ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter - 8663-C12-200614439

Letter

Ottawa, 30 October 2007

File Number:   8663-C12-200614439

By Electronic mail

To:   Interested Parties List - PN 2006-14

Re:  Review of regulatory framework for wholesale services and definition of essential service - Telecom Public Notice CRTC 2006-14

Please find enclosed Commission interrogatories dated 30 October 2007 (CRTC Exhibit # 10).   To the extent that the questions are relevant to services provided, or subscribed to, by the telecommunications service providers that were present at the oral hearing, such parties are requested, and other parties to the proceeding are invited, to respond to the attached interrogatories. Responses are to be filed with the Commission, and copies served on all other parties by 16 November 2007.

In addition, this letter will address the proposal made by the Competition Bureau (the Bureau) in its letter to the Commission, dated October 29, 2007.   In that letter, the Bureau suggested a revision to the schedule for written arguments and reply arguments that would separate the Final Oral Argument phase and the Written Argument phase and amalgamate the Argument and Reply Argument.   The letter also indicated that certain parties informally agreed with the proposed revisions.

Changes to Process Previously Announced

Commission staff notes that new information will be received as a result of the attached interrogatories.   Further, staff considers the proposal by the Bureau to be reasonable in the circumstances.   As a result of the above, the process set out in the Commission's letter of organization and conduct dated 26 September 2007 is further modified as follows (underlining indicates changes):

• As contemplated in Public Notice 2006-14-3, in addition to, or instead of, presenting final oral argument, all parties may file written argument with the Commission on any matter within the scope of this proceeding, including argument with respect to the Osborne report, limited to 75 pages which includes an executive summary no longer than 15 pages in length, serving a copy on all other parties, by 23 November 2007.
  
  
• All parties may file reply argument with respect to other parties' arguments on all issues, limited to 40 pages which includes an executive summary no longer than 10 pages in length, serving a copy on all other parties, by 7 December 2007.

Moreover, paragraph 34 set out in PN 2006-14-4 is amended as follows:

• Any person who wishes merely to file written comments in this proceeding, without receiving copies of the evidence filed or appearing at the hearing may do so by writing to the Commission, at the address or fax number noted in paragraph 32, or by filling out the on-line form , by 23 November 2007.

Yours sincerely,

(Original signed by)

Robert G. Martin
Senior Manager, Essential Services
Telecommunications
Tel: 819-953-3361
e-mail: robert.martin@crtc.gc.ca

Attachment

30 October 2007                                                                                    CRTC Exhibit # 10

INFORMATION REQUESTED BY COMMISSION

CONTRACT TERMINATION

1.      a)      Certain competitor service tariffs and agreements contain provisions for charges to be paid by a competitor that terminates its contract before the end of the commitment period (early termination charges).   Comment on the proposition that early termination charges incent the customer to use the service for the entire contracted period.

         b)       Assume that certain competitor services are found to be non-essential and subject to phase-out of mandatory provisioning and pricing of the services.   Assume further that a purpose of the phase-out period is to provide competitors with time to make alternate service provisioning arrangements in response to the regulatory framework for wholesale services that is the outcome of this proceeding.   Provide with reasons the company's views on whether the requirement to pay early termination charges during such a phase-out period would be consistent with this purpose of the phase-out period.   Include views on whether such early termination charges should be waived during the phase-out period.

CLASSIFICATION OF DSL ACCESS SERVICE

2.     In paragraph 46 of their initial evidence filed on 15 March 2007 , Bell et al. stated:

The Commission has also imposed mandated wholesale provision on more than one provider of a facility in a relevant market.   However, when more than one service provider is supplying a facility, there should be no finding that an essential facility exists.   For example, in the residential data market, the Commission has imposed wholesale remedies both on the ILECs, who must provide wholesale DSL, and on cable companies, who must provide third party Internet access (TPIA).   The existence of two service providers of high-speed Internet access is prima facie a reason to remove the requirement to provide the mandated facility from both providers.

In Figure 4.4.2 Residential Internet access technology mix (2002 v. 2006), CRTC Telecommunications Monitoring Report, July 2007, the Commission noted that technologies other than cable and DSL accounted for only 1% of the market in 2006.

