ARCHIVED - Telecom Order CRTC 97-171
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Telecom Order |
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Ottawa, 12 February 1997
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Telecom Order CRTC 97-171
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Reference: 96-2042
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WHEREAS AT&T Canada claimed that BC TEL's Megaplan network architecture is unique compared to the other telephone companies and, as a result, it has to pay higher charges than it would need to in the territories of other telephone companies;
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WHEREAS AT&T Canada applied for an order directing BC TEL to create additional Megaplan rate centres in the British Columbia Lower Mainland, or waive all inter-exchange mileage charges which result from routing Megaplan Service Extension circuits to the Megaplan rate centre, or to provide intelligent channel banks at local serving wire centres to allow direct connection to AT&T Canada's network;
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WHEREAS BC TEL requested that AT&T Canada's application be denied, indicating that creating additional Megaplan rate centres would be expensive and that waiving all interexchange mileage charges would be unduly preferential towards the applicant, with the remaining financial burden falling on the company and its customers;
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WHEREAS the Commission requested additional information from Stentor Resource Centre Inc. (Stentor), which provided its reply on behalf of the Stentor owner companies including BC TEL;
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WHEREAS AT&T Canada stated that BC TEL has combined 16 telephone exchanges in the Lower Mainland into one large Megaplan Serving Area (MSA) and has established a single rate centre located in the Mutual central office in downtown Vancouver, and that in the territories of the other telephone companies, each of the 15 other exchanges would be individual MSAs with its own Megaplan Rate Centre (MRC);
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WHEREAS BC TEL submitted that the creation of MSAs and MRCs involves economic and technical considerations and is the responsibility of the telephone company;
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WHEREAS the Commission notes Stentor's submission that BC TEL is the only company that employs the multiple-exchange serving-area concept, as the MSA in all other companies consists of a single exchange;
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WHEREAS the Commission also notes that the Megaplan tariff for service extensions is applied differently for BC TEL vis-a-vis the other telephone companies, as the location of the MRC is critical in how BC TEL determines charges;
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WHEREAS the Commission finds that outside the Lower Mainland area, BC TEL can and has created MSAs where the designated MRC does not house any of the specialized equipment needed to aggregate circuits yet is used to determine rate distances;
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WHEREAS the Commission is of the view that in this regard, BC TEL's approach to designating MRCs without equipment is similar to the other telephone companies and that, therefore, there is really no justification for BC TEL's unique rating structure compared to the other telephone companies;
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WHEREAS the Commission is further of the view that within BC TEL itself, a more uniform treatment of all customers is appropriate, instead of a regime whereby MRCs outside the Lower Mainland could be established without equipment, but not in the Lower Mainland; and
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WHEREAS, in the Commission's view, it would be appropriate for BC TEL to modify its rating approach to make it consistent with the approach used by the other Stentor companies -
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IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:
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Stentor is directed to issue, with an effective date 90 days from the date of this Order, revised Megaplan tariffs to delete Note 3 of Item 305.4 and to include BC TEL in Note 2, and to make all other changes to make the rate structure consistent with the other Stentor companies.
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Allan J. Darling
Secretary General |
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- Date modified: