Small carriers hail decision on access to fibre networks
Indie Internet providers are celebrating the federal government’s decision to uphold a ruling by Canada’s telecom watchdog that forces big Internet providers to sell smaller competitors wholesale access to their new, expensive and much faster fibre networks.
The federal government announced Wednesday it has rejected Bell Canada’s plea to quash the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruling that aimed to give consumers more choice in high-speed Internet providers. The government cited the need to support competition and increase high-speed broadband coverage.
Bell argued that having to sell access to its ultrafast network that connects directly to homes would stifle investment in the fibre cables that deliver faster service in the first place. (Bell alone has spent $2.5 billion on these networks since 2010.)
But for small providers who buy and resell access to the networks built by big players with deep pockets — namely BCE Inc., Telus Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. — the government’s decision gives them a chance to compete using infrastructure they couldn’t feasibly reproduce.
“It’s a big win for everybody,” Toronto-based VMedia Inc. cofounder George Burger said. “The gravitation toward the higher speeds ultimately meant with no access, there was no opportunity for competitive prices.”
Bell filed its petition the day after the federal election ushered in a new Liberal government, saying it might have to claw back annual investment by $384 million in Ontario and Quebec alone. Bell, which has filed only five such petitions in two decades, argued the CRTC decision would most hurt rural communities without sufficient returns to justify building fibre infrastructure.
But the Liberal government sided with the CRTC — and nearly 80,000 people who signed OpenMedia’s online petition — citing the need for accessible, reliable and affordable high-speed Internet for middleclass and low-income families.
“We are committed to increasing higher-speed broadband coverage and supporting competition, choice and availability of services for Canadian consumers and business users,” Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains said in a statement.