By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Rogers told the CRTC that it must act expeditiously on its request to access Bell and Telus poles because the new policy direction from Cabinet requires it.
Rogers said as much in a reply submission last week to Bell and Telus, who told the CRTC to deny Rogers’s request last Wednesday asking for interim access to attach wireless equipment on their poles.
Telus said in its submission that the expedited request is “unsubstantiated” and that Rogers allegedly failed to “demonstrate any need for the Commission to exercise its discretion to implement an expedited process and fails at every stage of the applicable test.”
The Vancouver-based telecom went further and alleged that Rogers is trying to distract from its alleged denial of access to the Toronto subway system network to be built after it acquired BAI Communications.
Bell argued that the commission hasn’t yet ruled on the three-year-old application on the same issue, which remains outstanding.
But it’s for this reason that Rogers says the CRTC must act.
“The Commission has recently been mandated to act in accordance with a new Policy Direction that expressly requires the Commission to issue its decisions on a timely basis and emphasizes the requirements to encourage competition, investment and affordability and reduce barriers to entry,” Rogers said in its brief two-page response.
“Rogers’ and other wireless competitors’ inability to access Bell and TELUS poles for the placement of wireless attachments pursuant to their Support Structure Tariffs is a barrier to investment and competition in mobile wireless markets in Canada,” it added.
The CRTC said in February that it would be launching a proceeding on wireless attachments after it made a final order on wireline attachments that set timelines on access. Rogers alleged that Telus started refusing Rogers’s permit requests after the decision because the regulator was in the midst of the process of launching that proceeding.
