Telecom - Procedural Letter addressed to Stan Thompson (Northwestel Inc.)
Ottawa, 13 May 2021
Our reference: 8740-N1-202008664
BY EMAIL
Mr. Stan Thompson
Chief Financial Officer & Vice-President
Northwestel Inc.
P.O. Box 2727
Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 4Y4
regulatoryaffairs@nwtel.ca
RE: Northwestel Inc. - Tariff Notice 1114 – Requests for information – Request for extension
Dear Mr. Thompson:
This is in response to Northwestel Inc.’s (Northwestel’s) 10 May 2021 letter requesting a five week extension to the filing date for responses to Commission staff's requests for information (RFIs) related to Tariff Notice (TN) 1114, dated 30 March 2021. Northwestel asked that the due date for the RFIs responses change from 14 May 2021 to 18 June 2021.
In TN 1114, Northwestel proposed changes to its General Tariff CRTC 3001, Item 1736 – Terrestrial Internet Services, in order to double the speeds of certain non-destandardized Optimized Internet Service packages. On 30 March 2021, Commission staff sought detailed information related to the cost study that Northwestel filed in support of TN 1114.
Northwestel indicated that it has developed and filed updated cost models for its terrestrial retail Internet services in the proceeding initiated by TNC 2020-367, Footnote1 which reflect the Commission-mandated costing assumptions set out in Northwestel(CRTC)21Jan21-2-1 of that proceeding. Northwestel added that many of the cost components in those updated models are also components that it has included in the cost study it filed in support of TN 1114. As such, the costs that the TN 1114 price floor test was based on are no longer the most up-to-date costs for the services addressed in that TN. For this reason, Northwestel proposed to provide an update of the cost study that supported its original TN 1114 filing and to respond to the RFIs on that basis. Northwestel stated that conducting and validating the updated cost study for TN 1114 and preparing the related study report and price floor test results will take a few weeks.
Northwestel stated that it needs time as its costing resources are currently fully engaged in preparing the cost submissions they committed to file in the TNC 2020-367 proceeding and in preparing responses to RFIs that deal with some of the same cost studies in the context of its TN 1099 filing. Northwestel indicated that its costing resources would not be available before 19 May 2021 and that subsequently the work to conduct and validate the updated cost study for TN 1114 and preparing the related study report and price floor test results will take a few weeks.
Northwestel noted that there will no procedural or other harm to any party as a result of its extension request as customers can already subscribe to the services filed in that TN based on the Commission’s interim approval in Telecom Order 2021-42. Footnote2
In the circumstances, staff considers Northwestel’s request for an extension to the filing date for responses to RFIs related to TN 1114 to be reasonable. Northwestel is to file its responses to Commission staff’s RFIs related to TN 1114 by 18 June 2021.
Sincerely,
Original signed by
Michel Murray
Director, Dispute Resolution & Regulatory Implementation
Telecommunications Sector
c.c.: Julie Boisvert, CRTC, 819-953-2421, julie.boisvert@crtc.gc.ca
Nat Natraj, CRTC, 819-953-5081, nat.natraj@crtc.gc.ca
bell.regulatory@bell.ca
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