The CRTC is asking the major telecoms to provide updates on their subscriber numbers, both in and out of their operating territories, as well any network upgrades they have made — part of the regulator’s monitoring of market conditions following the final wholesale internet access framework from August 2024.
In a July 10 letter sent to incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) Bell, Telus and SaskTel and cable carriers Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco and Eastlink, the CRTC asks for by-province summaries of the carriers’ total retail residential wireline internet subscribers — including standalone, those bundling a wireless service, and those bundling a non-mobile service — for Dec. 31, 2025 and June 30, 2026. The commission asks the carriers to include subscriber numbers for their main brand, flankers and affiliates, for both in-territory and out-of-territory areas.
For the same two dates, the carriers are asked to provide the total number of out-of-territory retail residential wireline internet subscribers they serve using another company’s wholesale HSA services, broken down by province, by underlying wholesale provider, by brand and by speed band. They are also asked to provide a quarterly forecast for the next two years of their expected out-of-territory retail home internet subscribers that will be served using another company’s wholesale internet access services, broken down by province and by expected underlying provider.
The CRTC also wants to know the total number of wholesale HSA access lines provisioned by the carriers, for the Dec. 31, 2025 and June 30, 2026 dates, broken down by province, wholesale HSA customer, speed band, and access technology (e.g. fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), third-party internet access (TPIA), fibre-to-the-node (FTTN).
For the six-month period from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2026, the carriers are asked to provide the total number of subscribers that cancelled retail internet services offered by them and their affiliates, by province, for both their incumbent in-territory serving areas and out-of-territory areas. For the same period, the CRTC wants to know the total number of new or returning retail internet service subscribers gained by the carriers and their affiliates, again by province and for both in-territory and out-of-territory areas.
To get a handle on retail pricing of services, the CRTC asks the carriers to provide (for their incumbent in-territory serving areas) the average monthly retail price (including promotional and time-limited discounts) paid for standalone retail internet services by new or returning subscribers, for January 2026 through June 2026, broken down by province, brand and speed tier (less than 1 Gbps, 1-1.5 Gbps, and greater than 1.5 Gbps). The carriers are also asked to provide the average monthly retail price paid for retail internet services by new or returning subscribers who bundled a wireless service, for the same six months, by province, brand and speed tier.
The CRTC also wants the carriers to provide an estimate of the discount in retail price that customers receive when subscribing to a bundle which includes retail internet service. The carriers are asked to provide the average monthly advertised retail price of their two most popular bundles and to identify the services included, as well as calculate the bundle discount as the estimated total price of the average standalone monthly advertised prices of the individual bundled services minus the average monthly advertised retail price of the entire bundle.
For all of the pricing information, the carriers are told not to include employee discounts/pricing, discontinued offers, or other rates not offered or available to retail subscribers or the public.
In terms of network investments, the CRTC asks the ILECs to provide an update on all communities where they have introduced or accelerated investment in FTTP facilities since Jan. 1 2026, for both in-territory and out-of-territory areas, indicating the number of potential households that may benefit from this investment and the province where the affected community is located.
The cable carriers are asked to provide an update on the progress of their network upgrades (e.g. DOCSIS 4.0) since Aug. 14, 2024 (the day after the CRTC’s updated wholesale internet access framework was established), indicating the number of potential households by province that may benefit from this investment, any associated costs incurred so far, and any expected future investments.
The CRTC also asks the cablecos to identify any communities where investment plans changed after Aug. 14, 2024, with regards to either increased or reduced investment, and to explain the reasoning behind these investment decisions. The cable carriers are asked to indicate the province the affected community is part of and to estimate the number of impacted households.
All of the letter recipients are expected to respond to the CRTC’s requests for information by Sept. 4.
