Canada doubles down on mandated wholesale fibre access

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) first introduced the measure in November last year in an effort to improve competition in the fixed broadband market, but it only applied in Ontario and Quebec.

From next February, the rules will extend across Canada, forcing the likes of incumbent Bell and Telus to open up their networks to rivals. What's more, it will be up to the CRTC to decide how much these larger players can charge for access.

"Following the November decision, the CRTC continued to collect evidence and build a robust record to inform today's decision. The CRTC received over 300 submissions and heard directly from 22 groups during a week-long public hearing in February 2024," the watchdog explained.

"Based on this record, the CRTC is now extending workable access to the large telephone companies' fibre across Canada. Starting on February 13, 2025, this new access will grow Internet competition and empower consumers with new choices. It will make Internet providers work harder to win Canadians' business so that consumers can benefit from lower prices and innovative new offers."

In an attempt to not completely tear up the business case for investing in FTTP, the CRTC said the new rules only apply to fibre that has already been laid.

"Any new fibre built by the large telephone companies will be made available to competitors in five years," the CRTC said. "This head start gives the large companies an opportunity to more quickly make a return on their investments and encourages them to connect more Canadians to fibre sooner."

That's the idea at least, and while that's good news for smaller players, the same cannot be said for the big guns.

Bell made its objections perfectly clear when the measure was first introduced last November, cutting its planned fibre capex in 2024-25 by C$1 billion ($742 million) in protest. That was on top of a C$100 million reduction implemented in anticipation of the CRTC's decision.

It also reduced its rural, urban and suburban coverage target by 700,000 premises and capped the maximum available speed on its network at 3 Gbps.

Bell decided in February that it hadn't spat the dummy quite far enough – it announced plans to cull 4,800 jobs partly in response to what it called "unsupportive" regulations.

However, Bell's most recent financial results suggest that it is coping reasonably well with the new framework.

In Q2, retail service revenue at the telco business inched down 0.1% to C$4.59 billion, driven as ongoing declines in legacy voice, data and satellite TV offset continued growth at its cellular, fibre and IPTV operations. Bell added 23,841 retail Internet subscribers, down slightly from Q2 2023, but still its second-best Q2 result since 2007. The performance was attributed to "strong demand" for its fibre services and bundled offerings.

CEO Mirko Bibic was quizzed about Bell's response to the CRTC's November decision during the Q2 results call, which took place earlier in August before the regulator's latest announcement.

He was tight-lipped, merely stating that "our views on the overall environment are very well known, so I won't repeat them."

In light of these new developments – and without wanting to put words in Bibic's mouth – there's a chance he might have some new opinions on the impending new regulatory environment.