Telecom - Commission Letter adressed to Stan Thompson (Northwestel Inc.)
Ottawa, 29 October 2021
Our reference: 8740-N1-202105684
BY EMAIL
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 (TN) 1137 – Terrestrial Internet Services – Increase Speeds and Usage Caps
Stan Thompson:
On 19 August 2021, the Commission received an application from Northwestel proposing changes to its General Tariff CRTC 3001 – Item 1735 – Terrestrial Internet Services proposing, among other things, increases to upload and download speeds and to the usage cap for certain cable and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) residential and business Internet packages.
Paragraph 28(1)(a) of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure provides that the Commission may require parties to file information or documents where needed.
As such, Northwestel is requested to provide comprehensive answers, including rationale and any supporting information, to the attached request for information (RFI) by 12 November 2021.
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 nat.natraj@crtc.gc.ca and julie.boisvert@crtc.gc.ca
Sincerely,
Original signed by
Michel Murray
Director, Dispute Resolution and 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
Attach (1)
Request for information related to TN 1137
Refer to Northwestel’s TN 1137 cover letter dated 19 August 2021 and Northwestel’s TN 1137 ATT 3 CONF.
In Note 1 associated with Table 1 of the cover letter it is indicated that “The mark-ups represent the combined mark-ups for each of the speed tiers identified in the table, whether offered on cable- or FTTP-based access technology, given that the rates for these speed tiers are identical across our cable and FTTP serving areas.”
Further, Northwestel TN 1137 ATT 3 provides the cost study results, including the price floor test results.
- Given the company’s proposal to modify its FTTP services so that FTTP speed tiers have the same upload and download speeds while the comparable cable speed tiers have download speeds that are lower than upload speeds, explain with supporting rationale why, for each download speed, a combined FTTP/cable price floor test is appropriate.
- Refer to ATT 3 Tab “Table 2c-FTTP” row item “Present Worth Of End of Study value(EOS)” and explain with supporting rationale why for some speeds tiers the EOS value is not a credit (i.e. value in brackets) while for most speed tiers the EOS value is a credit.
- Provide a revised ATT 3 CONF which reflects a unit cost change factor of minus 26.4% for fibre optic equipment.
- Date modified: