By Ahmad Hathout
The Independent Telecommunications Providers Association (ITPA) is urging the CRTC this month to reject a request from Telus to destandardize a form of legacy voice interconnection service in its operating territories because it would allegedly leave new competitors at the mercy of commercial negotiations with the dominant telco with no regulatory backstop.
Telus filed a request in early August asking the CRTC to destandardize and therefore no longer make available to new competitors legacy interconnection technology called time-division multiplexing (TDM) because it claims it hasn’t had a new customer on that technology in over three years and because customers are adopting new internet protocol switching technology anyway.
Telus “notes that the proposed destandardization is an important step towards future-proofing TELUS’ networks as well as competitors’ networks, preparing service providers within the Company’s ILEC territories for the inevitable and eventual replacement of TDM networks by IP, which offers greater efficiency and flexibility, as well as supporting advanced features such as STIR/SHAKEN,” Telus said in its application, noting that the phase out of a regulatory backstop for the older technology would not affect existing customers on TDM.
But the ITPA said in a filing last week that approval of such a request would violate the 2023 policy direction from cabinet – which emphasizes increased competition – and “leave any new Competitive Local Exchange Carrier … at the mercy of negotiations with the resident large Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier … a.k.a TELUS,” adding this would trigger other ILECs to file similar proposals.
The ITPA said it’s also concerned about Telus potentially moving to destandardize TDM services altogether, including existing customers, “which will force these existing service providers into commercial negotiations for IP interconnection in the absence of tariffed backstop framework.”
The trade group noted that the reason the CRTC has maintained regulation of TDM services is because of the “market power that TELUS is able to exercise in its incumbent operating territory,” which it alleges the Vancouver telecom is still able to do with new entrants. (The CRTC forebears from certain regulation where it finds competition is sufficient in the market.)
“This market power must continue to be checked by the Commission through a fully costed and tariffed interconnection framework,” it added.
The group is also asking the CRTC to force Telus to back its claim, via a request for information, that it hasn’t had a new TDM-based interconnection customer in more than three years.
“If left to commercial negotiations alone, as mere customers of TELUS competitive entrants would be unsure as to the suite of services that would be offered by TELUS,” the ITPA said. “The interconnection regime used by TELUS would be an uncertain and potentially fluid ‘black box’ of requirements fully under the control of only TELUS.
“Competitive entrants have had the option of negotiating off-tariff interconnection arrangements as an alternative to tariffed services for some time but it is critical to acknowledge that this option is only an alternative and that the tariffed backstop framework was always available to the competitor,” it added.
The ITPA also suggests that an alternative to the rejection of Telus’s application is for the commission to launch a notice of consultation for a comprehensive review of the voice interconnection regime for all incumbent service providers.
