MARKHAM, Ont. — Yet another independent ISP says it is being forced to halt network investments it hoped to make due to the CRTC’s decision last month not to lower Internet wholesale rates, with Markham, Ont.-based CIK Telecom announcing last week it is not going ahead at this time with a $300-million fibre network project which it announced in January.
When CIK Telecom announced the Markham project, it said it was “anticipating that the CRTC will lower the wholesale rates and expecting the incumbents to refund the overcharges retroactively to third-party internet providers dated back from April 2016 until today,” according to its January press release.
On June 4, CIK Telecom released a follow-up press release in which the company’s CEO, Jordan Deng, stated that with the lower wholesale rates and the retroactive payments identified in the 2019 CRTC decision now gone, “we have to suspend most of our investments, especially the fibre network development in Markham with the original project of $300 million in investments that will be affected and delayed… We are losing large amounts of anticipated refunds that we could have used for the facility of investment, but that is squashed due to the CRTC’s latest decision.”
The company notes in its press release last week that it “has been working hard to serve customers with economical prices and reliable services for the past 18 years”, and “has dropped their rates in the past five years significantly anticipating costs to decrease due to the pending decision of reduction of internet wholesale rates. CIK did not increase their prices at all to support their customers during the pandemic, even when the costs had dramatically increased since March 2020 due to a huge influx of internet usage in Canada. As businesses are struggling to survive during the pandemic, the CRTC’s unfair decision is assuredly adding fuel to the fire to give us and other businesses a really hard time to maintain our business goals,” says the release.
“CIK understands the CRTC’s direction is to encourage ISPs to invest in the facility to bring robust competition and lower rates in the long term. However, CRTC’s decision is kicking competition to exit the market and block smaller ISPs to invest in facilities and networks. What is even more unfair and unethical, large telecoms are selling at a lower retail prices than they are granted to charge wholesale rates to competition. Hence, CIK urges CRTC to correct the mistake of the final rates so that all Canadians can enjoy affordable lower rates from independent ISPs,” concludes the company’s release.
