ARCHIVED - Commission Letter - 8690-X4-200704040
This page has been archived on the Web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.
LetterOttawa, 4 May 2007 File No: 8690-X4-200704040 BY EMAIL
Mr. Robert Proulx - and -
Mr. David J. Hennessey Dear Mr. Proulx and Mr. Hennessey: Re: Part VII Application by Xittel Telecommunications Inc. for access to Bell Aliant Regional Communications' support structures On 2 May 2007 , the Commission received a letter from Bell Aliant Regional Communications Limited Partnership (Bell Aliant), requesting that Xittel Telecommunications Inc. (Xittel) disclose an abridged version of Appendix H, of the Part VII application filed on 9 March 2007 (appendix H) and Appendix 1, of Xittel's response to Commission interrogatories filed on 26 April 2007 (Appendix 1). On 2 May 2007 , in response to Bell Aliant's request for disclosure, Xittel noted that Appendix H contains a network map of an area in Bell Aliant territory and Appendix 1 contains important disaggregated information about the reach of several competitive networks, which are confidential. Requests for disclosure of information for which confidentiality has been claimed are assessed in light of sections 38 and 39 of the Telecommunications Act and section 19 of the CRTC Telecommunications Rules of Procedure . In the case of each request, the public interest in disclosure is weighed against the specific direct harm, if any, likely to result from disclosure. In doing so, a number of factors are taken into account, including the following. The degree of competition that exists in a particular market is an important consideration in assessing requests for disclosure. All things being equal, the greater the degree of competition in a particular market, the greater the specific direct harm that could be expected to result from disclosure. Another factor in assessing the extent of harm is the expected usefulness of the information at issue to parties in furthering their competitive position. In this regard, an important consideration is the degree to which the information at issue is disaggregated. Generally speaking, the more aggregated the information, the less the likelihood that harm will flow from its disclosure. In particular, in this proceeding, parties' responses to various interrogatories have been considered from the point of view of whether they could be aggregated so as to provide meaningful information that would not compromise the confidentiality of any individual party's response. The expectation that specific direct harm might result from disclosure is not, by itself, sufficient to justify maintaining a claim of confidentiality. In certain circumstances, substantial harm from disclosure may still be outweighed by the public interest in disclosure. Finally, the treatment of confidentiality requests should not be taken as an indication of the manner in which such matters would be dealt with in the future, in different circumstances. With respect to the information requested by Bell Aliant, as noted above, it is considered that most of the information in Appendix H and Appendix 1 are relevant to the determination of this matter and that any specific direct harm likely to result from disclosure, as set out below, would not outweigh the public interest in its disclosure. Therefore, Xittel is to provide Appendix H in its entirety and Appendix 1, except for the customer information contained in column 4 and 5 (column D and column E of the electronic filing), on the public record by 7 May 2007. 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. Yours truly, 'Original signed by L. Fancy'
Lynne Fancy cc: Julian Brainerd, CRTC (819) 934-6376 Date Modified: 2007-05-04 |
- Date modified: