OTTAWA – It’s a bit past the 150-day decision promise, but the CRTC’s decision on local telephone market forbearance will be out this afternoon.
The release and a conference call are scheduled for 4 p.m. Look for cartt.ca reports shortly thereafter.
Spurred by a request made by Aliant to deregulate its eastern markets due to the severe customer losses at the hands of local cable firm EastLink (which top 30% in some areas), the Commission hosted a week-long public hearing in September, as reported extensively by cartt.ca.
Two of the key issues all are waiting on are: the threshold to measure when a market is competitive; and how a market will be defined.
For example, when cable companies could prove they lost 5% of their customers in certain towns and cities to new competitors, they could apply for deregulation. What will the percentage be for local telephony and how will markets be defined. By region? By municipality?
Surf back to www.cartt.ca later on for a report.
