Canada Orders Big Phone Companies to Grant Internet Rivals Access to Wholesale Fiber-Optic Network

By Paul Vieira

OTTAWA-Starting next February, Canada's largest telephone companies, led by BCE and Telus, must provide smaller rivals with wholesale access to their fiber-optic networks in a bid to foster affordable access to high-quality internet services.

The order emerged Tuesday from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, and in essence makes permanent a temporary order issued in November of last year. At the time, BCE responded with plans to curtail planned capital expenditures for the current fiscal year.

Furthermore, this ruling would apply across the country, thereby affecting Telus, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia and leans on western Canada for sales. The previous ruling applied to only the big central Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

In its ruling, the commission said this would allow competitors to the big phone companies "to bring innovative new Internet service plans to market... Increased competition creates more choice and lower prices."

Representatives for BCE and Telus did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The regulatory decision also said that cable-distribution companies, which compete with the telephone providers in offering home-internet services, would be exempt from this order.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 13, 2024 10:09 ET (14:09 GMT)

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