Eastlink tells CRTC it doesn’t want competitors to have wholesale access to its network

Eastlink is urging Canada’s telecom watchdog to stray away from a wholesale internet model that would let competitors access its network.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) is holding a week-long public hearing as part of its work to review internet competition and wholesale access. The commission announced the review in March and made an interim decision in November, ordering Bell and Telus to provide competitors with fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) access in Ontario and Québec.

During the hearing, Eastlink said the CRTC should focus on facilities-based competition. The practice sees providers use their own infrastructure and networks to offer services. This differs from service-based competition, which sees providers leasing facilities from incumbents to offer services.

The Nova Scotia-based provider argued that facility-based services offer customers the best value and benefits in the long run. If the CRTC settles on a framework focusing on service-based providers without looking at its impact on facilities-based providers, the company says it will reconsider its services in some rural communities. 

It’s a practice it has already partaken in. The service provider said it stopped offering its services in 62 communities across the country in recent years because it couldn’t justify the cost.

“If one of our serving areas requires an upgrade to ensure our customers are provided with the services they want and need, but the wholesale regime prohibits us from investing because the business case simply does not exist, we will be forced to remove our facilities and stop providing service in the area,” Lee Bragg, the executive vice chair of Eastlink, told the CRTC.

The service provider further argued the CRTC should leave smaller and regional telecom providers out of wholesale requirements if their FTTP networks are in the early stages of development. Doing so will, in part, allow them to make up their investment.

Bragg said the telecom provider is “closer in size to the country’s largest reseller” than other facilities-based providers. At present, Eastlink offers services across seven provinces. 

The service provider would also like to see restrictions on who can access wholesale internet services, specifically pointing to resellers owned by Canada’s leading internet players. Eastlink notes it has received requests from companies owned by incumbents to access their wholesale service in areas where they operate their own network.

“It should not be more cost-effective for a facilities-based provider to use Eastlink’s network rather than their own,” Brittany Larsen, Eastlink’s director of regulatory, said.

To address the issue, the company wants the CRTC to apply restrictions on incumbent-owned resellers accessing internet services from companies like Eastlink.