Is the CRTC Deferral Account Decision Near?

 

On 27 Aug 10 the CRTC issued a Media Advisory to advise “On August 31, 2010  a media lock-up will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for the decisions related to the disposal of the funds remaining in Bell Canada, Bell Aliant, Telus and MTS Allstream's deferral accounts. “

I expect the decision will become made public shortly after 4:00 PM on Tuesday, 31 Aug 10. 

I have not any seen leaks at the time of writing on what the decision will be.

As you recall, in January 2010 the Bell Companies proposed that Deferral Account  funds be used to provide broadband connectivity in the designated Deferral Account areas by means of 3G HSPA wireless technology. Extensive discussions and consultations took place over the past several months leading up to Tuesday's anticipated announcement.

The Deferral Account areas in the Algoma District are SSM-Airport (Pointes areas),  Wawa, Goulais, Echo Bay and St. Joseph Island.

Broadband Statistics From the CRTC

The CRTC has released their annual Communications Monitoring Report 2009. The full 213 page (7.10 MB) report covers all aspects of the broadcast and telecommunications industry in Canada and may be downloaded from the CRTC site.   Since most reader will be interested in the part pertaining to the Internet and broadband, I have posted a 10 page PDF extract at the ADnet website under the What’s New column.

The table below from the report is the high level summary. The statistic on average downloads and uploads near the bottom of the table are noteworthy and is far out of line with the total being touted by Bell in their Deferral Account proposal where they cite less than 2 GB per month. It also belies the argument of the proponents of 3G HSPA as the solution to broadband in rural areas as it is greater than the cap provided in the flat rate service shown before. Overage  charges will run up the total bill quickly.

It also has a rate of growth in the 30% range for 2008 to 2009 which is only likely to increase at a greater rate with the introduction of new services such as Netflix. Rogers appears to have admitted as much with their recent cap adjustment although they state there is no direct relationship.  

 

Internet and broadband availability at a glance
	2008	2009	Growth
Revenues ($ billions)	6.2	6.6	6.3%
Internet access and transport
Residential	3.9	4.3	9.9%
Business	1.1	1.1	1.2%
Wholesale	0.2	0.3	21.5%
Other	1.0	1.0	-5.5%
Residential subscribers (millions)	9.8	10.1	2.6%
Residential high-speed access revenues per subscriber per month	$34.06	$36.06	5.9%
Internet access market share (revenue)
Top 5 major ISPs (including affiliates)	76%	76%
Cable operators	48%	50%
ILECs (excluding out-of-territory)	40%	38%
Broadband availability (excluding satellite)
National	95%	95%
Urban	100%	100%
Rural	82%	84%
Penetration:
All speeds	74%	75%
High-speed	69%	72%
Broadband (1.5 Mbps and higher)	52%	62%
Broadband (5 Mbps and higher)	41%	44%
Average Gigabytes downloaded per month per user	9.1	12.0
Average Gigabytes uploaded per month per user	3.2	3.4
Source: CRTC data collection

Batchawana Outages Follow-UP

TBayTel confirmed they had a short term system outage and while the cellular network came back automatically, the Internet hardware needed a hard reset that required the dispatch of a service technician from the Wawa work centre.

They had no comment on  the remote reset action that users reported.

TBayTel is investigating further as why this happened at all and how to detect/respond to these types of troubles better in the future.  

Internet Service Speed Categories

Listed below are the speed categories used by the CRTC and Industry Canada. ADnet will comply with this convention in all documents from this point forward.

Low-speed Internet service includes speeds that are below 128 kilobits per second (128 Kbps).
High-speed Internet service includes speeds at or above 128 kilobits per second (128 Kbps).
Broadband Internet access service includes speeds that are above 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps).

CRTC Asks for Public Input on Internet and Telephone Service

The CRTC issued a call for public input on Canadian telecom services on July 22, 2010. Details of the undertaking and how the public can participate are available on the CRTC website at www.obligationtoserve.publivate.ca 

This consultation will last four weeks, from July 13 until August 10th, 2010.When the consultation is closed, all comments will appear on the CRTC’s website.

The CRTC is asking five base questions:

1. What services should be included as part of your basic telephone services today?

2. In the context of (universal basic wireline telephone access) , what role, if any, should the CRTC play in ensuring that all Canadians have access to broadband Internet service?

3. Do you think that cell phone service can be a substitute for traditional home phone landline service? Explain why or why not.

4. Do you think that wireless services (e.g. WiFi, 3G networks or satellite) can be substitutes for landline services to connect to the Internet? Explain why or why not.

5. For what activities do you use or expect to use your Internet service?

This is your chance to make your views known to the CRTC. You can be sure the industry based special interest groups will be.

Wireless Outages at the Batchawana Site

I am receiving reports that there has been a number of outages affecting the Canopy fixed wireless broadband services off the Batchawana site.  The problems seems to be associated with Canopy services only as the cellular services still operate during the broadband outages.  Reports indicate that service can be restored remotely by the TBayTel help desk.

I am not sure if this is systemic problem or just some glitches during the burn-in period.

I will continue to monitor the situation and make my concerns know to TBayTel management .

Deferral Account Update

The final date to submit comments to the CRTC on Bell’s Deferral Account proposals was 08 Jun 10. The CRTC issued a letter on 16 Jul 10 confirming this date and rejecting inputs received after the deadline.

From the wording of the CRTC letter it seems they are working towards a decision on the Bell proposal for the HSPA solution as opposed to the original DSL proposal.  There was no indication as to the date that the decision will be rendered.

As  a reminder, in the Algoma District, the Deferral Account decision affects the areas of SSM- Airport, Wawa, Goulais, Echo Bay and St. Joseph Island.

Additional information on the Deferral account may be found at http://www.adnetalgoma.ca/DA%20Summary.htm .