Apparently I was not the only one that had issues with the Bell Deferral Account quarterly report for 15 Apr 13. The CRTC made a redacted version public by on 22 Apr 13. I discussed the report in this
blog entry.
The CRTC wrote a letter to Bell on 05 Jun 13 questioning whether
or not the company could meet the proposed August 2014 target date to have the project
finished. They are particularly concerned that no new sites are scheduled for activation
in 2013 as part of the Deferral Account program.
They raised questions about the amount of backhaul construction
yet to be completed and the number of communities that need site acquisition negotiations
to start or be finalized.
As the CRTC states in the letter: “In the Commission’s view, the rollout plan is significantly back-end
loaded, jeopardizing the timely rollout of service to consumers” and also “Ultimately, it is the Canadians who live in
those [Deferral Account] communities who will be impacted.”
The bottom line in the letter is “… the Commission directs the Bell companies to identify, by 17 June
2013, a) the major risks associated with its rollout plan, and b) its
mitigation strategies to address each risk such as, for example, accelerating
the rollout to specific communities.”
The full letter can be read on this CRTC site.
In a related matter, as reported in this
blog entry, there are Deferral Account site surveys being conducted throughout
the District. The latest reports indicated activity in the Nils Bay region of the
Goulais Deferral Account area and the Sterling Bay region of St, Joseph Island Deferral
Account area.
