ARCHIVED - Letter

Ottawa, 31 July 2009

Our reference:   8662-V42-200907826

                      8662-P8-200907727

BY E- MAIL

Mr. Mirko Bibic

Senior Vice-President

Regulatory and Government Affairs

Bell Canada

160 Elgin Street, 19th Floor

Ottawa, Ontario   K2P 2C4

bell.regulatory@bell.ca

Mr. Tom Copeland

Chair

Canadian Association of Internet Providers

tom.copeland@caip.ca

Mr. John Lawford

Counsel for PIAC

lawford@piac.ca

Mr. Jean-François Mezei

Vaxination Informatique

86 Harwo od Gate

Beaconsfield, Québec   H9W 3A3

jfmezei@vaxination.ca

Dear Sirs:

Subject : Part VII Applications Requesting a Review and Vary of Telecom Decision CRTC 2008-108

The Commission is in receipt of a letter dated 24 July 2009, from the Consumers' Association of Canada, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers and a number of other parties (CAIP et al.) requesting that the record of the review and vary proceeding be re-opened (i) to have certain information filed in confidence by Bell Canada and Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership (Bell Canada et al.) placed on the public record, (ii) to accord interested parties an opportunity to direct interrogatories to Bell Canada et al. on this information and (iii) to provide an opportunity for interested parties to submit comments on the information once disclosed and clarified by Bell Canada et al.

The Commission is also in receipt of a letter dated 27 July 2009 from Bell Canada et al. opposing CAIP et al.'s request. Bell Canada et al. submitted that the information disclosed at the public hearing in the PN 2008-19 proceeding is not the same as the information submitted in confidence in the R&V applications' proceedings. It also argued that it would not be appropriate to require the disclosure of this information as it would not materially impact the arguments being made on either side. Further, Bell Canada et al. submitted that interrogatories on this information are unnecessary, and that comments on the information publicly released in the PN 2008-19 proceeding can be addressed in the final reply comments of interested parties to that proceeding.

Commission staff notes that at paragraph 18 of its 22 June 2009 comments on CAIP et al.'s Part VII application Bell Canada et al. provided information related to the bandwidth consumed by wholesale end-users in confidence. As CAIP et al. noted in its 24 July 2009 letter, Bell Canada subsequently placed similar information on the public record of the PN 2008-19 proceeding.

Commission staff considers that in light of Bell Canada et al.'s voluntary public disclosures in the PN 2008-19 proceeding, it would not be appropriate to maintain the confidentiality of similar information filed in confidence at paragraph 18 of Bell Canada et al.'s 22 June 2009 comments on CAIP et al,'s Part VII application, as such information is not consistently treated as confidential by Bell Canada. In this regard, Commission staff considers that the harm likely to result from the disclosure of the information in question does not outweigh the public interest in its disclosure. Therefore, Bell Canada et al. is to provide on the public record the information filed in confidence at paragraph 18 of its 22 June 2009 comments by 4 August 2009.

Parties that have commented in the R&V applications proceeding may file additional comments, serving a copy on other parties, related solely to the information provided by Bell   Canada et al. by 10 August 2009.

All submissions must actually be received by the Commission at the above mentioned dates and not just merely sent.

With respect to CAIP et al.'s request to direct interrogatories to Bell Canada et al. on the disclosed information, staff does not consider it necessary or appropriate to extend further the procedure at this stage of the process.  

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by

Paul Godin

Director General

Competition, Costing & Tariffs

c.c.:   Distribution List

Distribution List

Date modified:

2009-07-30