The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has issued a decision requiring large fixed telecoms network operators in Ontario and Quebec to provide smaller competitors with access to fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks within six months. The CRTC is setting the interim rates that competitors will pay when selling services over these networks, and says that these rates ‘were chosen to allow Canada’s large internet companies to continue investing in their networks to deliver high-quality services to Canadians,’ while noting that in Ontario and Quebec ‘competition has declined most significantly’, demonstrated by the statistic that independent wholesale-based competitors served 47% fewer subscribers in Ontario and Quebec at the end of 2022 than they did two years prior (partly due to several competitors having been acquired by larger broadband providers). In issuing its decision on 6 November the CRTC stated that the six-month period will ‘allow companies to prepare their networks, and to develop information technology and billing systems’.
Major telco Bell Canada responded negatively to the announcement, however, issuing a statement that it plans to cut capital expenditure and reduce high speed fibre internet expansion due to the CRTC decision ‘that discourages network investment’. Bell says it will reduce planned network investment by over CAD1 billion (USD732 million) in 2024-25, including a minimum of CAD500 to CAD600 million next year ‘as a direct result of the CRTC decision’, which it claims ‘leaves access to high speed fibre internet at risk for millions of Canadians in rural, suburban and urban communities’. The reduction is in addition to Bell’s earlier decision to decrease its 2023 CAPEX budget by CAD100 million in anticipation of the CRTC ruling. Bell – currently operating a fibre broadband network covering over seven million homes and businesses – notes that its near-term plan was to extend direct fibre access to nine million premises by the end of 2025, but it will now reconsider pending builds in all communities where it had planned to expand, and will reduce its 2025 build target to 8.3 million locations. Furthermore, Bell called the CRTC’s order to open up fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec but not in western Canada ‘arbitrary’, given that ‘there are over three million fibre locations passed in western Canada’ (led by rival telco Telus), arguing that if the intent of the decision was to benefit consumers then it was ‘capricious to leave western Canadian consumers behind.’
In March 2023 the CRTC issued a decision lowering certain wholesale fixed broadband internet access fees by 10%, whilst launching a public consultation to reassess wholesale rates more broadly, with the aims of supporting increased competition, more choice for end users and lower retail prices. The regulator’s review remains ongoing, with public hearings scheduled to start on 12 February 2024.
