OBLIGATION TO SERVE: Does the CRTC have the authority to make broadband an essential service?

By Perry Hoffman

GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service in the so-called “Obligation to Serve” CRTC proceeding beginning Tuesday in Timmins, Ont.Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential.The issue has become a central theme in the proceeding which will cover a broad...