By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – In the ongoing Bell vs Cloudwifi skirmish, last Thursday, the CRTC rendered a decision that gets Cloudwifi, a Kitchener and Toronto reseller of telecom services, closer to getting CLEC status, which would allow it to offer its services while riding on larger providers fibre networks.
One criterion to fulfil its obligations in order to get CLEC status requires a company to have signed a Special Master Agreement for Local Interconnection (MALI) with all LECs that operate in the exchanges in which it wishes to operate.
Bell Canada was refusing to sign such an agreement and in Thursday’s decision, the CRTC ordered it to do so without additional conditions commenting that:” The Commission considers that Bell Canada’s refusal to sign the proposed Special MALI is not justified and is contrary to the Commission’s CLEC framework. The Commission also considers that Bell Canada’s continuing refusal is unnecessarily hindering competition and consumer choice.”
The signed Mali should be received by the Commission no later than April 27th.
However, this is not the end of the line in the dispute between the third party reseller and Bell. “The Commission notes that there is no tariff in place yet to operationalize the policy articulated in Telecom Decision 2019-419. Accordingly, even if Cloudwifi were to become a CLEC, it could not, solely by virtue of its CLEC status, connect to additional Bell Canada in-building fibre. Access to additional in-building fibre will only be possible if and when an approved tariff is in place. In this regard, the Commission notes that it will be examining this matter, among others, in the context of Telecom Notice of Consultation 2019-420,” which is its access to in-building wire in multi-dwelling units proceeding.
This process, like all others will be delayed by the Covid-19 crisis, as the Commission said it was suspending all deadlines in open proceedings until April 10th. “We are currently reviewing the timelines of all our files given the current situation, and therefore more changes are possible,” Commission spokesperson told Cartt.ca.
The interventions in the 2019-420 were supposed to be due on April 2nd.
