ARCHIVED - Telecom - Commission Letter - 8638-C12-47/00 - Report on outagesexceeding 15 minutes in duration in service to competitors
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LetterOttawa, 27 November 2002 Reference: File 8638-C12-47/00 To: Distribution List (Independent Carriers, CLECs, Telephone Companies and other Carriers as per CRTC website lists) Subject: Report on outages exceeding 15 minutes in duration in service to competitors In Altering terms of service for competitors that are customers, Telecom Order CRTC 2000-397, 12 May 2000 (Order 2000-397), the Commission directed, among other things, the telephone companies to report quarterly, commencing in the fall of 2000, service outages exceeding 15 minutes in duration that affect service to competitor(s). In taking those steps, the Commission wished to ensure equitable treatment of competitors that are customers of the telephone companies. Order 2000-397 applies to all ILECs, including Bell Canada (Bell); Island Telecom Inc., Maritime Tel & Tel Limited, NewTel Communications Inc. and NBTel Inc., now Aliant Telecom Inc. (Aliant); MTS Communications Inc. (MTS); BC TEL, (now TELUS Communications (B.C.) Inc.), TELUS Communications Inc. (TCI) and TELUS Communications (Edmonton) Inc., now TELUS Communications Inc. (TELUS); Northwestel Inc.; Québec-Téléphone, now TELUS Communications (Québec) Inc.; Télébec ltée (now Télébec société en commandite); and the independent telephone companies in Québec and Ontario, except Abitibi Price Telephone System (subsequently purchased by O.N.Telcom), Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (now O.N.Telcom), Cochrane Public Utilities and Prince Rupert City Telephones. The independent telephone companies in Ontario and Quebec are now usually referred to as small local exchange carriers (SLECs). It is also noted that Order 2000-397 does not currently apply to Saskatchewan Telecommunications Inc. (SaskTel). Per Order 2000-397, paragraph 34, for each reportable outage, an ILEC or SLEC should report the following: a) the time and location of the outage;b) the competitors affected by the outage; c) the duration and reason for the outage; d) the extent to which service to the telephone company's other customers were affected; e) the time at which service was restored to the competitor; and f) the time at which service was restored to the telephone company's other customers. In the Commission's view, this detail was specified in order to determine whether an outage could indicate anti-competitive conduct, or whether repeated interruptions of competitors' service might indicate a pattern of anti-competitive conduct. Pursuant to Order 2000-397, Bell, Aliant, MTS, TELUS, have been reporting, commencing in the fall of 2000, each instance of an interruption in service to a competitor that exceeded 15 minutes in duration. To date, the reports on service outages to competitors by Bell, Aliant, MTS and TELUS usually comply with c), above, provide limited information with respect to d), above, and seem to contain no detail with respect to a), b), e) and f), above. As shown in the following table, the reporting companies report different types of service interruptions.
Type of Reported by
CCS7 network interconnection yes yes yes Further, in light of the reports received by the Commission to date, it is noted that Bell and MTS have fewer reportable outages than TELUS; and it seems that TELUS reports more "end office" interruptions than Bell or MTS. Also, Aliant has reported that there has not been any service interruption in its territory since fall 2000. Furthermore, Commission staff notes that only TELUS reports outages for the category "cut cables/specials". Finally, to date, the Commission has not received any reports on interruptions in services to competitors from the SLECs. The SLECs may provide services to wireline or wireless competitors. Accordingly, Bell, Aliant, MTS and TELUS are to:
Bell, Aliant, MTS are to identify the number of service interruptions due to "cut cables/specials" and if it was included in the other types of service interruptions, correct the reported numbers accordingly. SaskTel, O.N. Telcom, Cochrane Public Utilities and Prince Rupert City Telephones are to show cause why Order 2000-397 should not apply to them. All SLECs are to discuss why they have not filed the service interruption reports and to comment why they should not commence reporting, on a going forward basis, all service outages exceeding 15 minutes in duration that affect services to competitor(s) for the 1st quarter of 2003. A SLEC not serving any competitor is to file a statement to that effect, and commence to file the service interruption reports when it provides service to at least one competitor. The ILECS and SLECs are to provide the above information by 9 December 2002. Any party wishing to comment on the filings of the ILECs or SLECs may do so by 20 December 2002. The information should be received by these dates and not merely sent. All ILECS and any SLEC that provides service to at least one competitor are to file for the first quarter of 2003 all the information requested by paragraph 34 of Order 2000-397 for all ten types of service interruptions identified by TELUS. Yours truly,
Paul Godin |
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