OTTAWA – Last week, the CRTC posted a part one application from several service providers who came together to ask the Commission to review the wholesale roaming tariff rates of the country’s national wireless carriers (Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus Communications), calling them “manifestly unjust and unreasonable”.
“This application deals with the flagrant overcharging for wholesale roaming – an essential service that stands as one of the central pillars of the Commission’s policy framework for ensuring sustainable competition in the provision of mobile wireless services in Canada,” reads the application, which was filed by regional competitors Bragg Communications Inc. (Eastlink), Cogeco Communications (on behalf of its subsidiary Cogeco Connexion Inc.), Quebecor Media (on behalf of its subsidiary Videotron) and Xplornet Communications and Xplore Mobile Inc. (together, Xplornet).
The regional competitors argue the rates need to be reconsidered because the current ones are based on regulatory economic studies filed in November 2015.
As such, “this means that the cost inputs found in these studies are based on equipment procurement data from late 2015,” the application says, adding that wireless equipment has evolved since then.
“The passage of at least one entire equipment lifecycle has translated into dramatic reductions in the unit cost of handling wireless traffic. To hold the wholesale roaming rate for a GB of data steady in such a context cannot under any circumstances be considered just and reasonable,” the regional competitors say.
In addition to reviewing the wholesale roaming tariff rates, the regional competitors are asking the CRTC to state explicitly the review will include consideration of a mechanism that would see newly approved wholesale roaming rates decline on an annual basis. They are also asking the Commission to declare the national wireless carriers’ wholesale roaming tariff rates to be interim rates.
The deadline to submit applications on this matter is June 23, 2022.
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