OTTAWA – The CRTC has decided to uphold its existing regulatory measure associated with the provision of detailed monthly billing for small and large incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
In addition, the Commission said Friday, market forces can continue to be relied upon with respect to the detailed monthly billing requirement in forborne markets, consistent with policy direction.
Commissioners Suzanne Lamarre and Michel Morin both offered dissenting opinions which decried the decision’s lack of transparency. Commissioner Lamarre recommended that the regulations be extended to all local exchange carriers (LECs) and other telecommunications service providers (TSPs) in both regulated and forborne markets for two main reasons.
“First, we would be recognizing the undeniable importance of this practice by upgrading it from a voluntary practice to a permanent, general, and mandatory one”, she wrote. “Second, consumers have the right to this protection, given the inevitable imbalance of power between service providers and their customers.”
Commissioner Morin said that the decision permits two categories of consumers – those in regulated markets who are entitled to receive detailed billing, and “the majority of Canadian consumers” who must continue to rely on market forces as to whether to receive detailed billing for their telephone services each month.
"…(B)y confirming previous Commission decisions dating back to the mid-1990s concerning detailed billing requirements, the Commission is still refusing to make detailed billing for telephone services mandatory, as it does for regulated markets – and this time, it would be in the interest of four out of every five Canadian consumers to do so”, he wrote. “This means that over 80 percent of Canadians have no assurance that they will receive detailed monthly billing for the telephone services to which they subscribe.
"In making this decision, the Commission is missing an excellent opportunity to correct previous decisions by mandating full transparency and detailed billing for all customers of telephone companies.”
