MONTREAL — In a press release on Wednesday, Quebecor’s Videotron couldn’t resist taking a jab at Bell subsidiary Cablevision du Nord de Quebec which was ordered by the CRTC the previous day to pay for router upgrades in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region of western Quebec to add capacity to its third-party Internet access (TPIA) service which Videotron wants to use as it expands services in the region.
On Tuesday, the Commission also denied Cablevision’s September 2020 application to withdraw its 50 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream (50/5) service plan, because the Commission said it considered the application to be “premature”.
“[T]he Commission considers that the application to destandardize the Cablevision’s 50/5 profile is premature in light of the current TPIA service offering in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region,” wrote the Commission in its denial order.
Videotron and Ebox had argued during the proceeding that Cablevision’s attempt to destandardize its 50/5 speed profile would impede competition and restrict the two companies’ entrance into the Abitibi market.
In an English version of its press release on Wednesday, Videotron states: “The CRTC is sanctioning Bell yet again and forcing it to end its latest stratagems to maintain its historical monopoly in Abitibi-Témiscamingue…These decisions are the latest in a series of setbacks Bell has suffered in its attempts to prevent Abitibi-Témiscamingue residents from being well served by Videotron and to keep rates high by stifling potential competition.”
Referring to Cablevision’s request to destandardize its 50/5 Internet access plan, Videotron says: “This would leave residents to choose between 15 Mbps, which is too slow to support Helix service, and 125 Mbps, which costs twice as much.
“In addition to being anti-competitive, Cablevision’s ploy would have deprived local residents of one of the most popular plans on the market, thus penalizing all consumers. Clearly, Bell and Cablevision’s sole objective is to keep the Abitibi-Témiscamingue market under their yoke, even at the cost of depriving consumers of popular services,” continues the company’s press release.
“Bell’s latest attempts to obstruct competition are consistent with its longstanding efforts to prevent any new player from entering the market. Bell had already been slapped down by the CRTC in December 2019, when the federal regulator directed Cablevision to offer Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) service to any competitor with a genuine interest in the service.”
