ARCHIVED - Telecom Procedural Letter Addressed to Distribution List

Ottawa, 25 May 2015

Our reference: 8690-T66-201501107

BY EMAIL

Distribution List

RE: Part 1 Application - Request for Commission direction that the Model Municipal Access Agreement be used as basis for negotiations

On 2 February 2015, the Commission received an application from Bell Canada, MTS Inc. and Allstream Inc. (collectively MTS Allstream), Rogers Communications Partnership, Shaw Cablesystems G.P. and TELUS Communications Company (collectively, the Carriers), requesting that the Commission direct the City of Calgary (City) (a) to recommence negotiations for a municipal access agreement (MAA) with the Carriers using the Model MAA developed by CISC^{Footnote 1} as the basis for the negotiations and (b) to continue to provide access to the Carriers to its municipal rights-of-way (ROWs) pursuant to the terms of access of the most recent expired MAAs with the City, until a dispute between the parties concerning the terms of a new municipal access agreement was resolved.

By letter dated 26 February 2015, the Carriers requested that the Commission consider, on an expedited basis, issuing an order to the City to continue providing access to municipal ROWs pursuant to existing terms of access. The Carriers indicated that they had received a letter from the City, dated 4 February 2015, stating that the City’s consent would be required for each and every application to access to the City’s municipal’s ROWs prior to the approval of an alignment or release of any permit unless the Carriers returned a signed copy of the City’s new Municipal Consent and Access Agreement^{Footnote 2} (MCAA) by 6 March 2015.

By Commission staff letter dated 16 March 2015, the request for interim relief was put on hold and the parties were requested to discuss certain requirements that the City had prior to allowing Carriers continued access to municipal ROWs under the expired MAAs. The parties were to report back to the Commission by 8 April 2015 on the progress of their discussions

On 8 April 2015, the Carriers and the City reported that, as a result of a joint Carrier-City operational committee meeting, they had reached an agreement on the condition by which the City would continue to provide access to municipal ROWs under the terms of recently expired MAAs, pending a Commission determination on the Application. Namely, the parties agreed on a process and timeline for the Carriers’ provision to the City of 2014 past-due “as-built” drawings of telecommunications installations. The parties also indicated that they had committed to resolving several other outstanding issues related to terms in the recently expired MAAs.

Commission staff notes that based on the record, the Carriers and the City had made progress in 2014 negotiating the terms of a new MAA and more recently in 2015 the parties expressed a commitment to resolving outstanding issues related to terms in their expired MAAs.

Commission staff considers that the parties should continue to be given every opportunity to resolve the matters among themselves and that regulatory intervention at this time would be inappropriate. Commission staff notes that while the Model MAA is non-binding, it was developed and is intended to be a resource to assist parties to reach mutually acceptable agreements.

Therefore in view of the above, the Carriers’ application is closed. The Carriers and the City are encouraged to continue to negotiate, building upon the progress they have made to date, with a view to finalizing new MAAs in the coming months. Commission staff expects that all parties will negotiate in good faith, that the City will continue to provide the Carriers continued access to the City’s ROWs as agreed until new MAAs are reached, and that the Carriers will continue to comply with the terms of the expired MAAs until new MAAs are reached.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Chris Seidl
Executive Director
Telecommunications Sector

c.c.: Jesslyn Mullaney, CRTC, 819-953-5255, jesslyn.mullaney@crtc.gc.ca

Distribution List
MTS Allstream, iworkstation@mtsallstream.com
Rogers Communications, Pamela.dinsmore@rci.rogers.com
Shaw Communications Inc., regulatory@sjrb.ca
TELUS Communications Company, regulatory.affairs@telus.com

Date modified:

2015-05-25