OTTAWA – The CRTC has denied Bell Mobility’s request for it to review and vary a decision directing the company, along with Rogers and Telus, to make changes to the proposed terms and conditions outlined in their GSM-based wholesale mobile roaming tariffs incorporating seamless hand-off and 5G roaming.
“Bell has not presented any compelling arguments or evidence to support its review and vary application,” reads a CRTC letter to Bell, dated July 21, 2022.
Bell’s application, submitted to the CRTC earlier this month, argued the decision (TD 2022-102) reaches beyond the scope of the proceedings that led to it and that it and the other national wireless carriers did not receive proper notice of the case they had to meet.
Bell argued the Commission expanded “the seamless roaming handoff requirement to in-footprint coverage gaps contrary to Telecom Regulatory Policy 2021-130.”
The Commission, however, “did not limit seamless roaming to the outer perimeter of a network,” its letter claims. “While Bell is of the view that network boundaries only exist at the outermost edge of a network footprint, this is not how networks are designed and deployed.”
Bell also argued “the Commission erred in fact by introducing 7-day/30-day timelines for seamless handoff boundary changes without considering any evidence regarding the feasibility of same, technical or otherwise.”
The CRTC argued Bell and the other carriers “had the full opportunity to broadly comment on the issue of the implementation of seamless roaming, which included the timelines related to seamless handoff boundary changes.”
“Bell and the other national carriers have had nearly 15 months since TRP 2021-130 was issued to prepare for the implementation of this critical policy that will bring benefits to Canadians,” the Commission’s letter reads. The CRTC encouraged the national wireless carriers and wholesale customers to be flexible with regards to the baseline timeframes set in TD 2022-102, “and mutually agreed upon extensions may sometimes be warranted.”
Bell is reviewing the decision and currently has no comment on the matter, a Bell spokesperson told Cartt.ca via email.
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