OTTAWA – The CRTC has scolded Toronto-area telecom Iristel Inc. and American VoIP provider netTALK for their respective roles in a dispute earlier this year that resulted in approximately 75,000 Canadians losing their full phone services.
In a letter dated June 8, 2016 addressed to Iristel president and CEO Samer Bishay and netTALK COO Nicholas Kyriakides, the Commission said that its investigation in to the matter was “inconclusive as to whether one, or both parties, clearly contravened regulatory obligations”, but added that the service disconnection in this case could, and should, have been avoided.
“It does not seem that the parties seriously took into consideration the negative impact of their actions on Canadians”, reads the letter, signed by telecommunications sector executive director Chris Seidl. “Canadians, who rely daily on strong and dependable telephone services, must trust that their service providers will make every effort to avoid them becoming hostage to commercial disputes. The behaviour of both Iristel and netTALK, which resulted in Canadian individuals and businesses being without fully functioning telephone services for several days, was unacceptable.”
The letter adds that the Commission is still exploring whether regulations are required to prevent similar situations from occurring again, and chided the two companies for not considering CRTC staff-assisted mediation and/or informing it in advance that “disconnection was a real possibility”.
