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CRTC Hears Arguments on Wholesale Telecom Services, Fibre Policies

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will begin hearings today on what could be called the future of the Internet.

Recent CRTC hearings have looked at 'the future of TV' but as more and more media content – not to mention business, financial and health information among other categories - moves to high-speed broadband distribution models, the regulatory status of wholesale telecom services in Canada becomes more and more important.

Even the cable industry lobby group CTAM (Cable Telecommunications Association for Marketing) Canada says the percentage of Canadian consumers who have watched video content online reached 48 per cent in June, with the highest usage amongst males (51per cent) 18-34 year-olds (71per cent) and those with no television service providers (56 per cent).

Hence, today's hearings and the beginning of a review of wholesale telecom services and related activities in Canada.

The CRTC sees the provision of wholesale broadband and high speed Internet services as crucial to competition in retail markets. As such, it wants to ensure that access to wholesale services increases competition and influences downstream retail markets in a positive manner, which the CRTC says can eventually lead to lower prices, greater choice of telecommunications services, and more product features for residential and business consumers.

Over the course of a scheduled nine day hearing process, the Commission says it intends to review not only the associated product markets, including substitutes, but also the geographic areas (e.g. rural vs. urban) that appropriately define the markets in question. ISPs will make several presentations, looking for forbearance relief on a number of issues, from shared access and negotiated peerage by other providers, to business financial and customer billing models, and infrastructure investment supports. among other issues.

The supply and demand for wholesale services in defined markets, as well as the trends (at the retail and wholesale levels) and market forces that may influence future supply and demand for wholesale services, will be reviewed, and possibly regulated depending on the outcome. 

Canadian telecom companies do have new ways to facilitate negotiations about the install, upgrade or maintenance of telecommunications infrastructure in municipal settings, but broader urban and rural access needs to be addressed. 

For example, the issue of deployment and access to fibre network, and fibre connections to the home, will be considered, as will any market-driven or legislated requirements that incumbent telephone and cable companies make wholesale services available to smaller competitors. It is the infrastructure argument writ fast and more capable. 

According to recent data from the Commission, outside of the main telecom service providers, smaller independent ISPs generate less than ten per cent of residential telecom service revenues.



Source: http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/crtc-hears-arguments-on-wholesale-telecom-services-fibre-policies/1003365233/?&er=NA

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