By Ahmad Hathout
The CRTC said Thursday that Bell must pay for all corrective work to attach third-party equipment for which it did not issue an invoice to Quebecor before the regulator ruled that all such work must be done by the structure owner at its own expense.
The clarification favours Quebecor, which asked the regulator late last year to decide on a dispute with Bell that dealt with the status of permit applications that had yet to be fully approved by Bell when the CRTC in January ordered the telcos to make the necessary corrective work on structures at their own expense to prepare for new equipment.
Quebecor said by the time of the new ruling, Bell had yet to give it a quote for corrective work, so the telco must pay for the preparations. But Bell argued that it considered an application processed at the point when substantive steps as outlined in the tariff had been completed, including the assessment of the application, the inspection of the structures, engineering work, and the issuance and acceptance of a cost estimate.
“The Commission considers that approving the cost estimate, while an important step in the process, cannot be considered sufficient to justify ILECs continuing to charge for corrective work once the new tariffs are in effect,” the CRTC said in its decision.
“Attachers that filed an access application before the Order was issued could not require that these charges be removed from the estimate and therefore had to accept the estimate as is if they wanted access to the ILEC’s support structures,” it added. “Furthermore, although estimates must be as realistic as possible, they may differ from the final invoice. The Commission considers that accepting the estimate does not mark the full completion of the process, given that the work must still be performed, the permit has not been issued, and the final charges may still change.”
The CRTC, therefore, ordered Bell to remove charges for corrective work from all invoices it issued since the ruling and reimburse Quebecor for all charges for corrective work that had been billed and collected since.
In its January decision, the CRTC made a distinction between make-ready and corrective work, which is to correct pre-existing non-compliance of a support structure or its attachments so that it meets applicable construction and safety standards. Because the corrective work is not triggered by a third-party attachment request, but rather its non-compliant state, the regulator said that cost must be borne by the owner.
Bell, backed by fellow pole owner Telus, and Quebecor, backed by fellow attacher Rogers, did not respond to a request for comment.
The CRTC, however, turned away Quebecor’s second request to find the pole owner responsible for moving third-party equipment in the event of structure relocation, transfer, or engineering costs related to the facilities of attaching carriers during corrective work.
“ILECs’ support structure service tariffs generally state that the facilities of attaching carriers must be relocated at their expense in specific situations that are not triggered by the ILEC,” the CRTC notes. “These situations include emergencies or when an owner other than the ILEC requires the ILEC to relocate a support structure. These tariffs do not mention corrective work in the list of items that could lead to additional charges.”
“The relocation costs of attaching carriers have never been included in the cost studies that led to the approved tariffs and rates,” the CRTC added. “Contrary to Quebecor’s proposal, the Commission therefore considers that, if it required ILECs to bear additional costs, it would have to allow them to file new cost studies to recover those costs. However, it would be rather difficult for ILECs to assess the extent of those costs, given that they have never had to pay them before, and that each attaching carrier may use different facilities, resulting in different costs.”
The regulator further reasoned that adding more requirements during corrective work “could discourage ILECs from performing upkeep and preventative maintenance on their support structure network.”
Photo via Xplore
