Fibre Hearing: Independent ISPs will be put out of business without access to local fibre and lower CBB rates

By Perry Hoffman

GATINEAU – The increasing of usage-sensitive rates such as capacity-based billing (CBB) as a tool to incent competitors to build their own high speed networks, as was suggested by Rogers Communications on Tuesday, would have a disastrous impact on the independent ISPs, the Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) argued in its oral reply on Thursday.Even using current Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) rates from Rogers, combined with its own projected data usage growth of 60% annually, wholesale customers would be saddled with unsustainable prices over the next decade, the group told the CRTC’s hearing into access to next generation facilities.“Using...