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Ottawa, 27 September 2012

File No. 8740-O31-201211846

BY E-MAIL

Mr. Tracy Cant
Director of Finance and Regulatory Matters
Ontera
555 Oak Street East
North Bay, Ontario
P1B 8L3
Tracy.cant@ontera.ca

RE: Tariff Notice 125 – Residential primary exchange service

Dear Mr. Cant:

On 19 September 2012, the Commission received a submission by Ontera in which the company proposed changes to its General Tariffs CRTC 25300 and CRTC 25520 in order to introduce increases to the residential primary exchange service (PES) and push-tone rates.

Commission staff notes that in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2011-2911, at paragraph 122, the Commission set the price ceiling for stand-alone PES at $302 and further stated:

… that, effective 1 June 2011, in the regulated HCSAs of all large and small ILECs where subsidies have not yet been eliminated and monthly rates are below $30, these rates can be increased, as discussed below, to the lesser of $30 or the amount required to eliminate subsidy. The increases to the rate components will be phased in over a period of three years (the transition period), in equal annual increments.

Commission staff notes that, pursuant to this decision, the maximum allowable annual rate increase would equal to one third of the difference between Ontera’s PES rate of $23.14 and push-tone rates of $2.21 and $2.70 respectively in effect as of the date of that decision and the price ceiling of $30 (i.e. an annual increase of $1.38 under CRTC 25520 and $1.55 under CRTC 25300, respectively). Commission staff further notes that the annual increase proposed by Ontera of $2.77 exceeds the allowable annual rate increase and is therefore not in compliance with the Commission’s determinations in Telecom Regulatory Policy 2011-291.

Commission staff notes that, pursuant to Telecom Information Bulletin 2010-4553, this application was filed in the form of a Group A filing

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Rules of Procedure) provides that the Commission may close a file that does not meet its requirements. Because Ontera’s filing does not comply with the Commission requirements for tariff applications as described in both subsection 22(2) of the Rules of Procedure and Information Bulletin 2010-455, this file is closed.

Ontera may submit new tariff applications addressing the above-mentioned concerns.

Yours sincerely,

‘Original signed by M. Murray’

Michel Murray
Director, Regulatory Implementation
Telecommunications

cc: Joanne Baldassi, CRTC (819) 997-3498, joanne.baldassi@crtc.gc.ca


[1]Obligation to serve and other matters, Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2011-291, 3 May 2011

[2]The price ceiling includes Touch-Tone service and other permanent monthly charges associated with unlimited local calling (i.e. mileage charges, Extended Area Service, and Community Calling Service).

[3]Approval processes for tariff applications and intercarrier agreements, Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-455, 5 July 2010.

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