CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

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CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Fri Oct 07, 2016 8:22 am

Yesterday afternoon, the CRTC announced it was slashing Wholesale Internet rates proposed by the large providers (who own the connection to your home) to their smaller competitors (who don't).

For example, Rogers proposed $79.32 per month for 100 Mbps Download and 10 Mbps Upload; the CRTC set the Interim rate at $36.11. Bell said $79.89 for 50 Mbps Download and 10 Mbps Upload; the CRTC countered with $30.53. Estimates by Industry Analysts at TD see that translating into a $25 per month reduction in competitor pricing: TD named TekSavvy as a primary example.

The CRTC announcement is here: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1133779

While not explicitly stated, my understanding is that this does not apply to Fibre offerings, only traditional coax and "telephone wire". At first, I had hopes that Fibre was included, when I saw Shaw's interim wholesale rates listed up to 250Mbps download, but then remembered that they are offering 150Mbps via cable, not Fibre, so suspect that 250Mbps is where coax "tops out" using current technology.
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Fri Oct 07, 2016 2:08 pm

Finally found some figures for Shaw. They asked for $114.75 per month for 250Mbps download with 15Mbps upload, but were granted only $41.36.

This should allow ISPs using Shaw cable to deliver their Internet to provide 250Mbps Internet at very affordable prices. The only mystery is Usage Costs as the CRTC listed that $41.36 wholesale rate as "Shaw monthly banded access rates per end-user (excluding usage)".
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Thu Oct 13, 2016 4:54 pm

Thought that I would look around and see if any of these ISPs have posted new prices yet, based on these lower wholesale rates.

The answer is "probably not". Although I did find two with lower prices, it may just be a "Sale" as both had expiry dates on the prices.

For the record Lightspeed has cut their 30/5 Unlimited Cable Internet from $46.90 to $41.95 per month. Comwave cut their 50/4 Unlimited Internet from $80 to $75/month.
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:19 am

TD came out with an interesting report this morning. Its three main points caught my eye:
  1. Resellers have nearly doubled their market share of subscribers from a 5% share in 2011 to 9% in 2015 and if the interim rates are made final, we believe that these share gains will continue.
  2. Given the uneven distribution of the resellers' geographic footprint (heavily concentrated in Ontario and Quebec), we believe that the wholesale price declines (with all-in wholesale subscriber costs now fairly even across the providers) could result in resellers targeting the lower hanging fruit in the Western markets.
  3. The composition of the resellers' subscriber base by download speed, which is skewed more towards slower speeds compared with the incumbents, gives the resellers better ARPU growth potential to further improve the economics of their business model.
Sounds like we can expect a big push on Internet service by the non-telco/cableco Internet providers in the not too distant future. What I'm not clear about is when "the interim rates [proposed to the telcos/cablecos by the CRTC] are made final".
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Thu Dec 08, 2016 9:19 am

From Broadcaster magazine this morning:

Wholesale Internet Rates:

The CRTC will set final rates for what Bell, Rogers, