GATINEAU — Iristel has filed a complaint with the CRTC alleging Rogers has been manipulating caller ID information for some of its retail mobile subscribers to make it appear as though calls are originating from the United States, which Iristel claims gives Rogers an undue preference.
According to Iristel’s Part 1 application, posted to the Commission’s website on Monday, Iristel believes the alleged scheme is “designed to circumvent routing arrangements between companies who are Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) and some of their international partners,” and would allow Rogers “to benefit from termination rates that are more advantageous than those they would otherwise pay to Canadian LECs by routing Canada-to-Canada traffic domestically.”
Iristel says in its application modifying caller ID information to mask the origin of telecom traffic is a violation of Section 36 of the Telecommunications Act.
In the redacted application, Iristel claims a Rogers subscriber in May used a Rogers cell phone with a Vancouver originating number (area code 604) to dial an Iristel conference bridge, which registered the calling number as originating from New York City (area code 212). The Rogers subscriber was physically located in Vancouver, not roaming, and was not aware his caller ID was not displaying his own telephone number, says the Iristel application.
After investigating, Iristel said it determined there have been hundreds of calls and tens of thousands of call attempts originating from this particular 212 phone number (the area code and exchange in this case is registered to Verizon in New York).
Iristel said in its submission it is unable to trace these calls further than its own upstream providers, but has confirmed at least some of the calls originated from a Rogers wireless subscriber. In some cases, these calls appear to have routed to Iristel via some of its wholesale customers, but in other cases, these calls were received via the Northwestel-Iristel Bill & Keep trunks, indicating the practice may be affecting more LECs than just Iristel, the company says.
According to Iristel’s application, it has contacted Rogers technical support multiple times to request an explanation, but has not received one. Iristel was told the issue was being escalated at Rogers.
In an email sent to Cartt.ca today, a Rogers spokesperson said: “We do not manipulate caller line ID. We have investigated the case provided and determined a third-party long distance vendor made an error during testing in May and the matter was resolved in the spring.”
In its application, dated July 29, Iristel requests the Commission issue an order to Rogers, and all telecom carriers, explicitly prohibiting manipulation of caller ID information for the purpose of circumventing routing restrictions.
“Iristel also requests that the Commission direct telecommunications carriers to ensure that their service agreements with downstream providers contain the necessary clauses to ensure that downstream providers do not engage in caller ID manipulation for the purpose of circumventing routing restrictions,” reads Iristel’s application.
Interventions to the file are due by September 2, 2020.
