Bell Deferral Account Report Released 17 Jan 2014

The CRTC released the Bell Deferral Account report for the 4^th Quarter of 2013 on Friday 17 Jan 2014.

Unlike previous reports, there is some useful data left in this report instead of being redacted. There is still a lot of information I would like to see and cannot think of any compelling reason why it is blacked out. (They actually use the # symbol which is ironic considering how the hash tag is used in other applications to highlight available information.)

The new uncensored information provided by Bell is entitled “Service Ready Date”.  The dates for the Algoma District Deferral Account areas are:

Area	Date*
Echo Bay	31 Aug 2014
Goulais	31 Jul 2014
SSM-Airport	31 Jul 2014
St. Joseph Island	30 Jun 2014
Wawa	31 Jul 2014

∗ Latest planned date. Could be earlier if all is ready

Bell indicated they are still having problems with local residents in some areas about the location of towers. The main complaints centre on aesthetics, height of the tower, and avoidance lighting. When comments about the health impact are included, the list pretty well covers the majority of adverse comments brought forth at public consultations. There have been a number of sites in the Algoma District that have been moved (on paper) in response to local input.

Bell has also had a few problems with backhaul networks. A crushed conduit under the highway near Marathon means they will be relying on radio backhaul instead of fibre optic cable for a while.

In December 2013, the CRTC specifically asked Bell about the use of an external antenna. While Bell stated “there has been no negative feedback from our customers related to the use of such antennae and that in the marketing materials we send out to the communities to be launched, we advise our potential customers that the use of an external antenna is required.”, they did not comment about any other feedback for the service in general. In particular, has Bell designed a solution that can handle network congestion?  

Finally, there are a number of small inconsistencies in the dates used in the written report document and those used in the spreadsheet. In most cases this is only a month or two but does show a lack of attention to detail which I hope is not reflected in network design.

The full report is available on the CRTC website. Scroll down to 2014-01-15 - Bell Canada

Bell Deferral Account Report for Third Quarter 2013

Bell submitted the third quarterly Deferral Account update report to the CRTC on 15 Oct 2013. For some inexplicable reason, the CRTC released the public version of the report under a different file folder number than previous quarterly reports and it took some effort to locate it. 

For the uninitiated, there are two versions of the quarterly reports. A fully detailed report with actual facts and figures is submitted to the CRTC for internal use and a redacted report with most facts and  information which may be of interest to the public (or according to Bell – the competition) replaced by # signs.  This is allowed under terms of the Telecommunications Act and CRTC policy.

The actual statement of justification as used by Bell in their submission is:

“Release of this information would provide potential competitors with invaluable competitively-sensitive information that would not otherwise be available to them, and which would enable them to develop more effective business strategies.  Release of such information could prejudice Bell Canada's competitive position resulting in material financial loss and cause specific direct harm to Bell Canada.”

I have not figured out how not listing a tower location on a spread sheet prevents a competitor from seeing a 90 metre tower with cellular antennas that is visible from a public road and deducing some competitively-sensitive information.

Like previous reports, the latest one provides little actual information which can be applied to the Algoma District situation. The target date for completion of the project is still August 2014. It was possible to glean more information through backdoor resources and physical observation during drive abouts as noted in previous blog entries.

Apparently the CRTC also has concerns with the Bell reporting content. Consequently, in a letter dated 16 Dec 2013, they directed Bell to submit additional information in their reports as follows: 

“The Commission notes that there are still many activities to be completed within the next nine months and that, more specifically, construction of wireline transport backbone to 17 approved communities must be both started and finished within the first eight months of 2014 in order to meet the August deadline.

The Commission also notes that the Bell companies indicated in their July 2012 report that they needed to provide most consumers with an external antenna to deliver quality service. However, no update on this situation was provided in subsequent reports.

Consequently, the Commission directs the Bell companies, in their 15 January 2014 report, to

a) update their risk assessment and mitigation strategy for the last eight months of the rollout, and

b) provide a summary of any evaluations of the service quality delivered to consumers using the external antenna in deferral-account-funded communities.

Further, the Commission directs the Bell companies, beginning in their January 2014 report and continuing in subsequent quarterly reports, to refine their forecast for the period of January to August 2014 by

1. specifying, for each of the remaining communities, in which month 

a. the remaining towers are to be completed (column H) [1],

b. construction of wireline transport is expected to start (column J),

c. construction of wireline transport is expected to be completed (column K), and 

d. service will begin (column L), versus specifying a single date of August 2014 for all communities; and

2. providing a summary of the number of new towers forecasted to be completed in 2014, by month.

Additionally, in their subsequent quarterly reports, the Bell companies are to identify where any changes have been made to the forecasted month for each of the items in 1. above.”

Unfortunately, I suspect the information of true interest will be marked by a # in the public documents. 

The next quarterly report is due on 15 Jan 2014

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[1] The reference to columns refers to columns in the Bell report spreadsheet headings.

Bell Data Hub Overages and the Wireless Code

I have been exchanging e-mail with a user in East Algoma about the high cost of Bell data hub service.  He was getting monthly bills in the $200.00 - $350.00 range for a 4 user household with a mix of computers and smartphones.   All the hardware used the data hub’s WiFi capability when they were within range.

