The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed Bell’s plea for a stay against the CRTC’s decision to allow independent ISPs wholesale access to the latter’s fibre network.
The court decision was made on Friday, after Bell announced job cuts of 4,800 positions, blaming the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) for causing it to slash these jobs.
Back in November, the CRTC mandated major telcos including Bell and Telus to grant access to their fibre-to-the-home networks to competitors in Ontario and Quebec within six months.
Bell’s request for a court appeal against the CRTC’s interim decision, alongside a motion for a stay that would postpone competitors’ access to its network, was acknowledged for a hearing but the motion for a stay was ultimately rejected. Justice Mary Gleason stated, “I find that it has not established that it will suffer irreparable harm if the stay is not granted,” reports the Canadian Press.
The CRTC’s November decision was aimed at increasing internet competition. The regulator’s current hearing underway today and through Friday, is set to feature testimonies from 22 groups, including Rogers, Telus and Bell.
Bell has already said the CRTC decisions have forced it to cut capital expenditures. The company also has capped its fibre internet speeds to 3 Gbps, ditching its 5 Gbps and 8 Gbps speeds.
John Lawford from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, urged the CRTC not to succumb to the “threats of investment withdrawal” by large carriers, saying, “The commission has a mandate to achieve the telecommunications policy objectives, not to return monopoly rent to incumbents.”
“The incumbents are bullying the commission into using their overheated definition of ‘investment’ as a trump card that always wins. They must be told ‘no,’” said Lawford.
