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ARCHIVED -  Telecom Order CRTC 97-668

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Telecom Order

Ottawa, 21 May 1997
Telecom Order CRTC 97-668
The Commission has received an application from Niagara Telecomm Inc. (Niagara) dated 3 February 1995 for exemption from contribution charges on a number of private lines in Hamilton.
File No.: 95-1293
1. In its application, Niagara applied for an exemption from contribution charges "for the five month period commencing November 1993 to March 1994" on private lines connecting its Hamilton Centrex switch to the facilities of ACC TelEnterprises (ACC) in Hamilton, as well as for a reversal of late payment charges associated with this account.
2. Niagara's application raises two issues.
3. The first issue is whether contribution is payable on the private lines for the period in question; if so, who is responsible for paying any outstanding amounts; and should Bell Canada (Bell) be able to recover late payment charges in respect of any amount owed.
4. The second issue is whether the current Resale and Sharing Tariff should be amended so that contribution is payable on configurations like Niagara's.
5. On 23 December 1996, Commission staff sent four interrogatories to Bell, ACC, and Niagara to clarify the configuration of facilities and the attendant billling arrangements and on 6 February 1997 ACC and Bell filed their responses.
6. With respect to the first issue, Bell's submission indicates that the circuits in question were leased from Bell by ACC in order to carry Niagara's traffic from Niagara's Centrex to ACC's interexchange network.
7. While Bell billed ACC in respect of the private lines, it billed Niagara for the contribution on these circuits.
8. Bell stated that contribution charges associated with the Centrex terminations on which these private lines were connected were billed to Niagara pursuant to the tariff that applied at the time.
9. Bell noted, in this respect, that General Tariff Item 24.1 at the time of this service installation defined the applicable interconnecting circuit as one which connected "a local circuit from a switch of a reseller or a sharing group to a Company Centrex switch", and accordingly submitted that its billing of contribution was compliant with the tariff.
10. Bell noted that Niagara is not the customer of record for the private lines in question, but is the customer of record for the Centrex service on which the private lines were connected.
11. With respect to the second issue, following the issuance of Telecom Order CRTC 93-1141, 30 December 1993, the definition of interconnecting circuit in Bell's Resale and Sharing Tariff was changed such that contribution was levied on direct inward system access (DISA) paths or Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) connections.
12. Bell submitted that arrangements like Niagara's should properly be subject to contribution charges as calls are delivered to Niagara's Centrex from the PSTN and routed over a jointly-used local channel to a resold joint-use interexchange network.
13. However, Bell also conceded that there is currently no means to apply contribution charges to this configuration as Niagara's Hamilton system does not make use of DISA paths or PSTN connections.
14. Bell recommended that, in light of the potential for contribution avoidance which exists in such cases, the Commission should initiate a process to review this matter and determine if tariff modifications are appropriate to ensure that such configurations are captured under the contribution regime.
15. In its response to the Commission's interrogatories, ACC outlined the facilities which Niagara currently leases from ACC, and stated that its investigation only examined current billing records and would not have captured circuits that may have been included in the application and which Niagara is no longer acquiring from ACC.
16. With respect to the first issue, the Commission is of the view that contribution is payable on the lines in question for the period in question, since contribution is payable on interconnecting circuits.
17. Prior to 31 March 1994, the relevant portions of the tariff at the time defined "interconnecting circuit" to mean "a circuit that connects a facility of a reseller or sharing group to a facility of the Company to provide access to the Company's public switched telephone network (PSTN). An interconnecting circuit may connect... (3) a local circuit from a switch of a reseller or a sharing group to a Company Centrex switch...".
18. In the Commission's view, the private lines connecting ACC's switch to Niagara's Centrex connect a "switch of a reseller" to a "Company Centrex switch", and accordingly, are interconnecting circuits for the purposes of the tariff in force during the time period in question.
19. As a result, contribution was payable on these circuits.
20. As it is the circuits which attracted contribution, and ACC is the customer of record for the circuits, the Commission is of the view that, subject to the provisions with respect to unbilled charges in Bell's Terms of Service, ACC would be responsible for paying any contribution charges which these lines attracted.
21. The Commission notes that Article 18.1 of Bell's Terms of Service states that "customers are not responsible for paying a previously unbilled or underbilled charge except where: (a) in the case of a recurring charge... it is correctly billed within a period of one year from the date it was incurred".
22. As more than one year has passed since the contribution charges in question were incurred, and Bell has never billed ACC, the Commission is of the view that ACC is not responsible for paying these charges.
23. It follows from this conclusion that ACC is also not responsible for paying any late payment charges.
24. With respect to the second issue, the Commission is of the view that contribution should apply to configurations like Niagara's as they make use of the PSTN.
25. Accordingly, the Commission is of the view that a process should be initiated with a view to changing the current Resale and Sharing Tariff such that contribution is payable in these situations.
26. In light of the foregoing:
(a) while contribution was owed by ACC on the local private lines for the period in question, pursuant to Bell's Terms of Service, ACC is no longer responsible for paying these amounts;
(b) Bell is directed to correct its accounts receivable within 30 days of this Order to reflect the fact that Niagara does not have an outstanding balance (including late payment charges) for the circuits and period in question;
(c) Bell is directed to file tariff pages within 30 days of this Order, proposing appropriate modifications to its Resale and Sharing Tariff such that configurations like Niagara's are captured under the contribution regime. Bell is directed to copy Niagara and ACC with its tariff application; and
(d) pursuant to the Commission's usual procedure, parties may file comments on the proposed tariff pages within 30 days of their being filed with the Commission. Bell will have 10 days within which to file reply comments.
Allan J. Darling
Secretary General
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