Telecom - Secretary General Letter addressed to Mélanie Cardin (Québecor Média)
Ottawa, 19 December 2023
Our reference: 1011-NOC2023-0092
By EMAIL
Mélanie Cardin
Director, Regulatory Affairs
Telecommunications
Québecor Média
612, Saint-Jacques Street, 15th floor
Montréal QC H3C 4M8
melanie.cardin@quebecor.com
Subject: Central Office codes request by Québecor Média inc. on behalf of its subsidiary Vidéotron Ltée
On 30 October 2023, the Commission imposed an interim measure requiring the Canadian Numbering Administrator (CNA) to limit the assignment of geographic Central Office (CO) codes to the July 2023 round of Numbering Resource Utilization Forecast (NRUF) on a yearly, per carrier, and per Numbering Plan Area (NPA) complex basis, for all carriers, and 80% of the forecasts for any carrier who has forecasted more than 20 codes for any given year and NPA complex. Canadian carriers who require CO codes beyond those levels must apply to both the CNA and the Commission, justifying their need for additional resources.
On 22 November 2023, Québecor Média inc. (QMI), on behalf of its subsidiary Vidéotron Ltée, requested approval for additional CO codes. QMI submitted that it was doing so on the basis that it is in full expansion with its service offering as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO).
Having considered QMI’s request against factors outlined in the Commission’s 30 October 2023 letter, the Commission is satisfied that QMI has justified its request for additional numbering resources.
Specifically:
- QMI intends to employ the requested CO codes within the context of its mobile wireless service expansion, which the Commission determined will help promote access to affordable telecommunications services for Canadians;
- QMI demonstrated that it is not in possession of unused numbering resources from previous assignments which can be used instead; and
- QMI’s request will not have a significant impact on advancing phone number exhaust.
Based on the above, the Commission hereby grants QMI access to the additional CO codes as detailed in QMI’s 22 November 2023 letter.
QMI is reminded that, per Section 6.2.2 of the Canadian Central Office Code (NXX) Assignment Guideline, carriers are to make their best efforts to implement the new CO codes in the shorter timeframe but are not obligated to implement these CO codes in their networks in less than the normal minimum 45 day activation interval and, consequently, call blocking, routing errors and/or billing errors could occur. Further, QMI is reminded to submit CO Code Assignment Requests on a timely basis to avoid a similar situation in the future.
Yours sincerely,
Original signed by
Marc Morin
Secretary General
c. c. Kelly T. Walsh, CNA Program Manager, kelly.walsh@cnac.ca
Michel Murray, CRTC, michel.murray@crtc.gc.ca
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