ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8652-C12-200312265

This page has been archived on the Web

Information identified as archived on the Web is for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. Archived Decisions, Notices and Orders (DNOs) remain in effect except to the extent they are amended or reversed by the Commission, a court, or the government. The text of archived information has not been altered or updated after the date of archiving. Changes to DNOs are published as “dashes” to the original DNO number. Web pages that are archived on the Web are not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards. As per the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada, you can request alternate formats by contacting us.

Letter

Ottawa, 20 July 2005

By: E-Mail

Terry.Connolly@TELUS.com

Mr. Terry Connolly

Director, Regulatory Affairs

TELUS Communications Inc.

21 - 10020 -100 Street NW

Edmonton , AB

T5J 0N5 

Re:   Follow-up to 14 November 2003 letter concerning Portfolio Expenses  

Further to the Commission interrogatories dated 14 November 2003 regarding portfolio expenses, TELUS Communications Inc. (TELUS) is requested to submit its responses to the attached questions by 5 August 2005 .  

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Yvan Davidson

Senior Manager

Competitor Services and Costing

c.c.:   Trichur Krishnan

Attachment

Background


In the proceeding leading to TELUS Communications Inc. - Application to review and vary Decision 2000-745 and Decision 2001-238 , Telecom Decision CRTC 2002-67, 25 October 2002 (Decision 2002-67), the Commission noted the issue regarding the treatment of portfolio expenses in respect of Phase II cost studies. In that proceeding, TELUS Communications Inc. (TELUS) referred to portfolio expenses as non-service specific expenses causal to groupings of services of which the service in question was a constituent. In that decision, the Commission noted that TELUS included portfolio expenses in its cost studies for individual services while Aliant Telecom Inc., Bell Canada and MTS Communications Inc. (collectively, the Companies) excluded these expenses from their cost studies. In that decision, the Commission determined that on an interim basis all ILEC Phase II cost studies should reflect the inclusion of portfolio expenses, consistent with earlier directives and past practice .

1.     In response to interrogatory TELUS(CRTC)14Nov03-1 Phase II Costing Information Requirements, TELUS identified the activities that it considered appropriate for inclusion as portfolio expenses (i.e., the management of a portfolio of services). In its response, TELUS identified several portfolio level activities including portfolio product management, facility rental and settlements, maintenance and provisioning, market management, network operations, information technology and other miscellaneous portfolio level activities. In response to interrogatory TELUS(CRTC)14Nov03-3 Phase II Costing Information Requirements, TELUS further provided an estimate of the portfolio expense factor using Bell Canada's portfolio factor equation and TELUS' 2002 expense data.

•  Using the format provided in Attachment 1 of response to interrogatory TELUS(CRTC)14Nov03-2 Phase II Costing Information Requirements, provide a revised table of 2002 expenses by category where portfolio expenses are split into: (i) marketing-related portfolio expenses: "expenses directly related to the development and management of marketing/promotional/sales programs associated with a common group of retail and/or Competitor services, which cannot be attributed (as direct/indirect expenses) to any specific service within that group"; and (ii) Other. Under these revised definitions, the marketing-related portfolio expenses are to include the activities such as portfolio product management, market management (and their associated Information technology and support activities), while Other expenses are to include the remaining activities previously identified as portfolio expenses. It is noted that the expenses reported under this Other expense category should exclude any maintenance/provisioning, facility rental and settlements, and network operations expenses that are attributable and thus causal to individual services (which should be reclassified and reported under the Direct/Indirect cost category).

 

•  Provide a calculation of TELUS' marketing-related portfolio expense loading factor (i.e., dividing the total marketing-related portfolio expenses by the total direct/indirect expenses) based on the revised total 2002 marketing-related portfolio expense estimate provided in response to part (a) above.

•  In response to interrogatory Aliant(CRTC)14Nov03-1 Phase II, Aliant Telecom indicated that if it were deemed appropriate to include portfolio factors in Phase II studies, then such factors should be developed and applied in a consistent manner by all parties. Comment on the development and use of a revised marketing-related portfolio loading factor that is based on the marketing-related portfolio expense definition provided in response to 1(a) above and consistent with that adopted for Bell Canada, MTS/Allstream, Aliant Telecom, and SaskTel in Primary inter-exchange carrier processing charges review , Telecom Decision CRTC 2004-72, 9 November 2004, and Competitor Digital Network Services , Telecom Decision CRTC 2005-6, 3 February 2005.

•  Provide revised responses to parts a) and b) above, using 2003 data, if available.

For each of the activities provided under the Other category identified in response to part a) above (e.g., maintenance, provisioning, facility rental and settlements, and network operations), explain how the Phase II cost is determined in the context of individual service filings, and if the proposed costing approach constitutes a change from that outlined in the company's proposed May 2002 Phase II manual, provide a description of each costing methodology change, with supporting rationale

Date Modified: 2005-07-20

Date modified: