Telus Communications (TSX: T) has asked Canada's telecom regulator to intervene in a dispute the company is having with a rival wireless carrier over cellphone calls that are being routed to the country’s frigid Arctic region.
Telus has filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), calling for a public review of what it considers excessive cellphone traffic directed toward Iristel Inc.
Telus argues that Iristel is gaming the country's telecom rules by redirecting calls to the Arctic region where it can charge higher "call interconnection rates" than in the rest of Canada. The practice, known as "traffic stimulation," involves services such as call centre lines or call-to-listen services using a particular area code where long-distance interconnection rates are higher.
In its briefing to the CRTC, Telus claims \that the practice hurts carriers that offer unlimited long distance calling in Canada, because since they have to pay the higher connection rates to the 867-area code, which covers the northern region of the country.
Telus gave examples of businesses that connect to numbers in the far North but that don't actually offer services there, such as ride-hailing firm Lyft and Punjabi Radio USA. It's not the first time that such accusations have been made against Iristel.
The CRTC last year ordered the company to end specific third party, revenue sharing contracts after Rogers Communications complained that traffic to Iristel wireless numbers grew exponentially in 2016. Phone interconnection rates, or tariff rates, are higher in the Arctic because the infrastructure needed to make calls to isolated communities -- such as the use of satellites -- has been deemed more expensive than in southern Canada.
Rates across the Canada’s North were set years ago at 3.8 cents per minute, compared with a benchmark rate of less than half a cent per minute in the rest of Canada.
Iristel, which serves large portions of the Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut through its affiliate Ice Wireless, denied the Telus claim, and countered by accusing Telus of placing an "illegal" stranglehold on wireless circuits that carry Telus phone traffic to Iristel numbers.
Both Telus and Iristel have denied any wrongdoing.
