Search

Telecom Commission Letter addressed to Mr. Stan Thompson (Northwestel Inc.)

Ottawa, 14 January 2020

Our reference: 8740-N1-201912030

BY EMAIL

Mr. Stan Thompson
Chief Financial Officer! Vice-President
Northwestel Inc.
3rd Floor
301 Lambert Street
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 4Y4
regulatoryaffairs@nwtel.ca

RE: Northwestel Inc. Tariff Notice 1063, Terrestrial Internet Services

Dear Sir,

On 11 November 2019, the Commission received an application by Northwestel requesting approval for proposed changes to Northwestel's General Tariff CRTC 3001.  Northwestel proposed to i) introduce fibre to the premises (FTTP) over Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) services for residential and business customers, ii) restructuring the tariffs for Service Charges (items 301 to 304) into a single item (301), iii) removing an expired promotion (item 1733) and iv) updating the name of item 1735 to Terrestrial Internet Service.

Commission staff requests that Northwestel respond to the attached request for information by 14 February 2020. Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date.

The Commission requires the response or other documents to be submitted electronically by using the secured service “My CRTC Account” (Partner Log In or GCKey) and filling the “Broadcasting and Telecom Cover page” or the “Broadcasting Cover Page” located on this web page. Also on this web page, you will find information on the submission of applications to the Commission “Filing Broadcasting and Canadian Program Certification documents with the CRTC: Privacy and Security”.

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the proceeding.

As set out in section 39 of the Telecommunications Act and in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-961, Procedures for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure in Commission proceedings, persons may designate certain information as confidential. A person designating information as confidential must provide a detailed explanation on why the designated information is confidential and why its disclosure would not be in the public interest, including why the specific direct harm that would be likely to result from the disclosure would outweigh the public interest in disclosure. Furthermore, a person designating information as confidential must either file an abridged version of the document omitting only the information designated as confidential or provide reasons why an abridged version cannot be filed.

Copies of the document should be also be sent to wendy.mcclintock@crtc.gc.ca

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Michel Murray
Director, Dispute Resolution & Regulatory Implementation
Telecommunications Sector

c.c.:  Wendy McClintock, CRTC, 818-639-6211, wendy.mcclintock@crtc.gc.ca
B. Natraj (Nat Natraj), CRTC, 819-953-5081, nat.natraj@crtc.gc.ca
Christine Brock, CRTC, 873-353-5852, Christine.brock@crtc.gc.ca

Attach. (1)

Northwestel Tariff Notice 1063 - Fiber to the premises

Refer to paragraph 5 of the company’s cover letter dated 11 November 2019 associated with Tariff Notice 1063, where the company indicates that it plans to introduce Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) internet services using GPON for residential and business customers.  In the letter, Northwestel proposes that the rates for these FTTP internet services it would adopt the currently approved rates for Cable Internet residential/business packages – including the establishment of identical speed options, usage caps and data usage rates.

  1. For the FTTP access, is funding being provided from any level of government (territorial, federal, or municipal), or from any other agency / party for the construction, establishment, or ongoing maintenance of the FTTP access? If yes, provide the amount of funding available by speed tier, geographic location, and year (if applicable), and explain, with supporting rationale, why the funded amounts should not be excluded from the proposed rates.
  2. If funding is being provided for FTTP access, provide the detailed costing methodology and assumptions that would be used to exclude the funded amount by speed tier for the proposed retail residential / business FTTP rates.
  3. Explain, with supporting rationale, how the company’s proposal to adopt the approved cable retail internet residential / business package rates for the FTTP internet residential and business service would result in just and reasonable rates, taking into account that Northwestel’s current approved retail internet rates for Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) and cable by speed tier are different for residentialFootnote1 and businessFootnote2 due to differences in costs and mark-up associated with each speed tier.
  4. Provide the locations in each of the next five years where the FTTP service will be offered for each of residence and business.
Date modified: