By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Rogers is asking Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice to force Telus to continue fulfilling its obligations under existing wireless roaming terms with the cable company while the two competitors wrangle over terms of a proposed agreement.
Rogers is alleging in the August 14 filing that Telus is threatening to cease providing certain wireless services to it as a result of a dispute “over a particular term” in a proposed bilateral wireless agreement that is before arbitration. The particulars of the commercial dispute are not outlined in the complaint.
“TELUS has threatened to terminate Rogers’ access to certain services if Rogers does not accede immediately to the demands of TELUS related to this dispute even though doing so would alter the longstanding status quo between the parties and even though the disputed term is the subject of an ongoing arbitration,” Rogers alleges in the filing.
Rogers argues that it is Telus’s obligation under the terms of its spectrum licence agreement with Innovation Canada — which licences the radio waves powering wireless communications — that it provide services to other domestic carriers “on request and indefinitely” across all areas of the country.
“In the circumstances, Rogers is entitled to injunctive relief to prevent TELUS from terminating services, until an arbitrator or judge adjudicates the parties’ dispute on the merits,” Rogers said. “Whether TELUS is entitled to terminate services is a serious issue to be tried. Rogers will suffer irreparable harm if injunctive relief is not granted. The balance of convenience overwhelmingly favours Rogers.”
Rogers is asking for an expedited order from the court imposing the status quo pending the outcome of the arbitration hearing and to award damages to it.
Bilateral agreements involve two companies riding on the other’s wireless network where they don’t have their own infrastructure. That’s because no one wireless company has complete coverage of the country.
Telus, which is based out west but provides wireless services in other areas through a network-sharing agreement with Bell, is coming under increasing pressure from Rogers after the cable company’s acquisition of Shaw – Telus’s former west coast rival. Rogers said it has taken good market share in western Canada after the acquisition.
The wireless companies are competing on the next generation of 5G services, which is expected to bring ubiquitous connectivity in more spaces across the country. Rogers and Bell are, in fact, backing a Telus application for the Supreme Court of Canada to hear it argue that the CRTC should have jurisdiction over wireless attachments on municipal structures to facilitate the rollout of that new technology.
