Back in November 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) sought to increase internet competition by mandating Telus and Bell to open up their wholesale fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec to smaller competitors.
Today, the CRTC has announced it has extended this decision to now force Telus, Bell and SaskTel to bring nationwide wholesale access to their fibre networks by February 2025.
Earlier this year, Bell asked the feds to overturn the CRTC’s fibre network ruling. When the company cut nearly 5,000 jobs earlier this year, it blamed the feds for its losses.
The CRTC also noted that the new access in 2025 applies only to existing fibre networks, with new networks remaining exclusive to incumbents for five years.
For now, wholesale rates for access to these fibre networks have not yet been set, but will be revealed by the end of the year. Existing wholesale rates in Ontario and Quebec will continue until then.
What’s the whole point of this? The CRTC says opening up wholesale fibre network access will increase competition, thusly lowering internet prices in Canada.
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perhaps these smaller companies that are going to get this fibre at wholesale should invest in the infrastructure as well: or be mandated to.
By purchasing at wholesale prices from Bell and Rogers, smaller telcos will be contributing to the cost of infrastructure. The CRTC never said that they were going to force the big telcos to sell at a loss. We are just talking about allowing fair competition and improving access to the internet which should be a considered a public utility and not be monopolized by a few early movers with deep pockets (they are worth billions and co-own the Raptors/Maples Leafs etc!)
Are they going to require Superstore to lease out space to Bob's Convenience? Make Marriott sublet rooms to Hobo inns? They should build their own networks.
Internet access is a public utility like water or electricity that has to be treated differently than real estate or retail sales…
If you don’t understand that, you must own stock in BCE!
Private companies are building this, not governments, which would mean "public". Investors are not going to build expensive fiber to the home if they have to resell it at a loss to bottom feeder "internet" companies that are leeches and don't build their own infrastructure.
Who said that they had to sell it at a loss? You are making up numbers that have not been even announced yet…Plus Bell and Rogers don’t have as much competition as telecoms from other nations, that is why Canada pays one of the highest costs per gigabyte for mobile data
I’d say this is the primary reason that I do not have fiber to the home….they planned to do it years ago and this “network sharing” issue caused them to redirect their investments.
Initially each provincial utility Sasktel, MTS, AGT, BC Tel had their own infrastructure. Rogers was the only telco to build a network across Canada. Now Bell and other telcos use Sasktel's network in Sask. In return Sasktel is able to have their customers roam in other provinces.