Of late, he was getting cutting off at $100.00 overage and had to contact Bell to get reconnected.

Needless to say, he was not happy with both the price and the procedures.

I received the following info from him recently:

“I just received my Dec Bell bill and low and behold the max charge for data over 10 GB is $50.00.

We used $197 worth and they only charged $50 for that and waived $147.50.

Our bill for the month is $96.05; Relief finally.

I was suspicious and call them. It’s due to the CRTC Wireless Code.”  

This is the section of the Wireless Code that would seem to apply in this case:

          Sec 3 - Cap on data overage charges

        A service provider must suspend data overage charges once they

      reach $50 within a single monthly billing cycle, unless the customer 

      expressly consents to pay additional charges.

      A service provider must provide this cap at no charge.

My interpretation of this section was that once the cap was within reach during a billing cycle, the vendor would contact the user, normally by e-mail or SMS, notify them of the cap limit coming into force and warning this would result in a cancellation of service until the end of the billing cycle unless the user gave explicit permission to charge additional overage fees.

Indeed, this is what was happening prior to 02 Dec 2013 when the CRTC Wireless Code came into effect.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the January billing cycle.

If this is in fact the long term Bell policy for handling data hub overages, it will certainly be of tremendous benefit to rural broadband (high speed) Internet users.  

Tbaytel's Seasonal Service

I recently sent a query to the Tbaytel Community Forum concerning the availability of a seasonal service option for Tbaytel customers in the Algoma District. You may view the full query and the Tbaytel response at this link.

In short, Tbaytel offers a seasonal service option for “HSPA Wireless Service” (Rocket/data hub) and “Regional Internet (Canopy) Service”.  They recommended I contact Tbaytel Customer Care at 1-888-264-9501 for additional information.

I could not find any reference to this offering on the Tbaytel website. This is unfortunate. 

More Deferral Account Update Info 07 Nov 13

Another Bell Deferral Account site is under construction in the Goulais River area. It is located near the intersection of Hwy 552 East and Bellevue Valley Road. It looks like it will be a self-supporting tripole similar to the one at Heyden Beaumont.  This map shows the location of all the known Deferral Account tower sites in the Goulais River and the St. Joseph Island area.

I gleaned this information from the public domain by means of first person reports of construction, notices about public consultation and by driving around the area.

If anyone knows of any other sites, I would appreciate it if you could let me know. I am articulately interested in happenings in the Echo Bay Deferral Account area but information about any new site will be gladly accepted.

Unfortunately, Bell has not been very forthcoming lately with their Deferral Account information.

Web Page Size Shows Significant Increase

While doing some research to answer a recent question from a reader about data charges and data caps, I came across some updated statistics on webpage sizes as measures in bytes. This is an area I had not looked at for some time. What struck me was how much the average webpage size had increased.

According to the HTTPArchive website, the average page size as of 01 Nov 2013 was 1.6 MB (megabyte).  This compares to 14 KB in 1995, 93 KB in 2003, 300 KB in 2008, 828 KB in 2012 and 1.2 MB in Jun 2013. Some commentators are expecting a page size of close to 5 MB by 2015 or sooner.

The authors attribute the significant growth of page size to improved hardware, in particular the high resolution screens used by tablets together with high resolution cameras and smartphones.  Extensive us of Flash and Java on web pages also contributes.

A few years ago web designers would build to the lowest common denominator screen size but now they tend to use more uncompressed images to fill the space on the high resolution screens. Social media users are posting images directly from their cameras and smartphones without any editing or compression. In both cases this results in images having a file size of several MB instead of less than 100 KB which is sufficient for routine viewing. In image intensive applications this can add up quickly.

What does this all mean? If you have an Internet plan without any data caps, not very much. Unfortunately, most of us have to live with fixed data caps and associated extraordinarily expensive overage fees – think $10 to $15 per GB. .

So not only are we using the Internet more either voluntarily or because in some instances it is the only way to get service but the data we are transferring is increasing in size without providing any incremental increase in information. 

Goulais Deferral Account Update 23 Oct 2013

The Bell Deferral Account (Deferral Account) project roll out is bearing fruit in the Goulais river area. The aim of the DA project is to provide cellular based broadband (high speed) Internet with the same speed and data caps as Bell’s urban DSL service. The Goulais River Deferral Account area is shown in purple on this map. 

Additional information about the Bell DA project can be found at this site.

There are currently three Bell cell sites in the North Sault area providing cover along the Hwy 17 corridor including the part running through the DA area.  There is an existing site at the Buttermilk Hill area. To provide the necessary radio signal coverage in the DA and to handle the expected traffic loads without congestion, additional towers/cell sites are required. One of these towers is under construction  on the Pine Shore Road area as shown on this screen shot as a red dot.

These pictures were taken on 23 Oct 2013 while the tower was still under construction.

 From Pine Shore site access road 

From Grant Road 

It is known that there are additional sites planned for the Nils Bay and the Marlette Bay areas. There may also be other locations.