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Telecom - Staff Letter addressed to Philippe Gauvin (Bell Canada and its affiliates) and Imran Khan (Northwestel Inc.)

Gatineau, 22 July 2025

References: 8740-B2-202503276; 8740-M59-202503284; 8740-A53-202503292; 8740-T78-202503300; 8740-D3-202503317; 8740-K1-202503325; 8740-N1-202503333

BY E-MAIL

Philippe Gauvin
Assistant General Counsel
Bell Canada and its affiliates
160 Elgin St., Floor 19
Ottawa ON K2P 2C4
bell.regulatory@bell.ca

Imran Khan
Chief Financial Officer & Vice-President
Northwestel Inc.
301 Lambert Street, Floor 3
Whitehorse YT Y1A 4Y4
regulatoryaffairs@nwtel.ca

Subject: Proposed withdrawal of Call Break-in service in multiple Tariff Notices – Request for information

Dear Philippe Gauvin and Imran Khan :

On 2 July 2025, the Commission received an application from Bell Canada and its affiliates, Bell MTS; Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership; Télébec, Société en commandite; Dryden Municipal Telephone System; Kenora Municipal Telephone System; and

Northwestel Inc. (hereafter, the Bell companies) in which the Bell companies proposed changes to their respective applicable tariffsFootnote 1 to withdraw their Call Break-in service.

Commission staff notes that additional information is required to proceed with their analysis.

Paragraph 28(1)(a) of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure provides that the Commission may require parties to file information or documents where needed.

Accordingly, the Bell companies are requested to provide comprehensive answers, including rationale and any supporting information, to the attached questions by 1 August 2025.

As set out in section 39 of the Telecommunications Act (the Act) and in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-961, Procedures for filing confidential information and requesting its disclosure in Commission proceedings, persons may designate certain information as confidential. A person designating information as confidential must provide a detailed explanation on why the relevant information qualifies for designation as confidential and why its disclosure would not be in the public interest, including why the specific direct harm that would be likely to result from the disclosure would outweigh the public interest in disclosure.

Furthermore, a person designating information as confidential must either file an abridged version of the document omitting only the information designated as confidential or provide reasons why an abridged version cannot be filed .

Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date. The Commission requires the response or other documents to be submitted electronically by using the secured service “My CRTC Account” (Partner Log In or GCKey) and filling the “Telecom Cover page” located on this web page.

To inform the participation of interested persons in the proceedings, Commission staff expects the Bell companies to disclose information on the public record to the maximum extent possible.

A copy of this letter and all subsequent replies will be added to the public record of these proceedings.

Yours sincerely,

Original signed by Christine Marques for

Suneil Kanjeekal
Director, Dispute Resolution and Regulatory Implementation
Telecommunications Sector

c.c.: Tara Levine, Senior Analyst, CRTC, 819-997-4478, Tara.Levine@crtc.gc.ca
Mitchell Gebhardt, Analyst, CRTC, 819-712-7658, Mitchell.Gebhardt@crtc.gc.ca

Attach. (1)

Request for Information

  1. In Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-455-1, paragraphs 38 and 39, the Commission sets out the following:

    1. Destandardization and/or withdrawal applications must contain all of the following information:

      1. a description of the service proposed to be destandardized and/or withdrawn;
      2. proposed date for the destandardization and/or withdrawal;
      3. rationale for the destandardization and/or withdrawal;
      4. the type of destandardization, where applicable;
      5. the number of customers affected;
      6. a copy of the notice to affected customers; and
      7. any other information the applicant believes is relevant.
    2. The applicant must provide a notice to each customer affected by its application to destandardize and/or withdraw a particular service. In the notice, the applicant must include items (a) to (d) of paragraph 38 above, as well as clear and detailed information about how an affected customer can participate in the Commission’s process, including the date by which interventions must be received by the Commission. The Commission encourages companies to identify any substitute services, where available, in the notice. The applicant should send the notices to affected customers on the date it files its application, and may do so by email in cases where the customer has indicated a preference to receive correspondence by email.

  2. In paragraph 5 of their cover letters, the Bell companies state the following:

    “As an alternative, in order to most effectively notify users of Call Break-in of our proposal and to provide them with ample opportunity to comment, we propose that until 18 August 2025, our customer service representatives will advise each user of Call Break-in of our proposal to withdraw that service and how they can comment to the Commission on this application, should they wish to do so.”

    Please clarify the following, with supporting rationale:

    1. Are the Bell companies referring to current users of Call Break-in and/or to previous users as well? If previous users are included, what criteria are used to determine whom to contact and how is the user contacted given that Call Break-in is not a subscription-based service?
    2. Whether the Bell companies consider it too onerous to notify all users of the proposed withdrawal because this would mean notifying all subscribers who use copper infrastructure?
    3. How many subscribers can currently access the Call Break-in service?
    4. Explain why the Bell companies could not use another more widespread form of communication of the proposed withdrawal to help ensure that customers are notified, such as a notice on their respective websites?
    5. Are there any current service alternatives to Call Break-in and if so what are they?
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