MONTREAL – Bell Canada has applied to the CRTC to deregulate the most populous regions inside its Ontario and Quebec territories.
The company has asked for forbearance from regulation of local telephone services in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, London, Hamilton and Quebec City.
Bell filed separate forbearance applications for residential services in 139 exchanges and for business services in 103 exchanges in the six cities. These applications are the first made by Bell under the new framework for forbearance announced by the federal government on April 4, 2007.
Additional applications for forbearance in other qualifying areas will follow shortly.
The announcement comes just after similar applications were made public by Telus and Bell Aliant and if the applications are processed quickly and the few remaining rules governing deregulation adhered to by the ILECs, the markets in question could be forborne by early 2008, if not before the end of this calendar year.
