ARCHIVED - Public Notice CRTC 2000-98

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	Public Notice CRTC 2000-98
	Ottawa, 14 July 2000
	Seeking comments on telcos' forbearance outside their traditional territories
	Reference: 8640-T42-01/00
	The Commission is seeking comments on deregulating services offered by the major incumbent telcos operating outside of their traditional territories.
1.	Pursuant to section 34 of the Telecommunications Act, in a letter dated 17 April 2000, TELUS Communications Inc. (TCI) asked the Commission to refrain from exercising certain powers and performing certain duties for services provided by TCI, TELUS Mobility Cellular Inc. (TMCI), TELUS Communications (B.C.) Inc. (TCBC), and their amalgamated successors. The forbearance is being sought in geographic areas outside the territory in which TCI and TCBC operate as incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs).
2.	TCI filed the application in preparation for the legal amalgamation of TCI, TMCI and TCBC, which the company stated is scheduled to occur on 1 January 2001. TCI further stated that the company intends to operate each of the affected subsidiaries as separate operating divisions following the amalgamation.
3.	TCI requested that the Commission issue an order by 30 September 2000 forbearing from exercising certain powers and performing certain duties in relation to what TCI characterized as the "bulk" of services provided by TCI through its TMCI operating division in TCI's non-ILEC territory. The application stated that the services provided by the TMCI operating division will include the services currently provided by TMCI as a separate entity, as well as any future services provided in TCI's non-ILEC territory. The application further stated that the services currently provided by TMCI encompass integrated data, wireless and voice services (including public-switched local exchange services) to residence and business customers.
4.	Specifically, TCI submitted that the terms of the forbearance order with respect to the scope of services and the particular sections of the Act be consistent with:
	a) Forbearance – Services provided by non-dominant Canadian carriers, Telecom Decision CRTC 95-19, dated 8 September 1995, in relation to all geographic areas falling outside the traditional operating territories of TCI and TCBC;
	b) Local competition, Telecom Decision CRTC 97-8, dated 1 May 1997, in relation to the provision of competitive local exchange services in those geographic areas outside of the traditional operating territories of TCI and TCBC as are designated from time to time; and
	c) Local pay telephone competition, Telecom Decision CRTC 98-8, dated 30 June 1998, in relation to the provision of local pay telephone services in those geographic areas outside of the traditional operating territories of TCI and TCBC.
5.	TCI submitted, among other things, that forbearance would be consistent with the criteria set out in section 34 of the Act and that existing safeguards, such as the split rate base, price cap regime, marketing and bundling rules (with respect to national services incorporating tariffed and forborne services), as well as the rules applicable to competitive local exchange carriers, adequately address cross-subsidization concerns.
6.	In a letter dated 25 May 2000, Bell Canada, on behalf of Island Telecom Inc., Maritime Tel & Tel Limited (MTT), MTS Communications Inc., NBTel Inc., NewTel Communications Inc. and Saskatchewan Telecommunications (SaskTel) requested that the Commission's findings with respect to TCI's application should be applied simultaneously to other telecommunications companies currently regulated by the Commission. Bell Canada submitted that the Commission should deal with its request without a public notice, but that if the Commission were to determine otherwise, Bell Canada requested that the telcos it represented in its 25 May 2000 letter be named as parties to the proceeding.
7.	The Commission initiates a proceeding to consider the appropriateness of forbearing, and if so, to what extent, from regulating the provision of services in geographic areas outside the territory in which the company in question operates as the ILEC. The proceeding will consider forbearance for all major incumbent telcos. The Commission also seeks comments on the adequacy of the current regulatory safeguards to address anti-competitive practices in a forborne environment with respect to the services that are the subject of this proceeding. Parties are also invited to comment on other issues relevant to the subject-matter of this proceeding.
	Procedure
8.	TCI, Bell Canada, Island Tel, MTS, MTT, NBTel, NewTel and SaskTel are all made parties to this proceeding.
