By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Bell Canada has told the CRTC independent payphone provider AFX Communications is not playing by the rules.
AFX is a Quebec-based competitive pay telephone service provider (CPTSP) and as such receives payment for toll-free calls made from its pay phones. Last month, AFX filed its own complaint with cabinet to challenge a CRTC ruling over its levels of payment.
In a new submission to the CRTC, Bell Canada alleges AFX is not playing by the rules. “We have uncovered evidence that raises strong concerns about the legitimacy of the volume of toll-free calls made over AFX pay telephones,” reads the Bell submission. “As a result, we have disputed AFX’s billing and we intend to withhold payment of future invoices and to seek compensation for past amounts that may have been paid for non-legitimate toll-free calls.”
Bell said it conducted surveillance on some of AFX pay phones on May 20 and 21 of this year and concluded nobody made calls that the billing record shows were made. Bell reviewed the records and determined strange patterns of calls were instead observed. “AFX has significant volumes of toll-free calls late at night; in hours that would normally see lower call volumes. Further, since many of AFX’s pay telephones are located indoors in businesses that would be closed during the overnight hours, we would expect to see no calls being placed,” Bell’s application continues.
So, Bell is requesting permission from the CRTC to withhold payments on disputed calls and share confidential information with other interexchange carriers so that they could “investigate and evaluate their AFX bill.”
Bell also indicated the per call toll-free compensation regime appears vulnerable to misuse. “We have in 2010 had to address invalid toll-free call invoices from a different CPTSP and note that a similar situation was reported in the United States where a pay telephone provider set up automated calls to toll-free numbers in order to collect the equivalent of toll-free compensation per call charges, “the application concludes.
The deadline for comments for the AFX petition to cabinet is on August 4. Parties, including AFX, have until September 3, 2020, to respond to the Bell complaint.
