CRTC agrees with Videotron against Bell in Abitibi

The Canadian Radio, Television and Communications Commission (CRTC) ruled in favor of Videotron on Tuesday in a dispute between Cablevision du Nord de Québec, a subsidiary of Bell Media.

The regulator was contacted by the cable operator Quebecor, which required Cablevision to update its routers at the interconnection points between Val-d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda.

These routers provide Internet access in the Abitibe area to third parties (AITP), such as Videotron or Ebox, who want to be able to offer their services in the area.

Videotron argued in its movement that Cablevision had to upgrade its servers, at its expense, due to the growing demand for its TPIA service. This cost, Videotron found, was not considered an unusual expense, but an ordinary one, while the local supplier demanded additional costs to improve its routers.

CRTC finally ruled in Videotron’s favor by ordering Cablevision to upgrade its equipment by 1^{he is} next September.

“The Board considers that the increase in required capacity is more conceivable in the current context of strongly increasing Internet consumption,” the federal agency noted in its decision.

At the same time, the CRTC forced Cablevision to continue offering 50 Mbit/s internet – a rate necessary to run Videotron’s Helix service – while the supplier wanted to limit options to 15 Mbit/s and 125 Mbit/s, either slow Too or too expensive options, depending on the situation.

In a press release, Quebec President and CEO Pierre-Carl Pillado denounced Bell’s “monopoly” in Apetépe and the company’s “tricks” to keep the latter.

“It is clear that Bell and Cablevision’s goal is to keep the area under their yoke, even if that means withdrawing services from residents,” Videotron lamented in the same press release.

CRTC has already stepped in in the past to force Cablevision to offer TPIA service to Bell’s competitors.

Bell Canada did not respond to questions from QMI at the time of publication.