GATINEAU — Rogers has asked the CRTC to reverse its decision made in an April procedural letter that allowed Bell to delay deployment of one-way toll-free (TF) trunks between Bell’s network and Rogers’ network to carry TF traffic destined for Bell TF numbers until August 17, 2020.
In a review and vary application filed May 20, Rogers says it was given no notice the Commission intended to give Bell a deadline extension for deploying the TF trunks, which originally were to be installed by April 30, 2020. In an abridged copy of the application, Rogers says it will now have to pay Bell more in overage imbalance fees than would otherwise be the case “not only because of the extended period of time Bell has been given to construct its trunks — but also because the amount of traffic destined for Bell’s TF numbers has more than doubled since the advent of the Covid-19 outbreak.”
While acknowledging the impact that Covid-19 has had on telecom traffic and the strain on underlying networks, Rogers calls the extension granted to Bell by the Commission unjustified.
“Rogers has already completed hundreds of trunk deployments since the middle of March. This includes TF trunks (inbound TF traffic to Rogers, destined to our TF customers) with several other carriers even in the heart of the crisis. TF traffic, particularly to Government agencies, has been a priority for everyone, and Rogers has worked closely with other carriers to improve and augment every carrier’s ability to carry this essential traffic to Rogers,” reads the R&V application.
“They are simply attempting to preserve their revenues at Rogers’ expense.”
Bell on the other hand has not been willing to discuss the TF trunk matter with Rogers, it reads.
“Any argument that they are resource constrained is untrue… Bell has actually approached Rogers in mid-April to augment further our Bill & Keep trunks. If they have the time and resources to add Bill & Keep trunks (on top of what both companies have deployed in March and early April), then clearly they can add TF trunks. Moreover, it makes absolutely no sense to add excess Bill & Keep capacity when it would only need to be decommissioned after the Bell one-way TF trunks are deployed. They are simply attempting to preserve their revenues at Rogers’ expense,” continues application.
The Commission posted Rogers’ R&V application to its website today and has set June 26, 2020 as the deadline for interventions.