9.	Other interested parties wishing to participate in this proceeding must notify the Commission of their intention to do so by writing to the Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario, KIA 0N2, fax: (819) 953-0795, by 4 August 2000. Parties are to indicate in the notice their email address, where available. If parties do not have access to the Internet, they are to indicate in their notice whether they wish to receive disk versions of hard copy filings. The Commission will issue, as soon as possible after the registration date, a complete list of interested parties and their mailing address (including their email address, if available), identifying those parties who wish to receive disk versions.
10.	Any party may address interrogatories to TCI, Bell Canada, Island Tel, MTS, MTT, NBTel, NewTel and SaskTel. Any such interrogatories must be filed with the Commission and served on the companies to which the interrogatories are addressed by 4 August 2000.
11.	Responses to all interrogatories are to be filed with the Commission and served on all parties, by 18 September 2000.
12.	Requests by interested parties for further responses to their interrogatories, specifying in each case why a further response is both relevant and necessary, and requests for public disclosure of information for which confidentiality has been claimed, setting out the reasons for disclosure, must be filed with the Commission and served on the companies in question by 2 October 2000.
13.	Written responses to requests for further responses to interrogatories and for public disclosure must be filed with the Commission and served on the party or parties making the request by 12 October 2000.
14.	Requests for disclosure and for further responses will be dealt with as soon as possible, and it is intended that any information to be provided is to be filed with the Commission and served on all parties no later than by 6 November 2000.
15.	Interested parties to this proceeding may file comments with the Commission, serving a copy on other interested parties, by 20 November 2000. Submissions longer than five pages should include a summary.
16.	Interested parties may file reply comments with the Commission, serving copies on other interested parties, by 4 December 2000.
17.	Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date.
18.	Parties wishing to file electronic versions of their submissions can do so by email or on diskette. The Commission email address is procedure@crtc.gc.ca .
19.	The electronic version should be in the HTML format. As an alternative, those making submissions may use "Microsoft Word" for text and "Microsoft Excel" for spreadsheets.
20.	Please number each paragraph of your submission. In addition, please enter the line *End of document* following the last paragraph. This will help the Commission verify that the document has not been damaged during transmission.
21.	The Commission will make submissions filed in electronic form available on its web site at www.crtc.gc.ca in the official language and format in which they are submitted. This will make it easier for members of the public to consult the documents.
22.	The Commission also encourages interested parties to monitor the public examination file (and/or the Commission's web site) for additional information that they may find useful when preparing their submissions.
23.	Submissions may be examined or will be made available promptly upon request at the following Commission offices during normal business hours:
	Central Building Les Terrasses de la Chaudière 1 Promenade du Portage, Room G-5 Hull, Quebec K1A 0N2 Tel: (819) 997-2429 - TDD: 994-0423 Fax: (819) 994-0218
	Bank of Commerce Building 1809 Barrington Street Suite 1007 Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3K8 Tel: (902) 426-7997 - TDD: 426-6997 Fax: (902) 426-2721
	405 de Maisonneuve Blvd. East 2^nd Floor, Suite B2300 Montréal, Quebec H2L 4J5 Tel: (514) 283-6607 - TDD: 283-8316 Fax: (514) 283-3689
	55 St. Clair Avenue East Suite 624 Toronto, Ontario M4T 1M2 Tel: (416) 952-9096 Fax: (416) 954-6343
	Kensington Building 275 Portage Avenue Suite 1810 Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2B3 Tel: (204) 983-6306 - TDD: 983-8274 Fax: (204) 983-6317
	Cornwall Professional Building 2125 - 11^th Avenue Room 103 Regina, Saskatchewan S4P 3X3 Tel: (306) 780-3422 Fax: (306) 780-3319
	Suite 520 - 10405 Jasper Avenue Edmonton, Alberta T5J 3N4 Tel: (780) 495-3224 Fax: (780) 495-3214
	530-580 Hornby Street Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3B6 Tel: (604) 666-2111 - TDD: 666-0778 Fax: (604) 666-8322
	Secretary General
	This document is available in alternative format upon request and may also be examined at the following Internet site: http://www.crtc.gc.ca.

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ARCHIVED - Public Notice CRTC 2000-98

This page has been archived on the Web

Public Notice CRTC 2000-98

Seeking comments on telcos' forbearance outside their traditional territories

Procedure