ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8740-B2-200504680

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Letter

Ottawa, 13 May 2005

File No: 8740-B2-200504680

BY E-MAIL

Bell.regulatory@bell.ca

Mr. David Palmer
Director, Regulatory Matters
Bell Canada
110 O'Connor Street
Floor 7
Ottawa , Ontario
K1P 1H1

- and -  

Interested Parties to Bell Canada Tariff Notice 6866  

RE: Revised Process for Bell Canada Tariff Notice 6866:   3-1-1 Service 

On 15 April 2005 , Bell Canada filed Tariff Notice (TN 6866) to introduce General Tariff item 6001, 3-1-1 Service pursuant to Assignment of 3-1-1 for non-emergency municipal government services , Telecom Decision CRTC 2004-71, 5 November 2004 (Decision 2004-71). 

On 3 May 2005, the City of Toronto of behalf of itself, the City of Calgary, the Halifax Regional Municipality, La Ville de Gatineau, La Ville de Montreal and the Regional Municipality of Halton (collectively, Toronto et al.) filed comments, requesting that: 

1)  the Commission issue a public notice and/or extend the deadline for Toronto et al. to respond to the TN 6866 to 30 June 2005; 

2)  the Commission issue an interim direction to permit municipalities and telecommunications service providers to proceed with the implementation of 3-1-1 service pending the completion of this proceeding where the municipality has provided notice as required by Decision 2004-71 to the telecommunications service provider of the municipality's intention to implement 3-1-1; 

3)  Bell Canada disclose on the public record or, alternatively, in camera to Toronto et al. the information contained in a report entitled "Bell Canada Report on the Economic Evaluation for the Introduction of Municipal Boundary Routing" (the "Bell Canada Report") which is subject to a claim of confidentiality under section 39 of the Telecommunications Act ; and 

4)  the Commission include in this proceeding an exchange of interrogatories, as part of the requested public notice process. 

Commission's determination 

Request for interim direction

The Commission, in Telecom Order CRTC 2005-117, dated 13 May 2005 , granted interim approval to TN 6866.   T he Commission considered that municipalities would be able to proceed with the implementation of 3-1-1 service pending the completion of this proceeding, where the municipality has provided notice as required by Decision 2004-71 to the telecommunications service providers (TSPs ) of the municipality's intention to implement 3-1-1.

Request for a public notice 

With respect to the request to issue a public notice, the Commission notes that Toronto et al. stated that no party in the proceeding leading to Decision 2004-71 had provided details regarding the costs of implementing 3-1-1 service.   The Commission notes however, that in paragraph 81 of Decision 2004-71, the Commission did address the costing issue raised by certain parties when it directed the TSPs to assume, on an incremental basis, the costs of the basic switch modifications and network changes necessary for the implementation of 3-1-1 service.

Further, in paragraph 83 of Decision 2004-71, the Commission noted that where municipal and exchange boundaries were not the same, the TSPs would incur additional costs in order to provision 3-1-1 service to correspond to municipal boundaries.   The Commission noted that where 9-1-1 service had been implemented based on municipal boundaries, rather than exchange boundaries, the parties had agreed to this.   The Commission considered that where the exchange boundary and the municipal boundary are different, the routing arrangements should be based on the exchange boundaries, unless otherwise agreed to by the municipality and the TSPs operating in that area.   The Commission was of the view that if special routing arrangements are made, at a municipality's request, the TSPs should not bear the cost of provisioning to those specifications. 

The Commission is of the view that a public notice is not required in order for it to deal with the new issues raised by interveners in this proceeding. 

The Commission is however issuing a revised schedule below with regard to TN 6866 so as to allow Toronto et al. the time to respond. 

Revised Schedule 

(1)       Bell Canada is to file a reply to the request for disclosure by 18 May 2005 , and the Commission will issue a determination by 20 May 2005 ; 

(2)       Interested parties may file comments by 30 May 2005 ; 

(3)       Interested parties wishing to address interrogatories to Bell Canada may do so by 30 May 2005 , filing a copy with the Commission; 

(4)       Bell Canada is to file responses to interrogatories by 13 June 2005 ; 

(5)       Final comments are to be filed by 7 July 2005 ; and 

(6)       Reply comments filed by 20 July 2005 . 

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. 

Sincerely, 

'Original signed by J. Keogh' (for) 

Diane Rheaume
Secrectary General

Date Modified: 2005-05-13

Date modified: