By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Cabinet will not send back a decision by the CRTC that declined to force Eastlink to relocate an internet access point in Nova Scotia, according to an order in council last week.
City Wide Communications filed a review and vary application with the CRTC and a petition to cabinet last March challenging a decision that denied its application in 2020 alleging Eastlink misrepresented that its rural Pennant Point interconnection centre was carrier-neutral and served by competitive transport facilities when the CRTC approved it in 2016. City Wide said the connection point increased its transport costs and reduced subscriber growth because it’s further away than the capital city. The CRTC denied the application in December, urging the two parties to come to an agreement on rates.
Cabinet also denied City Wide’s application last week, citing the commission’s dispute resolution services as an “appropriate venue” for conflict and a new February policy direction to the CRTC that provides the commission with “clear directions of general application on broad policy matters with respect to the Canadian telecommunications policy objectives, including strengthening the wholesale services framework.”
The CRTC launched is consultation and review of the wholesale internet framework last month.
City Wide had asked the regulator to either force Eastlink to move the interconnection point or regulate the transport rates to compensate for the longer distance. It received support from the Competitive Network Operators of Canada and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
