By Ahmad Hathout
Telus is alleging in an undue preference complaint made public Wednesday that Bell is deliberately obstructing its ability to introduce its broadcasting services over the larger telco’s last-mile fibre facilities in eastern Canada.
Telus claims in the complaint that it has made “repeated requests … over the course of several months” to pave the way to include its BDU systems on Bell’s fibre facilities but was allegedly denied based on reasons that are redacted from the complaint.
Telus says it wants the CRTC to force Bell to allow it to distribute its own programming services in these leased network service areas on the same terms and conditions set out in their existing affiliation agreement – which it claims already includes the ability to offer Bell’s programming services and a mechanism allowing it to introduce its own newly launched or acquired BDU systems – while the parties negotiate a new affiliation agreement.
But Telus alleges that Bell threatened it with legal action if it tried bringing its own programming services into the network.
Bell did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
The Vancouver-based telco claims multiple distributors, including TekSavvy, lease the desired transmission paths to distribute Bell’s programming services, which are in cities including Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.
“It is thus clear that Bell Media has raised these concerns in bad faith and that they are nothing more than a pretext to prevent TELUS from launching the Eastern BDU Systems,” Telus claims.
“Bell Media’s actions are part of a coordinated and multi-pronged attempt by its parent company, BCE, to thwart TELUS’ ability to effectively compete in the market for television and Internet services in BCE’s incumbent territories in Ontario and Quebec, where most of BCE’s retail customers are located,” it further claims.
The CRTC mandated access to the telcos’ bundled middle- and last-mile fibre facilities, on top of which it also provides a pathway to ride broadcasting services.
“TELUS has embraced the CRTC’s new policy by expanding its service offerings outside of its traditional territories, where it is acting as a new competitor that can disrupt the status quo to the benefit of consumers,” the telco says, adding it must be able to offer consumers bundles that include competitive television service.
“This is precisely why Bell Media is incentivized to act anti-competitively in order to prevent TELUS from launching the Eastern BDU Systems,” Telus claims. “Bell Media is seeking to prevent TELUS from offering attractive service bundles to consumers that could provide strong new competition to its affiliated BDUs and Internet service providers (“ISPs”) in their incumbent markets.”
Because it claims Bell is offering other service providers access to these leased-line transmission paths, Telus says this alleged stonewalling constitutes an undue preference for others and a disadvantage to Telus.
Telus is asking the CRTC to find Bell Media has breached section 5 (e) of the Wholesale Code, which prohibits the imposition of terms that prevent an unrelated distributor from providing consumer choice; issue an order demanding Bell Media grant it authorization to distribute its programming services in the leased network service areas on their existing terms; and impose an administrative monetary penalty for every day Bell Media violates the order.
Telus has taken advantage of the CRTC’s wholesale access regime, which was revamped last August to include access to the bundled last-mile fibre facilities of the telcos across the country.
The telco recently launched gigabit internet services in Ontario and Quebec – a move that was cited by the regulator to reaffirm its decision to continue allowing the largest three service providers to use the wholesale access regime – and has spoken extensively about bundling its other services with internet to capture market share in areas outside of its footprint.
Still, some are opposed to that access, including Rogers and Bell. The CRTC, in fact, is expected to make a decision this summer about whether it will continue allowing the three largest telecoms – Rogers, Bell and Telus – to use the wholesale framework.
Bell has long maintained that the decision to allow such access makes investing in its own fibre builds uneconomical, and this month launched a public campaign against the policy after announcing that it will reduce its fibre build target this year.