With reference to the Commission staff letter of 3 October 2007 setting out six possible service categories, provide the company's view, with rationale, as to which category ILEC wholesale DSL access services should be assigned in markets:

a)    Where a cable company is present but does not offer high-speed Internet access service.

b)   There is no cable company present.

DIRECTORY LISTINGS

3.      In its response to interrogatory Distributel(CRTC)12Apr07-207, Distributel submitted that both Directory File Service (DFS) and Basic Listing Interchange File (BLIF) services should be classified as essential services.   Distributel stated its view that there is no alternative to DFS for the supply of complex listings.

Commission staff notes that complex listings include, but are not limited to, foreign listings, extra listings and compiled listings which are an association of listings (more than 2) and may be accompanied by headers, captions and sub captions (such as a retail store with listing information on the main office and branch offices). (Definition of complex listings as defined in Complex Listing Interchange Form, Service Description & Ordering Guidelines, 98/01/07 on the Commission's web-site under the Operator Services / Directory Listings CISC Sub Working Group (OS/DL SWG))

At paragraphs 162 through 171 of Appendix 6 to their 15 March 2007 evidence, Bell et al. stated that the OS/DL SWG defined BLIF as the appropriate mechanism for exchange of primary subscriber listings with a provision for an associated sub-listing (complex listing). Bell et al. argued that BLIF is an alternative to DFS and DFS should no longer be considered essential.

a)      Provide a detailed description of the directory listing information that is provided by both BLIF and DFS.   Explain the key differences between BLIF and DFS (e.g., whether complex listing information can be derived from BLIF).

b)      Provide, by company, in the following tables the names of customers that subscribed to the following directory listing services.

i)      BLIF

ii)     DFS

c)      Confirm your view, with rationale, whether or not DFS is an essential service.

TRANSIT SERVICES

4.      This question refers to CLEC to IXC and CLEC to CLEC voice and CCS7 transit services.   ILECs are to respond on the basis of their out-of-territory operations.

        a)      From the perspective of interconnecting with other CLECs

              i)    Identify in the following table the type(s) of arrangements your company uses, by location, to interconnect with other CLECs, i.e.: 1) interconnecting with other CLECs directly; 2) use of ILEC transit services; or 3) use of other CLEC transit services.  

              ii)     Describe in detail the considerations that are used to decide between the above 3 options. The description should include a discussion of such factors as number of end customers, number of trunks and relative costs of the 3 options.

        b)      From the perspective of providing transit service to other CLECs

              i)       If your company provides transit service to other CLECs, describe the arrangements your company uses to interconnect with the other CLECs, i.e.: 1) interconnecting with all other CLECs directly; 2) use of ILEC transit services in total, or in part; or 3) use of other CLEC transit services.  

              ii)      If your company relies on an ILEC's mandated transit service to provide your company's transit service to other CLECs, in the event that the Commission was to determine that the ILEC's mandated transit service is non-essential and the ILEC chooses to no longer provide the transit service on an non-mandated basis, discuss the economic viability of your company continuing to provide transit services to other CLECs.

              iii)           If your company provides transit services to other CLECs by interconnecting with all CLECs directly, discuss the factors that your company took into consideration when deciding to enter such arrangements such as, pricing of the non-mandated transit service, minimum end-customer base, number of trunks and, number of CLECs required to subscribe to a transit service in a given market.

PHASE-OUT PERIOD

5.      This question refers to the attachment to Commission staff's 3 October 2007 letter which reorganized the possible regulatory framework for wholesale services put forward in Commission interrogatory ______(CRTC)19July07-1005.

With respect to services categorized as (2) Conditional Essential and (4) Conditional Mandated Non-Essential, once the specific circumstances that led to the conditional mandatory unbundling and mandated pricing are no longer in effect (for example, in two years' time), provide with reasons your views on whether the mandatory provisioning of each such service should be subject to a phase-out period.   If so, provide your views as to the length of that phase-out period and the pricing principles that should apply during such a phase-out period.