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The Canadian Press Posted: May 05, 2015 8:30 AM ET Last Updated: May 05, 2015 8:30 AM ET
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Canada’s telecom regulator will issue a decision today that could affect the fees charged to consumers when they roam with their wireless devices outside of their home network areas.
The ruling from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission comes seven months after hearings were launched into the health of the country’s wholesale wireless market, considered the backbone of Canada’s mobile services sector.
Budget measures adopted by the Harper government last year set a cap on wholesale roaming costs — the rates that mobile carriers charge their competitors to use their wireless infrastructure — at no more than what carriers charge their retail customers.
Temporary solution
The government-imposed cap was intended as a temporary measure that the CRTC could choose to keep, kill or amend. But CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has noted that the government did not take regional differences into account in its legislation.
The CRTC heard that the wholesale rate caps were actually hurting smaller players, and thereby stifling competition, particularly where the major service providers had no firm foothold.
Regional carriers asked the CRTC to “fine tune” wholesale rates to ensure they aren’t forced to offer Telus Corp., Rogers Communications Inc., and BCE Inc. use of their networks at a discount.
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