"Once again, the federal government is taking steps to expand on its promise to support sustainable wireless competition in Canada," added Bob Boron, chief regulatory officer. "The first phase of changes to wholesale roaming rates allowed Wind Mobile to reduce roaming charges for its customers by up to 90%. We urge the CRTC to push ahead quickly with the cost-analysis phase, so we can bring even more choice and better pricing to Canadians."
From Scotiabank analyst Jeff Fan in a note to clients: “With the current interim roaming rate unchanged (3.7c/MB), we believe this is a positive relief for the Big 3. With the status quo, we believe the Big 3 will continue to enjoy the current relatively benign pricing environment. We expect a cost-plus approach (from the CRTC’s final ruling) will result in a rate well below the interim rate at 1c-1.5c/MB, we estimate it will take at least a year for the CRTC to issue a final decision given the lack of history with wireless costing and the time typically required for tariff decisions. This will likely also push back any potential MVNOs entering the market.
“It may be harder for Wind to raise significant amount of additional capital until there is more certainty on the roaming rate in 2016. Until then Wind can continue to grow at a similar pace as it has been for the past few quarters on subscriber share and ARPU, but it may not get the fuel needed to fund spectrum consolidation or LTE upgrade in the near-term.”
From the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC): The decision “fails to address the serious lack of competition in Canada’s markets for mobile wireless services… In the CRTC proceeding leading to the decision, CNOC submitted that the competitive state of Canada’s mobile wireless market is currently tenuous at best and characterized by extremely high barriers to competitive entry and expansion.”
“This is a missed opportunity for independent telecommunications service providers, but more importantly – this is a missed opportunity for Canadian consumers who would have benefited tremendously from regulatory measures that were in the CRTC’s discretion to implement” said CNOC president, William Sandiford.
From the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic: “Mandating wholesale access is necessary to facilitate a truly competitive landscape that is not bound by finite spectrum availability, and stimulates investment in radio access network equipment. Mandating MVNO access is necessary to facilitate market innovations such as international roaming and to expand highly underdeveloped Canadian niche markets such as pre-paid. While taking some important steps towards fixing Canada's mobile market, it is disappointing that the CRTC did not go further in spite of its recognition that the market is concentrated and in need of more competition.”
