GATINEAU — Dartmouth, N.S.-based independent telecom provider City Wide Communications has asked the CRTC to order Eastlink to relocate a third-party Internet access (TPIA) point of interconnection to a more central Halifax site, claiming the current location outside of the city gives Eastlink an undue preference.
Currently, Eastlink’s TPIA service point of interconnection (POI) for Nova Scotia is located at its data centre in Pennant Point, which is a rural community approximately 30 kilometres away from downtown Halifax, says the City Wide application
The independent claims in its Part 1 application, filed on May 22 and posted on the CRTC’s website Tuesday, Eastlink obtained the Commission’s approval for the location of the TPIA POI for Nova Scotia back in 2016 based on Eastlink’s representations that the Pennant Point data centre is carrier-neutral and served by competitive transport facilities, which City Wide claims is false.
“[T]he only transport and other telecommunications services available at the Eastlink Pennant Point data centre are from Eastlink. The net effect of this is that Eastlink is using its choice of TPIA location to capture non-tariffed business, for which it is charging considerably more than City Wide must pay where competitive transport exists. This results in Eastlink granting itself an undue preference and subjecting City Wide to an undue disadvantage,” reads City Wide’s application.
The company’s submission goes on to say Eastlink’s undue advantage has been further compounded by the delays City Wide has experienced in receiving responses from Eastlink to quote requests for non-tariffed services at the Pennant Point location. In addition, capacity constraints at this POI location has resulted in inflated costs “beyond an already untenable level,” the application reads.
Furthermore, City Wide says Eastlink previously indicated to the Commission the Pennant Point POI is an aggregation point for Eastlink’s retail Internet service network. Again, City Wide disputes this claim.
“[B]ased on certain recent events, it does not appear that Eastlink’s own retail Internet service traffic routinely traverses the Pennant Point data centre. This means that if and when problems with the POI or transport manifest, TPIA traffic is adversely affected, while Eastlink retail Internet traffic is not,” reads the application, saying this is another way Eastlink is granting itself an undue preference.
Therefore, City Wide has asked the CRTC for relief and for the Commission to force Eastlink’s Nova Scotia TPIA POI to be moved from Pennant Point to the same location where Eastlink aggregates its retail Internet traffic, which is in the core of Halifax.
“City Wide has options for interconnecting with competitive transport supply at the core of Halifax POI that are simply not available at Pennant Point,” it explains.
The company is also requesting the Commission make a ruling soon, before it is forced to renew its existing arrangements with Eastlink at the Pennant Point location.
The deadline for interventions is June 25, 2020.
