CRTC hearing on wholesale wireless service begins today, lasts all week

Canada’s telecom regulator, CRTC, is hosting a public consultation on Wholesale Mobile Wireless Services beginning today in Gatineau, Quebec.

As Cogeco alluded to last week, there is perceived opportunity for additional companies to enter the Canadian wireless market if prices for wholesale wireless service — in many cases referred to as domestic roaming — drops enough. In particular, companies like WIND Mobile and Videotron have been lobbying the CRTC to begin regulating the cost of bandwidth for use in areas where the telco doesn’t own or operate its own equipment.

While such a model exists in the home internet market, with companies like Teksavvy and Primus purchasing spectrum from incumbents like Rogers and Bell, the wireless market remains unregulated, the major companies arguing that spectrum is too precious, and capital expenditure too high, to allow similarly cheap access to their airwaves.

According to the hearing documents, the CRTC “will examine the market conditions for wholesale roaming and wholesale tower and site sharing in Canada, as well as the market conditions for other wholesale mobile wireless services.” It will also “consider whether greater regulatory oversight, including mandating access to any existing or potential wholesale mobile wireless service, would be appropriate if it were to find that the wholesale mobile wireless services market is not sufficiently competitive.”

Throughout the week, we’ll hear from all sides of the Canadian wireless market, from new entrants like WIND Mobile, Mobilicity and Cogeco to incumbents like Rogers, Bell and TELUS. We’ll also hear from The Competition Bureau and academics like Ben Klass and David Ellis, who have written extensively on these matters.

If you’re interested in tuning in, the CRTC has set up an audio stream of the proceedings, but we’ll try to summarize the findings here at the end of each day.

[source]CRTC[/source]