Canadian Regulator To Examine Cost, Access To High-Speed Internet

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC, has started the last of three major policy reviews that seeks to ensure Canadians receive their money's worth as far as access to high-speed internet is concerned. Small internet service providers, or ISPs, have been calling for access to high-speed service across Canada.

CRTC will hear arguments that will delve on whether big telephone and cable companies must offer fibre networks with smaller rivals in order to bring direct services to the customer. Bell, Telus and Rogers are the ones laying out the new generation of fibre networks. The hearing will try to determine the cost and rates that will be imposed on the smaller ISPs.

The Canada regulator said it hopes to foster competition among the big and small telecom carriers should it allow the structure. The improved fibre-optic connections basically enables consumers to "enjoy greater volumes of streaming online video and to place video calls over the Internet, among other benefits," Reuters said.

"We are seeking to ensure that Canadians are able to benefit from a world-class communication system for years to come," Jean-Pierre Blais, CRTC chairman, said in a statement. "One in which they have access to compelling content, as well as the choice to innovative wireless services and Internet services, wherever they live in Canada."

Data released by CRTC showed over 65 percent of Canadians, in just two years from 2011 to 2013, had subscribed to download speeds of five megabits per second. The amount of data they download has likewise jumped by 150 percent.

Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw and Quebecor control 75 percent of the Canadian telecoms market, with 500 small ISPs scattered across the country. The CRTC wants to "strike an appropriate balance between sustainable competition and sufficient incentives to invest in networks." Outside of the main telecom service providers, recent data from the Commission showed smaller independent ISPs generate less than 10 percent of residential telecom service revenues.

According to IT World Canada, the hearing will focus on three key themes:

1. Whether changes should be made to the CRTC's framework for wholesale telecommunications services.

2. What considerations the Commission should take into account when making its decision whether or not to: (a) require the provision of wholesale telecommunications services, including fibre-to-the-premises; (b) step back from regulating services; or (c) re-assert its jurisdiction to regulate services that have been deregulated.

3. Whether changes should be made to the CRTC's approach for setting wholesale rates, the underlying principles, or the associated processes, in order to improve the timeliness, accuracy or consistency of the rate-setting exercise.