GATINEAU – The CRTC is relieving some cablecos of certain regulatory obligations regarding their local voice over Internet protocol services, but only in cases of “hardship” for small carriers.
The now-defunct Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association had asked the commission to relieve certain competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) from several requirements. In 2005, the commission determined that local VoIP services would be regulated as local exchange services.
The relief is being granted to Group 2 CLECs (non-dominant Canadian carriers offering local VoIP services through a reseller) with fewer than 10,000 subscribers.
These “small CLECs” will not have to meet and file tariffs for equal access arrangements with interexchange carriers nor offer inbound local number portability (for now), and they may choose to comply with interconnection arrangements through the local exchange carrier provide services to their resale partner.
The commission turned down the request from the CCTA (subsequently handled by the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance) to relieve the small CLECs from the obligation to:
* provide directory listings to other LECs, since the CCTA argued the costs “were unlikely to be economically justified”
* obtain a central office code for each incumbent local exchange carrier exchange in which they operate
* provide interconnection arrangements
* file serving area maps with the commission and make them available upon request.
The CRTC says the relief would only apply to “a very small segment of non-dominant Canadian carriers” if they face “conditions of hardship, economy, and efficiency.” Also, if a carrier grows beyond the 10,000 threshold, or starts offering VoIP services on its own, the obligations would be reimposed within six months.
The full text of the decision is here.
