Small B.C. web provider lobbies for price relief
CTRC action needed ‘or we will not last’
A small B. C. Internet provider is pleading with Canada’s telecom regulator to mandate lower wholesale high- speed Internet prices, even as some major providers go to bat to raise their rates.
IAAK Technologies Inc., a Coquitlam- based provider that resells access to Shaw Communications Inc.’ s cable network, asked the Canadian Radio- television and Telecommunications Commission to intervene regarding the deal for the new, exceptionally fast Internet service Shaw launched this month.
In an application filed this week, IAAK said the price is not fair to third- party Internet access providers because the retail rate is lower than the wholesale rate for the 150 megabits per second Internet service.
Shaw’s website advertises the price — $49.90 per month for the first year and $79.90 for the second year before reverting to $135 per month — as “shockingly affordable.” It proposed a wholesale rate of $ 98.55 per month for the same service, according to a tariff notice submitted to the CRTC on July 15.
“It is i nteresting t hat Shaw is always requesting a price increase to cover the costs and economics; however, they offer such prices to their customers,” IAAK’s application states.
“Please, we need CRTC intervention to correct the third- party Internet access tariff prices ASAP or we will not last very long in the market.”
IAAK, which l aunched in 2013 and is also known as Surf Internet, asked the CRTC to reduce the rates for slower Internet speeds to correspond with any changes to the fastest service. The application, filed under a process related to disputes between providers, will be open to the public for comment for 30 days.
It comes in the middle of a contentious, larger review of wholesale high- speed Internet prices. The CRTC required large providers to recalculate their rates using new specifications after it found that existing rates were no longer “just and reasonable,” but indie providers cried foul after most came back with even higher prices. Corporations countered that people are using more data than ever before, and the higher rates reflect the exponential growth in traffic over the past five years.
Shaw was one of few that proposed lower monthly flat rates. It also suggested a move toward billing third parties for how much data is used instead of flat rate billing.
The Canadian Network Operators Consortium, which represents Internet resellers, asked the CRTC to throw out the proposed prices because of variations in how they were calculated. The CRTC has yet to make a decision. It’s not clear how IAAK’s application will fit into the larger process.