The CRTC is moving to help Canada’s independent internet providers after a wave of acquisitions by big telecoms, which critics have warned would lead to higher prices for internet service.
CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides said in an interview the telecom regulator had heard “pretty loud and clear” that “Canadians want more competition. So that’s pretty clear from public sentiment.”
The regulator announced that it will re-examine wholesale rates — the rates smaller ISPs pay to access the networks of incumbent telecoms like Bell or Telus — and lower some rates by 10 per cent immediately. It will also look at mandating wholesale access to fibre-to-the-home, the newest networks that offer the highest speeds.
For years, small wholesale-based ISPs have been fighting with big telecoms over the rates they pay for wholesale access.
The CRTC lowered the rates in 2019 but then changed its mind in 2021. In those two years, the market share for small ISPs fell from almost 10 per cent to just over eight per cent, according to the CRTC.
Over the past year, Bell bought small provider Ebox and Distributel, one of Canada’s major independent internet service providers, while Quebecor purchased VMedia and Cogeco acquired Oxio. Eatrides said “we know that things are changing in the market.”
Independent ISP TekSavvy said in a press release “many major independent ISPs have been acquired by large telecom companies over the past year because of policies instituted by the regulator’s former leadership, and so emergency measures are sorely needed.”
John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, said at the time Distributel was acquired in September a “total, complete failure on the part of the government and the regulator to come up with a competitive market” was to blame.
Eatrides, who began her term as chair in January, said “we’re not seeing what we had hoped to see with the previous approach, which is why we’re launching this consultation.”
She said the CRTC is hoping to see more choice for consumers.
“There are many customers now, who if they want fibre-to-the home and they want those speeds, they may have access to one provider,” she said. If the CRTC mandates wholesale access to fibre-to-the-home network, “the other companies can offer that same service to me, so I’d have choice of providers.”
