ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8662-T66-200515398

Letter

Ottawa, 9 February 2006

Our file number: 8662-T66-200515398

By EMAIL

To: Interested parties to follow-up to Decision 2003-58

Re: Application to review and vary Issues with respect to the provision of optical fibre, Telecom Decision CRTC 2005-63, 21 October 2005 (Decision 2005-63): Revised process and disposition of disclosure requests

By Commission staff letter dated 3 February 2006, TELUS Communication Inc. (TCI) was to file on the public record by 8 February 2006, serving a copy on other parties, the following:

•  A copy of the fibre swap agreement with Vidéotron Ltée (VTL) that was effective 23 April 2001, except for Appendix 2; and

•  A copy of the agreement with VTL that was effective 8 November 2001, except for the consideration identified in Section 2.2. ("Contrepartie") and Appendices 2,3 and 4.

On 8 February 2006, VTL submitted that full implementation of the disclosure disposition   of this letter would would result in the release on the public record of sensitive commercial information related to the geographical scope, capacity and acquisition cost of VTL's fibre optic network, resulting in specific direct harm to VTL. VTL requested that the disclosure disposition be amended so that the following information would continue to be retained in confidence:

•  all references to geographic place names, routes and distances (specifically, the references in the title line and Appendix 1 of the agreement effective 23 April 2001, and the references in the title line, the second "Attendu que" clause, the fourth sub-paragraph of section 5, and Appendix 1 of the agreement effective 8 November 2001);

•  all references to fibre strand quantities and network capacity (specifically, the references in Appendix 1 of the agreement effective 23 April 2001, and the references in the second "Attendu que" clause, the fourth sub-paragraph of section 5, and Appendix 1 of the agreement effective 8 November 2001); and

•  all references to monetary consideration (specifically, the references in sections 7.3.1 and 7.3.3 of the agreement effective 23 April 2001, and the references in sections 8.3.1 and 8.3.2 of the agreement effective 8 November 2001 ).

By letter dated 8 February 2006, Xit telecom inc. (Xit telecom) submitted that the request of VTL should be denied.

Commission staff has weighed the public interest in disclosure against the specific direct harm likely to result from disclosure, in light of the submissions of VTL and Xit telecom filed on 8 February 2006 and having regard to the relevance of the information filed in confidence to the ability of parties to make meaningful representations on the various issues raised by both applications.

Based on this assessment, Commission staff considers that it is appropriate to amend its disclosure disposition of 3 February 2006, such that the following additional information is not required to be disclosed on the public record:

•  all references to geographic locations such as mentioned in the title of the Agreement;

•  the specific monetary consideration identified in Sections 7.3.1 and 7.3.3;

.  Appendix 1, except for the column labelled "Nb de fibres échangées" and the two aggregate numbers representing the total Fibres Km quantities swapped by each of TCI and VTL, which are to be disclosed on the public record.

Agreement effective 8 November 2001

- all references to geographic locations such as mentioned in the title, second "Attendu que" clause and the fourth paragraph of Section 5;

-  The specific monetary consideration identified in Sections 8.3.1 and 8.3.2;

-  Appendix 1, except for the column labelled "Nb de fibres vendues" and the aggregate number of Fibre Km provided to VTL, which is to be provided below the column "Fibres Km".

TCI is to file on the public record by 10 February 2006, serving a copy on other parties, copies of the agreements in question, consistent with the disposition of the requests for disclosure set out in Commission staff's letter of 3 February 2005 , as amended by this letter.

Yours truly,

Suzanne Bédard
Director - Tariff
Telecommunication