| Telus Communications’ appeal to raise maximum allowable telephone rates in the province has Calgary city council in a fighting mood.
At a meeting January 14, council voted unanimously to oppose Telus’s request to the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that maximum allowable monthly residential telephone rates be increased to $35 over the next five years under a new rate regime currently being considered by the CRTC. Calgarians currently pay $23.75, the lowest rate in Alberta.
Ald. Craig Burrows says he is seeing red over the issue because Telus operates with a virtual monopoly in Calgary and the city has little say in how much customers are charged.
"We should send a message to the CRTC that this is unacceptable," Borrows says. "I don’t know how much more we can do."
The city routinely intervenes in CRTC hearings on behalf of citizens. Ald. Dale Hodges, a member of the city’s Gas, Power and Telecommunications Committee, says the city has had success opposing rate increases in the past. According to Hodges, and a report from the committee, the city plans to continue fighting rising prices.
"This report isn’t here just to get you torqued," Hodges says.
A Telus spokesperson, however, says Calgarians are unlikely to ever be charged the maximum allowable under the rate regime, and Telus’s submissions to the CRTC are simply a matter of procedure.
Nick Culo, media relations manager for Telus, says the company simply offered its opinion when it asked for an increase in maximum rates during the CRTC hearings into creating a new price cap regime. He adds that the maximum allowable rate traditionally targets rural or high-cost customers in Alberta, who already pay close to $30, and it’s doubtful Calgarians will pay the $35 even if it is approved by the CRTC.
"It’s absolutely misleading to compare the highest maximum rate to current residential rates," Culo says. "You have to compare apples to apples."
He points out that the CRTC hasn’t laid the ground rules for the next five years, so the residential telephone industry’s immediate future is up in the air. Telus’s stance, however, is that emerging competition will drive down rates.
Competition, however, has been hard to come by in Calgary, and Culo says that may not change until rates rise to the point where it’s profitable for companies to move into the city. |
