Date: Mon, 09 Nov 92 13:10:51 EST
From: Tony Harminc <TONY@VM1.MCGILL.CA>
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Phone Service in the Great White North
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 835, Message 9 of 11

jbutz@hogpa.ho.att.com (John J Butz) wrote:
 
> I hear that Canadian phone service underwent/is going through a
> divestiture, similar to the one AT&T experienced.
 
In a word -- no.  There is no divestiture or breakup of any of the
Canadian telcos planned or even talked about, no matter how much some
of us might wish it.  In fact Bell Canada (the largest of the telcos)
has recently increased its power and influence over telecom even in
the (large) parts of the country it doesn't operate in.
 
What has happened recently -- and what you are probably confusing with
divestiture -- is that long distance competition has been approved,
with essentially no restrictions.
 
> Could anyone write to me and explain the current situation, the major
> players, the regulators, recent deals, etc.  Perhaps there are good
> articles in newspapers or trade journals that explain the current
> Canadian telephony environment?
 
*Very* briefly, the major players are the existing monopoly telcos
(Bell Canada being by far the largest, followed by BC Tel, and ten or
so other regional ones), Unitel (owned 40% by Rogers (largest cable
system owner in the country and also owner of Cantel -- nationwide
cellular system) and 60% by Canadian Pacific (of railway fame)), A
consortium headed by BC Rail and Lightel.  There are also various
resellers sort of hanging around the fringes.
 
Unitel and BCRL/Lightel applied to the CRTC (the federal regulator)
for permission to offer competing LD service.  Bell and friends
opposed this, claiming ingenuously that they were not opposed to
competition (ha, ha) but were concerned about the problems of lack of
continued subsidization of local rates by LD rates.
 
The CRTC eventually approved the application, and surprised almost
everyone by actually encouraging the entry of new, facilities-based
carriers into the market.  (In practice there are few organisations
with installed facilities other than the telcos and Unitel, but as in
other countries, all sorts of rights-of-way (electric power corridors,
etc.) will doubtless come out of the woodwork.)
 
Bell and friends have appealed the CRTC decision, and have at least
one more level of appeal after that, but it is widely thought that the
decision will be upheld.  The appeal is also widely seen as a delaying
tactic.  One of the hot topics of the appeal is Bell's contention that
it should pay none (!) of the costs of interconnecting its equipment
to competitors' networks.
 
In the interim, Unitel is offering a somewhat Mickey Mouse (TM?)
service using local seven-digit numbers and access codes.
 
If you are sufficiently interested, the decision itself is available
from the CRTC:

Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
Ottawa, Ontario    K1A 0N2     (819) 997-0313
 
Pages more could be written -- if you get any I would like to see
them.

 
Tony Harminc