GATINEAU — In a letter issued February 8, the CRTC has told Bell Canada and payphone operators SDI Telecom and AFX Communications (now defunct) that it will not step in to settle an ongoing dispute over toll-free call compensation.
In September 2020, in an application to the CRTC, Bell accused SDI Telecom of making illegitimate toll-free calls to inflate its billing charges to Bell, and asked the Commission to allow Bell to withhold payment of the disputed charges. Similarly, in August 2020, Bell had accused AFX Communications of doing the same thing and sought permission from the Commission to withhold payments over the disputed calls.
In both applications, Bell also asked to be able to disclose SDI’s and AFX’s confidential information to other interexchange carriers in order for them to validate any invoices they may receive from SDI or AFX.
AFX Communications has since gone out of business, and also lost its appeal to the Federal Cabinet where it was seeking an amendment to a CRTC decision in December 2019 regarding the amount of compensation Bell had to pay for toll-free calls made from AFX payphones connected to Bell Canada’s lines.
In its letter posted to the CRTC website on Monday, the Commission writes: “Commission staff notes that the Commission has forborne from the regulation of pay telephone access line services and has adequately addressed in various decisions the policy concerns related to toll-free compensation. Moreover, the Commission has encouraged competitive pay telephone service providers and access line providers to negotiate mutually acceptable business arrangements.
“As such, to the extent that the parties cannot agree on the determination of the legitimacy of certain calls and whether SDI or AFX should be compensated for them as a result, these matters and any related issues are better dealt with by the judicial system.
“In view of the above, the above-referenced applications are being returned and these matters are considered closed,” reads the Commission’s letter.
