ARCHIVED - Telecom Commission Letter addressed to Ian Scott (Telesat Canada)

Ottawa, 28 September 2015

File No. 8663-C12-201401041

BY E-MAIL

Mr. Ian Scott
Executive Director, Telesat
1601 Telesat Court
Ottawa Ontario  K1B 5P4
iscott@telesat.com

RE:   Review of Telesat Canada’s price ceiling for C-band fixed satellite services – Requests for Information

Dear Mr. Scott:

In Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2015-133 , the Commission initiated a review of Telesat’s price ceiling for C-band fixed satellite services. The Commission indicated that it may request information, in the form of interrogatories, on or before 5 October 2015.

Telesat is to file responses to the requests for information set out in the attachment by 16 November 2015. Commission staff notes that it may request additional information from any party to the proceeding on or before 5 October 2015, consistent with Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2015-133.

Should you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Greg Milosek by email at Gregory.milosek@crtc.gc.ca or by phone at (819) 953-4720.

Yours sincerely

Original signed by

Kay Saicheua
Director, Competition & Emergency Services Policy 
Telecommunications Sector

cc:     Jeremy Lendvay, jeremy.lendvay@crtc.gc.ca
Eric MacFarlane, eric.macfarlane@crtc.gc.ca
Greg Milosek, gregory.milosek@crtc.gc.ca

Distribution List

Brent Perrott, brent.perrott@huntercomm.net
Dean Proctor, regulatory@ssimicro.com
Graham Neill, graham.neill@outlook.com
Ian Wilson, ikwilson@outlook.com
Jean-François Dumoulin, jdumoulin@krg.ca
Jean-François Léger, jfleger@piac.ca
John MacKenzie, john.mackenzie@telus.com
Linda Maljan, linda_maljan@gov.nt.ca
Philippe Gauvin, bell.regulatory@bell.ca
Rob McMahon, info@firstmile.ca
Roland Renner, roland.renner@huntercomm.net, rrenner@globisdata.ca
Walt Juchniewicz, juchniewicz@juch-tech.com

Requests for information directed at Telesat

• For each Telesat satellite that has C-band capacity, provide the current capacity, in transponders, broken down as follows:
• The total amount of capacity by band (C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band).
• The total amount of C-band capacity in use, broken down according to the type of customer (i.e. provider of telecommunications services, broadcaster, government, etc.)

• The total amount of C-band capacity used by providers of telecommunications services to deliver telecommunication services (e.g. voice, wireless, Internet) in Canada.
• The total amount of C-band capacity available to providers of telecommunications services to deliver telecommunication services in Canada.
• Provide responses to 1.a., 1.b., 1.c. and 1.d. using forecasted capacity for the years 2020 and 2025.

• Provide the Net Book Value (NBV) associated with each of the major capital components (e.g. spacecraft, satellite control facilities, etc.) for the Anik F2 and Anik F3 satellites as of the end of 2014. The response should explain the methodology, assumptions with supporting rationale, source, and vintage of data used to compute the NBV.

• Provide Telesat’s current estimate of the expected end-of-orbital maneuver life of the Anik F2 and Anik F3 satellites and the remaining asset life for any other capital components identified in response to Question 2. Confirm that these estimates match those published in the Loral Space & Communications Inc.’s 2014 annual report . If these estimates do not match those found in the annual report, please explain why there is a discrepancy.

• Provide a cost study with a 10 year study period commencing on 1 January 2015 for a full period, unprotected, pre-emptible whole radio frequency (RF) channel service operating on the 6/4 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency band (C-band transponder) that is provided by Telesat on the Anik F2 and Anik F3 satellites to a Canadian provider of telecommunications services for the purpose of delivering telecommunications services. The economic evaluation report submitted with the cost study must explain how costs were allocated to the C-band transponder, with supporting rationale, where components are shared by C, Ku, and Ka bands. Further, apply the following methodology to the company’s cost study:

• Use the NBVs associated with C-band provided in response to Question 2 as the capital cash flows at the start of 2015.
• The asset lives of the capital included in the study should be equal to the expected end-of-orbital maneuver lives and remaining asset lives provided in response to Question 3.

Provide an electronic copy of the cost model used to support Telesat’s response. Identify all methodologies and assumptions used, with supporting rationale. The filing should also include (i) all formulas used to calculate costs so that the Commission can understand how the cost inputs were developed, (ii) all the associated linked spreadsheet files, (iii) a brief description of the input data variables, (iv) the vintage of the input data, (v) any other supporting data used to develop the various costs, and (vi) any other relevant costing details. This cost information should be disclosed in accordance with Confidentiality of information used to establish wholesale service rates, Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2012-592, 26 October 2012.

• Provide your plans to deploy new or replacement satellites with C-band capacity that can be used by Canadian providers of telecommunications services to deliver telecommunications services in Canada. The response should include the planned in-service date and the amount of C-band capacity that will be available on the satellite(s).

• Provide the company’s views on the use of the NBV approach to calculate the cost of Telesat’s C-band service, as opposed to the approach Telesat used in the cost studies it submitted on 20 July 2015.

Date modified:

2015-09-28