By Ahmad Hathout
Iristel and Bell are again in front of the CRTC about a disagreement over the repayment of amounts owed to the large telco, according to a Part 1 filing made public this week.
Iristel is asking the regulator to force Bell to withdraw a February 21 telephone service disconnection notice, effective March 3, and to accept its plan to pay back amounts it owes. The far north provider said it has been “willing to enter and honour a reasonable deferred payment agreement,” but says Bell has allegedly rejected the proposal.
The CRTC said in a June 27 decision that Iristel must either pay the overdue amounts or negotiate a payment plan to avoid service disruption to its customers. The decision stemmed from an Iristel complaint that alleged Bell had never intended – as it was allegedly required – to add an interconnection point at Kuujjuaq in northern Quebec for Iristel to carry its call traffic in the region. Instead, Iristel said it has relied since 2015 on a temporary exchange point that reduced its traffic carrying capacity that makes up 90 per cent of its revenues. Iristel had withheld amounts owing because of that perceived wrongdoing.
Iristel said that after the decision, the “parties entered a series of payment plans while working to resolve their disputes.” That included an October 31 agreement on a four-month deferred payment plan on the amounts owed to Bell.
“During the four months that the October 2024 Payment Plan was in force, Iristel attempted to negotiate in good faith with Bell Canada to achieve agreement with respect to the amounts owed by each party to the other and to achieve a settlement of the various disputes between the parties,” Iristel alleges. “Unfortunately, these efforts have not yet been successful. In particular, Bell Canada has not substantively engaged in efforts to achieve a reconciliation between the parties’ accounting records.”
When the four months expired on February 21, Bell sent the disconnection notice, according to Iristel’s complaint, which adds that it had tried to enter into another payment plan that was allegedly rejected by Bell. The Iristel and Bell proposals are redacted from the application, but Iristel points to disagreements over certain obligations that it alleges are contrary to Bell’s tariff and what it says are amounts it shouldn’t owe on shared-cost interconnection facilities.
“Bell has given Iristel the opportunity to pay its bills or enter into a payment plan to avoid disconnection,” Bell said in a statement to Cartt, pointing to the June decision of the commission that told Iristel to pay its bills. “We have met and continue to meet our regulatory obligations regarding disconnection.”
Iristel says it will make an undisclosed payment to Bell in good faith, but requests that the CRTC halt any further disconnection notices until it can look into its case.
