Northwestel wants to wait on Starlink effect before CRTC proceeds
GATINEAU — The CRTC is asking for further comments on its review of telecom services in Canada’s North, even though replies to the proceeding previously closed on March 24, in order to let interveners respond to a concern raised by the government of the Northwest Territories regarding a request by Northwestel to delay the proceeding until the impact of Elon Musk’s Starlink’s low Earth orbit (LEO) service in northern Canada is known.
In its reply comments dated March 24, Northwestel wrote: “…to ensure that the Commission’s regulatory framework review is comprehensive and considers all relevant factors, we request that the Commission launch the next phase of this proceeding after such time as Starlink has been widely available in northern Canada for six months to a year.”
Northwestel’s letter adds the company is “concerned that any significant regulatory change at this point, before the impact of Starlink and other LEO-based providers is known, could lock-in a regulatory framework that could imminently become obsolete or inappropriate, but which cannot be quickly changed to reflect the new reality of LEO-based competition.”
In a letter sent May 10 to the CRTC, the government of Northwest Territories (GNWT) expresses its concern with Northwestel’s request which the territorial government says could potentially delay the proceeding for two to three years.
“The GNWT asks that the Commission ensure that before it rules on such request, other parties have had an opportunity to address it. In all cases, however, we respectfully oppose the request for a delay in this proceeding, for three reasons,” states the letter signed by GNWT chief information officer Rick Wind.
“First, the entry of LEO-based providers is not an unforeseen or surprising development to any party to this proceeding. Newspapers have talked about it for months. The Commission’s submission to the Broadcasting & Telecommunications Legislative Panel canvassed it expressly. The Notice devotes multiple questions to it.
“Telecommunications markets have evolved, and will continue to evolve, for many years to come. The promise and delivery of promised and early-stage satellite solutions as a component of this evolution is perpetually one of its features. Northwestel has the ability, in these proceedings, to provide its vision of a regulatory framework that will be resilient to any ‘massive competitive change’,” says the government’s letter, referring to a concern raised by Northwestel in its March 24th reply letter.
“Second, from a practical standpoint, the current proceeding is already a lengthy one divided into phases, each with voluminous filings which will no doubt be subject to updating even under the current plan,” continues the GNWT’s letter. “There is little danger that this proceeding will proceed swiftly through to a rapid decision. Further delay could doom this proceeding to irrelevance, potentially forcing a restart, and the loss of the resources already invested that this implies.
“Third, and most importantly, further delay would waste not only the resources of interveners, many of whom are individual affected Northerners who have invested an enthusiasm that should not be encouraged to wither. It would also waste the time and resources of the people of the North who depend on affordable, available communications as an essential lifeline, and are entitled to know what regulatory backstops and market regulatory position the CRTC, on whose responsible stewardship we depend as against highly concentrated markets within which market forces have limited ability to influence,” adds the letter.
The full text of the GNWT’s May 10th letter is available at the “response to procedural request” link for the relevant proceeding on the closed telecom notices of consultation section of the CRTC’s website here.
In a Commission letter issued on May 21, the CRTC is giving interveners until May 28 to reply to the letter from the government of Northwest Territories.
