Bell Canada says it plans to start its expansion into Telus’s Western Canadian networks shortly.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
BCE Inc.’s BCE-T Bell Canada and rival Telus Corp. T-T have reached an agreement over the latest impasse in network sharing, a detente in what has been a bumpy first year of regulator-imposed access to competitors’ fibre internet.
Bell and Telus agreed to withdraw complaints to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or the CRTC, in which each claimed the other was deliberately blocking access to their networks.
The regulatory battles reflect the long-standing hurdles faced by smaller competitors, who have seen their market share halved in recent years, independent executives say.
On Monday, Bell and Telus asked to withdraw their applications before the CRTC, and the regulator closed the case Friday morning. Bell said it plans to commence its expansion into Telus’s Western Canadian networks shortly.
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The wholesale framework requires Bell and Telus to allow other telecom companies, including each other, to offer internet plans using their fibre optic networks. It also sets the fees they are required to pay for that access. The intent of the framework is to improve competition by increasing the number of service providers in any given market.
When it first filed its request for urgent relief in early February, Bell claimed that Telus was not providing it access to top internet speeds and failing to provide workable ordering systems and processes. BCE Inc.’s chief executive officer Mirko Bibic told analysts weeks later that the situation was “untenable,” as service windows to launch service for a new customer were “weeks long.”
Two smaller telecoms – Chatham, Ont.-based TekSavvy Inc. and Terrace, B.C., internet provider Every-Day Computers Inc. – filed interventions, saying they were facing the same problems.
Bell’s request followed a similar appeal to the regulator by Telus, in which the Vancouver-based telecom claimed that Bell had unlawfully “drastically degraded” its ability to sign up new customers.
Telus was the only major telecom company who advocated for the network-sharing policy.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
On Friday, the CRTC issued a letter saying that both cases were closed, and said it expects that any processes and procedures associated with the wholesale provisioning of high-speed internet will apply to all wholesale customers equally.
Telus was the only major telecom who advocated for the network-sharing policy, saying it would improve competition and ultimately, innovation and prices. Bell, Rogers Communication Inc. and all other large telecoms countered it, claiming it would hurt investment and smaller providers.
The agreement between the two companies represents a detente in what Tahira Dawood, acting general council for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, called a “chaotic” rollout of the contested policy.
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“Unless there is clarity, fair rates and clear access to ensure all providers, including smaller ISPs, can compete on a fair level, it is unlikely to improve the status quo,” Ms. Dawood said.
This is in part because the network access rates set by government are still interim, and have been for years. The CRTC has been saying for a year that permanent rates are imminent, leaving smaller telecoms in the lurch, said TekSavvy’s head of regulatory affairs, Andy Kaplan-Myrth.
Large telecoms such as Telus and Bell can more easily absorb the costs associated with expanding into their rival’s networks through economies of scale and can use internet as an entry mechanism to sell other services.
In some places, incumbents are charging less for internet than the mandated rate that competitors must pay to access their networks, Mr. Kaplan-Myrth said. As TekSavvy also has additional fees it must factor in, this makes for difficult economics to attract new customers.
Another issue is that much of the technical requirements related to wholesale connections were left up to the companies, Mr. Kaplan-Myrth said. This has created numerous roadblocks to deployment as technical, back-end systems clash, leaving telecoms feeling they have no choice but to file applications to the regulator for intervention.
The recent filings by incumbents are a reflection of the many hurdles that independent wholesale companies have been forced to overcome for years, said Ian Stevens, president and chief executive officer of Woodstock, Ont.-based Execulink Telecom, and a director of the Independent Telecommunications Providers Association.
Nonetheless, dozens of competitors are now using this access, or have announced plans, to offer service to at least 8.5 million households with a fibre connection across Canada, the CRTC said in a statement.
“Tens of thousands of households have already subscribed to internet services enabled by the access,” spokesperson Mirabella Salem said.
Yet a CRTC market report published earlier this week shows that independent wholesale-based operators continued to lose market share in 2024, representing 4.2 per cent of customers, and just half of its 2020 share.
The Canadian Telecommunications Association, which represents many telecom companies but not Telus, said in a statement the wholesale policy should be “revisited” as it crowds out smaller competitors.
Meanwhile, telecom’s capital expenditures have been in decline since 2022, according to the CRTC report. It’s unclear to what degree this is the result of the wholesale policy, first announced in 2023, or the completion of an investment cycle of major long-term projects by all the incumbents.
In recent years, Bell, Rogers and Telus have been under pressure to pay down tens of billions of long-term debt accrued through heavy infrastructure spending and numerous acquisitions. Potential new customers have also become more scarce as population growth has stalled.