|
Telecom Order
|
|
Ottawa, 21 April 1994
|
|
Telecom Order CRTC 94-400
|
|
IN THE MATTER OF an application by Bell Canada (Bell) under Tariff Notice 5020 dated 10 December 1993, for approval of tariff revisions relating to a restructuring of rates for business primary exchange and related services.
|
|
WHEREAS the proposed tariff revisions would result in rate increases for Business Individual Line and Business Trunk Service subscribers in rate groups 3A to 6 and in rate groups 8 and 9, and decreases for such subscribers in rate groups 16 to 20;
|
|
WHEREAS the company's proposal also entails a reduction from 19 to 8 in the number of separate rates across rate group bands;
|
|
WHEREAS, in addition, Bell proposes revisions to Business 2-party, 4-party and Message Rate Services and states that these proposed revisions are based on increasing the proportional rate relationship to Individual Service rates;
|
|
WHEREAS the company also proposes rate changes for certain other business services whose rates are related to either Business Individual Line or Business Trunk rates;
|
|
WHEREAS the Commission received comments from l'Union des municipalités du Québec on 23 December 1993;
|
WHEREAS, by Telecom Public Notice CRTC 94-2 dated 7 January 1994, the Commission invited comments from interested parties;
|
|
WHEREAS the Commission received comments from Mr. Ted Arnott, M.P.P. by letter dated 13 January 1994, Unitel Communications Inc. (Unitel), Smart Talk Network (Smart Talk), Canadian Business Telecommunications Alliance (CBTA) and Distributel Communications Limited (Distributel) on 7 February 1994;
|
|
WHEREAS, by letter dated 27 January 1994, the Commission requested further information from the company;
|
|
WHEREAS Bell filed its reply comments on 17 February 1994;
|
|
WHEREAS Bell complied with the Commission's request of 27 January 1994 for further information by letter dated 17 February 1994;
|
|
WHEREAS Mr. Ted Arnott, M.P.P. submitted that rural and small town rates should not be raised but remain lower than urban rates where users have access to more telephones;
|
|
WHEREAS Mr. Arnott submitted that these changes would hurt small business;
|
|
WHEREAS, in reply, Bell submitted that the proposals would maintain lower rates for exchanges with lower telephone number counts while better reflecting costs of providing primary exchange services;
|
|
WHEREAS CBTA supported moving rates for these services closer to costs;
|
|
WHEREAS Unitel and STN argued that Bell should not realize revenue gains through changes such as these which could be used to fund message toll rate reductions;
|
|
WHEREAS Distributel submitted that Rate Group 15 includes Toronto and therefore should be banded with Rate Group 14 which includes Montreal, rather than Rate Groups 16 to 20 which are fringe exchanges;
|
|
WHEREAS, in support of its position, Distributel noted Bell's statement in the 1992 PARC study placed on the public record in response to Bell(Unitel)22 March93-89 Supplemental RR93 that fringe exchanges having Extended Area Service with Montreal and Toronto have longer trunks and higher trunking costs than other exchanges;
|
|
WHEREAS, in its reply, Bell stated that the proposals as filed would move the general rate level of business exchange services toward underlying costs and would achieve a modest 2% increase in the average business primary exchange rate level;
|
|
WHEREAS Bell submitted that reducing rates as Distributel proposed would require substantially larger increases in lower rate groups to maintain this progress toward costs;
|
|
WHEREAS the Commission considers that Rate Group 15 has more in common for rating purposes with Rate Group 14 than with Rate Groups 16 to 20 and, accordingly, that the Rate Group 15 rate should be reduced to the Rate Group 14 level; and
|
|
WHEREAS the Commission notes that, even with this foregoing modification to Bell's proposed rate revisions, rates will move closer to marginal costs -
|
|
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
|
|
The proposed tariff revisions submitted by Bell under Tariff Notice 5020 are approved, except for the proposed Rate Group 15 rate which is to be replaced with the Rate Group 14 rate.
|
|
Allan J. Darling
Secretary General
|
|
|