GATINEAU – As a carrier which is still heavily regulated as compared to most others, because it serves a high-cost serving region, Northwestel can’t simply change terms of service to its customers without CRTC permission.
Earlier this week, as we reported, Northwestel said it submitted an urgent application to the CRTC for temporary relief on residential Internet usage to facilitate increased telework in the north.
In a letter to Northwestel’s CFO Stan Thompson on Thursday, however, the Commission said it received two submissions from the division of Bell Canada. The first proposes to waive data overage charges for the months of March and April 2020 to provide some financial relief to Northwestel customers who may use more data as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. “Waiving overage charges in response to COVID-19 is consistent with measures proposed and implemented by other major ISPs across Canada,” says the letter back to Northwestel from Chris Seidl the CRTC’s executive director, telecom sector.
The second submission, however, is a Part 1 application relating to residential Internet service which “raises a number of complex regulatory costing and policy issues” and asks to “restore the local subsidy that the Commission previously determined would be phased out; fund the restored subsidy from the National Contribution Fund; and introduce, as of May 1 2020, a new fixed rate Unlimited Data Option for certain residential Internet customers,” reads the Seidl letter.
That request pushes several arguments in support of its application “that raise notably the very issues the Commission has stated it intends to address in an upcoming proceeding,” reads the CRTC letter.
In the COVID-19 relief application, Northwestel, however, “made its willingness to proceed… conditional on the Commission restoring the local subsidy which would have the effect of the Commission prematurely reconsidering its determinations on local subsidy prior to receiving the submissions of other parties in an upcoming proceeding on that same issue,” said the letter from the Regulator.
“Given the nature of the issues raised in its Part 1 application, in addition to the challenges associated with participating in regulatory proceedings during this unique time of crisis, Northwestel is requested to re-file amendments to its existing internet tariff without preconditions, so that the Commission may give this important initiative its immediate consideration,” concludes the letter.
More to come.
