Industry minister asks telecoms for update on service agreement in Toronto subway

Canada’s trade minister is looking on the nation’s main telecom corporations to return to an settlement over wi-fi service in Toronto’s subway system.

In a letter on Twitter, François-Philippe Champagne stated he has taken be aware of Rogers Communications Inc.’s current announcement that it is shopping for the corporate that owns the wi-fi community within the Toronto Transit Commission subway system.

The letter addressed to executives of Bell Canada, Telus Communications Inc., Quebecor Inc. and Rogers stated preparations are nonetheless not in place to make sure service is on the market to clients who’re with a service aside from Rogers.

Champagne stated he desires the telecom corporations to rectify the scenario with urgency to achieve agreements that might permit any firm to entry the TTC community.

He requested that the businesses reply to his letter inside 30 days detailing their respective statuses on the difficulty, in addition to outlining a joint plan to supply cellular service to all clients.

BAI Communications Inc. received the contract to construct and function the TTC’s public Wi-Fi and mobile community in 2012, however solely Freedom Mobile signed on to offer protection to its clients by means of BAI’s community.

While clients not with Freedom have been unable to make use of BAI’s community aside from for 911 emergency calling for greater than a decade, calls to make the system work for all Torontonians have surfaced after a spate of violent incidents on the TTC system.

As a situation of Rogers’ $26-billion buy of Shaw Communications Inc., Quebecor acquired Freedom Mobile from Shaw.

Rogers has stated it can improve the prevailing community, which covers abound 1 / 4 of the subway’s underground tunnels, and also will construct a 5G community for your entire system in round two years.

Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri stated final week that his firm wouldn’t try to forestall any of the opposite telecom corporations from providing service to their clients on Toronto’s subway system as soon as Rogers takes management of the infrastructure.

“Rogers is committed to provide access to all TTC riders, and that’s why we took action and stepped up to acquire BAI Canada to modernize this critical network and open up access for all riders,” Rogers spokesman Cam Gordon stated in a press release on Wednesday.

“As we have said from the outset, we are committed to working with all carriers.”

Bell president and CEO Mirko Bibic responded to Champagne in his personal letter on Wednesday night. He advised the minister that the corporate would solely participate within the community if it has an opportunity to assist construct it with the opposite carriers, fairly than need to pay entry charges to Rogers so as to use the infrastructure.

“It is astounding that this important project would be awarded to one party without a transparent open-bid process,” wrote Bibic, who acknowledged Bell has urged the TTC to require Rogers to implement a joint-build mannequin.

“We have also written to the CEO of Rogers asking for confirmation that Rogers will adopt the proven open access, joint build approach that has been a success in other major transit projects. We have not received a response.”

Bibic advised Champagne that Bell and Telus have collectively provided to amass the BAI contract if Rogers will not conform to that mannequin by itself. The provide features a $10 million direct fee to the TTC for discretionary initiatives like transit security enhancements.

If Rogers neither invitations its rivals to take part in a joint construct, nor agrees to promote the contract, Bibic stated Ottawa and the CRTC ought to compel Rogers to implement the joint-build mannequin.

“It is clear that Bell is prepared to step up to fund its portion of a state-of-the-art wireless network to serve all TTC commuters,” he wrote.

Richard Gilhooley, a spokesman for Telus, stated it agreed with Champagne that customers of the TTC need to have the identical world-class wi-fi connectivity under floor as they do on the streets of Toronto.

“Telus continues to believe that a consortium approach to building the TTC network is the best way to ensure that redundancies are in place to allow for continuity of service in the event that one carrier suffers a network outage,” Gilhooley stated in an e mail.

“This approach was applied during the construction of the network for the STM in Montreal and provided a great outcome for Montrealers.”

Gilhooley stated having a number of carriers working their very own gear on the community means much less congestion, a extra resilient community, and a greater total buyer expertise.

Quebecor stated it has obtained Champagne’s letter and desires to guarantee Toronto residents that it’s going to preserve providers within the subway system the place Freedom is presently the one telecom supplier.

“Providing quality services to commuters and to our customers, as Freedom has been doing for many years in Toronto, mirrors our philosophy and business plan at Videotron and at Quebecor,” the corporate stated in an e mail.

“We will continue in this direction, with as much enthusiasm as ever in this competitive environment, to give Canadians more choice at more reasonable prices.”

Speaking in Toronto final week, Staffieri promised the community “will work for everybody.”

One of Rogers’ priorities is to make sure 911 emergency calling is on the market all through the subway system, and never simply the portion presently lined by BAI’s infrastructure.

“We really need to figure out and implement on a timely basis 911 emergency calling throughout the subway transit system and it doesn’t matter who you’re on. It could be us, Bell, Telus, Videotron – it doesn’t matter,” Staffieri stated.

“We think it’s important for not just our customers but for Torontonians and that was our intent in doing this. If Bell, Telus want to step up and join in, we’re happy and open to having those discussions with them.”

Champagne’s letter requested the telecoms to incorporate of their plan consideration of 988 calling as soon as Canada’s new suicide disaster line quantity is operational in order that TTC riders can entry the road.

Rogers has stated talks with BAI started round a yr in the past.

— With information from Sammy Hudes

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed April 19, 2023. 

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