OTTAWA – The CRTC has turned down a request from three consumer groups asking it to expand and/or revise the geographic boundaries for local number portability (LNP) to more accurately reflect the current network and marketplace structure for telephony services.
LNP allows subscribers to keep the same telephone number when changing service providers. The Commission required all wireline local exchange carriers to implement LNP as part of its framework for local competition established in May, 1997.
In an application dated June 15, 2015, the Consumers' Association of Canada, the Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of British Columbia, and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre proposed that new boundaries could be established through a separate public process or that the task could be delegated to the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee (CISC). The application says that competition between wireline and wireless services is undermined by the current LNP rules, particularly given the growing number of Canadians moving from wireline to wireless services, and that the current constraints on location portability “are not symmetrical or competitively neutral”.
The CRTC denied the application on Friday, citing arguments over “significant complexity and feasibility challenges, and significant costs” raised during the proceeding from the likes of Bell Canada, MTS Allstream, SaskTel and Telus.
The CRTC, did, however, approve an application from Telus to establish a special location porting zone (LPZ) within the Metro Vancouver area, enabling residential and business subscribers to keep their telephone numbers when moving to a new address within this extended area. Carriers have three months from the date of this decision to implement the LPZ.
