CRTC asked to settle dispute between rival wireless firms
Canada’s telecom regulator has been asked to intervene in a battle between rival wireless carriers that is causing failed connections for hundreds of cellphone users, particularly in the North.
Telus Communications filed an application last week with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, calling for a public review of what it considers excessive cellphone traffic directed toward Iristel Inc.
Telus accused Iristel of gaming the country’s telecom rules — at the expense of Telus — by redirecting calls to the North where it can charge much higher call interconnection rates than in the rest of the country. The practice, known as “traffic stimulation,” involves services such as call centre lines or call-to-listen services using a particular area code where long distance interconnection rates are higher.
In its briefing to the CRTC, Telus argues that the practice hurts carriers that offer unlimited long distance calling in Canada, because since they have to pay the higher connection rates to the 867 area code, which covers the North.
“Unless relief is granted, service providers facing costs for stimulated traffic will eventually have to reduce the value of their retail offerings as a way of containing costs,” said the briefing.
It gave examples of businesses that connect to numbers in the North but that don’t actually offer services there, such as ride-hailing firm Lyft and Punjabi Radio USA. However, phone numbers associated with those firms were redacted from the publicly available briefing. Telus said some of the evidence it collected was provided to the CRTC in confidence.
It’s not the first time that such accusations have been levelled against Iristel. The CRTC last year ordered the company to end specific third party, revenue sharing contracts after Rogers Communications complained that traffic to Iristel wireless numbers grew exponentially in 2016.
Phone interconnection rates, or tariff rates, are higher in the North because the infrastructure needed to make calls to isolated communities — such as the use of satellites — has been deemed more expensive than in more southern climes.