Bell and Telus lay out their proposals on the CRTC’s expected wholesale internet framework

Service providers, advocacy groups, and critics have called on Canada’s telecom regulator to restrict the way the country’s leading wireless providers access wholesale internet services.

Providers like Eastlink asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) not to give larger providers wholesale access at all during its week-long hearing examining internet competition and the wholesale framework.

The commission launched a review in March. In November, it made an interim ruling giving Bell and Telus six months to give competitors aggregated access to their fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) networks in Ontario and Québec. The decision impacted Bell more than Telus, as Bell has a larger network in the two provinces, something Telus highlighted during its appearance Wednesday.

Executives from the Vancouver-based company argued Canada doesn’t have national incumbents for internet services. Telus said it was only an incumbent in B.C., Alberta and a part of eastern Québec.

“We are not an incumbent in any major centre east of Alberta,” Zainul Mawji, Telus’ president of consumer solutions, said. “When it comes to Ontario and Québec, Telus is a new entrant, in the strongest possible position to drive competition.”

Telus said the CRTC’s framework should specify that a wholesale mandate won’t be available to network owners in their incumbent territories.

“Of course, the wholesale mandate should be available for all carriers outside of their traditional serving territories, precisely because a wholesale mandate is useless as a tool to drive competition, if the strongest competitors can’t use it,” Stephen Schmidt, Telus’ vice president of telecom policy, said.

If Telus is limited from accessing the wholesale framework in these markets, Schmidt said it would impact competition and the end consumer.

Bell’s stance did not align with Telus.

“National wireless carriers, Bell, Rogers, and Telus, should not be able to rely on resale anywhere,” Robert Malcolmson, Bell’s chief legal and regulatory officer, told the CRTC.

In its proposal to the CRTC, Bell said a wholesale framework should ensure resellers only have access to the FTTP network in a certain area five years after it’s been deployed, allowing companies to make up some of their investment.

Bell executives said the move would see providers remain motivated to invest in their networks. If not, network owners would shift to resale, a practice Bell has partaken in anticipation of the CRTC’s final ruling.

“We have actually begun reselling internet over cable networks under the Bell brand within our legacy network footprint,” Malcolmson said. “Although right now we are only at the early stages, we stand ready to reduce further FTTP deployment and reluctantly shift to reselling cable and Telus fibre if regulatory conditions so dictate.”

Bell also proposed the CRTC’s framework specify that resale internet speeds be capped at 1.5Gbps, which is the top speeds offered on cable networks.