Bell plays fast and loose with condo entry rights

Let’s get something straight: Bell Canada has absolutely no right to demand entry to privately owned condo units to install wiring for Fibe Internet and TV service.

But many condo owners say they were told they had no choice but to allow a Bell contractor into their unit to hook them up — even if they weren’t home, aren’t a customer and don’t intend to become one.

We’ve been reporting on Bell’s efforts to wire up as many apartments and condo units as possible for Fibe, which it says is “on par or better than any (service) available in North America.”

Bell describes its $1.14-billion Fibe investment in Toronto as its “single largest infrastructure build out” and that by 2020, Fibe will be available to 1.1 million local homes and businesses.

That’s a lot of wiring, which may explain why condo owners emailed us to say they were told that Bell was coming into their homes to hook them up and could not be denied entry.

In a 2015 decision about entry rights to the Chaz Yorkville condo building, the CRTC ruled that Bell was allowed access only to the main terminal room to extend its Internet and TV wires to the building.

“Once Bell Canada’s network is inside the main terminal room, access to Chaz Yorkville for the purpose of extending the network from the main terminal room to individual units (is granted) upon request by unit owners for services from Bell Canada,” the ruling stated.

In other words, if you don’t ask, Bell can’t come in. But many condo owners say they were told the opposite.

Stephanie Thomas said she “received a notice from building management that Bell technicians will require access to certain areas of the building and all units” to install Fibe wiring.

“According to management, Bell received approval from the government to enter buildings and apartment units to install the fibre wiring and there is nothing the building management can do about it.”

Stephanie Beattie told the most curious story of any condo owner, one that seems to reflect the CRTC’s limitations on Bell.

“We also got a notice that Bell would be entering our units, accompanied by property staff, to upgrade our equipment,” she said. “I emailed our property manager and told her I did not want the upgrade, and she told me I had no choice.

“When the contractor arrived, I asked him to confirm if Bell was demanding access to my home to install an upgrade for a service I didn’t have and didn’t want.

“He said no, that it was entirely up to me. I asked him to take my unit off the list, which he did. A little later I got an email from property management saying it was now fine with them too, suggesting there never was an adequate rationale for demanding access in the first place.”

In an initial reply to our questions, Bell said that “to be able to fully serve a condo or apartment building with the new network, we may need access to all units in the building.”

For condos, “we work to get permission from all individual residents through the condo board. If access to a particular unit is denied, we take the unit off our list — but this may impact our ability to serve any or all units in the building.”

It later sent us a second reply that seems to blame the overzealous approach to demanding entry on contractors hired by Bell.

“We do not say that access is government mandated, and our contractors shouldn’t either. We do use experienced communications installers so I can only think they might be referring to the CRTC’s decision to boost communications competition as much as possible in condos and apartments.”

By trying to force Fibe wiring into every possible home and business, it looks as if Bell is trying to muscle out the competition before it can get a foot in the door. We don’t think that’s what the CRTC had in mind. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/ yourtoronto/the_fixer, call us at 416-8694823 or email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.