* Ruling likely to hit phone companies more than cable
companies
* Smaller rivals cheer boost to competition
(Adds comments from small ISP and Alberta technology group)
By Randall Palmer
GATINEAU, Quebec, July 22 (Reuters) - Canada's
telecommunications regulator decided on Wednesday that the
country's biggest providers must share their 'last mile'
fiber-optic connections, a move cheered by smaller rivals
currently only granted access to the large companies' older
infrastructure.
"This measure will ensure that Canadians have more choice
for high-speed Internet services and are able to fully leverage
the benefits of the broadband home or business," the Canadian
Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
stated.
Financial analysts had not expected the CRTC to force big
operators to share their latest upgrades since that could
discourage the hefty investments needed to upgrade the final leg
of a network connecting retail customers to the nearest node.
"With this ruling they've said that competition is
important, that we can't afford to duplicate everything in
Canada, and they are making sure that Canadians get access to
competitive rates and are not locked in," said Robin Winsor, CEO
of Cybera, which oversees development of cyber-infrastructure in
Alberta.
The decision will affect big phone companies such as BCE Inc
BCE.TO more than cable companies including Rogers
Communications Inc RCIb.TO and Shaw Communications Inc
SJRb.TO .
The phone companies have invested heavily to replace copper
connections to individual premises with fiber-optic cables,
which handle much more data at much higher speeds.
The cable companies have started investing in fiber-optic
connections to homes and businesses in new developments, but
their coaxial cables already provide Internet service at a
significantly faster rate than phone companies' copper lines.
Both phone and cable companies will have to share what fiber
connections they do have to homes and businesses, most likely
starting in Ontario and Quebec in late 2016. That spares Telus
Corp T.TO , which is building out fibre optics in Western
Canada, from the initial sting.
Telecom and cable companies already had to lease their
fixed-line networks to a slew of smaller rivals at prescribed
rates. These rivals, such as Chatham, Ontario-based TekSavvy,
are then able to sell competing services to retail customers.
The ruling also said wholesale landline services must be
"disaggregated", separating access from interconnection.
"The CRTC heard what we are asking for, and we are
thrilled," TekSavvy's chief lawyer Bram Abramson said, adding
the company now plans to build more 'middle mile' networks.
Wednesday's ruling is the last of three major policy reviews
undertaken by the CRTC. The regulator has also capped wholesale
wireless rates and ruled television viewers shouldn't pay for
vast numbers of unwatched channels. ID:nL2N0WL2BL
ID:nL1N0XW1RQ