ARCHIVED -  Telecom Order CRTC 99-438

Telecom Order

Ottawa, 13 May 1999

Telecom Order CRTC 99-438

By fax dated 29 September 1998, Protel 2000 Enrg. (Protel) sought an exemption from contribution charges with respect to facilities provided by Bell Canada (Bell) in the Montréal area. Protel requested an effective date of 18 April 1997.

File No.: 8626-P17-01/98

1.By letter dated 27 October 1998, Bell stated that Protel leases several Centrex systems in the Montréal area that appear to be used for single-hop, multiple-hop and administrative purposes. Bell noted that Protel has failed to provide evidence as set out in Applications for Contribution Exemptions, Telecom Decision CRTC 93-2 dated 1 April 1993 and related decisions to support its exemption request and submitted that Protel's application should be deferred pending the provision of further information.

2.By fax dated 11 December 1998, Protel provided two affidavits.

3.By letter dated 13 January 1999, Bell noted that for the affidavit covering local and single-hop calling, the referenced systems appear to be used solely for such purposes and the affidavit appears to satisfy the evidentiary requirement for stand-alone Centrex single-hop systems. Accordingly, Bell agreed with the requested exemption. Bell noted that the affidavit which refers to administrative services appears to be deficient.

4.By letter dated 21 January 1999, Protel provided a description of its circuits but not the revised affidavit as suggested by Bell.

5.By fax dated 28 January 1999, Bell provided a status report of the circuits in question to the Commission to clarify the situation. Bell recommended that Protel provide two new affidavits as follows: (i) one affidavit for administrative use covering three numbers. The affidavit should confirm that the services are not directly connected to an interexchange network, including a multiple-hop Centrex network operated by Protel, or to an interexchange network of another service provider; and (ii) one affidavit for single-hop use covering two numbers.

6.By a Commission staff letter dated 26 February 1999, Protel was requested to provide the affidavits described above within 14 days.

7.By fax dated 12 April 1999, Protel provided the affidavits as requested.

8.The Commission finds that the affidavits meet evidentiary requirements for exemption.

9.The Commission notes that the rules for effective dates are set out in Effective Date of Contribution Exemptions, Telecom Public Notice CRTC 95-26 dated 12 June 1995 (PN 95-26). In PN 95-26, the Commission stated that exemptions will generally be granted effective the later of the date of the application or the date of installation, absent special circumstances. In this case, Protel has provided no special circumstances to support the effective date of 18 April 1997 rather than 29 September 1998 (the date of application) for the Centrex single-hop circuits. Accordingly, the Commission considers that the effective date for those circuits should be 29 September 1998.

10.The Commission also stated in PN 95-26 that it will generally grant contribution exemptions for administrative circuits effective the date of installation.

11.In light of the foregoing, Protel's exemption application for: (1) administrative circuits is approved effective the date of installation such that no contribution is payable; and (2) single-hop circuits is approved effective the date of application, 29 September 1998.

Secretary General

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