By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Quebecor has won an arbitration hearing at the CRTC to determine the cost to access Bell’s wireless network.
In a letter dated July 13, the CRTC accepted Quebecor’s June 22 application for the commission to call the final offer for that access, which the Montreal-based company said is integral for its mobile virtual network operator business and its growth as the fourth national carrier after acquiring Freedom Mobile from Shaw.
Quebecor argued that the two sides tried their best but could not hammer out a deal within the 30 days they were required to make a best-efforts attempt. Bell notified the CRTC on June 27 that it agreed to an arbitration hearing, the regulator said.
The CRTC will review offers from both parties, to be filed by July 28, and pick one. The parties will have five days to respond to the other party’s offer. The regulator said both carriers should continue trying to get a deal done while the arbitration process moves forward. If a commercial deal is struck, the parties would notify the commission to abort the arbitration process.
To help it with the cost analysis, the CRTC is asking Quebecor and Bell to hand over copies documents related to MVNO agreements they already entered into, off tariff roaming access agreements, the number of subscribers and usage on Quebecor’s own network for the past 12 months, and a breakdown of all costs incurred for both Bell and Quebecor related to providing access to the incumbent’s network.
A point of contention between Quebecor and Bell has been whether seamless handoff functionality should be included in the price of access, which the CRTC has already determined in a previous decision. Seamless handoff is the function of maintaining consistent network connectivity when a user switches networks while roaming.
The CRTC will determine the rate, therefore, with the increased cost of the seamless handoff functionality, it said.
The CRTC had earlier denied Quebecor’s request to determine the cost to access Bell’s wireless network, which Bell told the regulator should be denied.
Quebecor was already granted an arbitration hearing in May to determine the rates to access Rogers’s network.
Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau has complained about the alleged slowness of the incumbents to come to agreements and praised on a conference call the regulator’s push to get force the players to get deals done.
Incumbents and regional providers eligible under the MVNO framework have until August 7 to hash out a deal.
Last week, Cogeco said it is still in the midst of negotiations after the CRTC said last month that it wants to get an update on the status of those talks.
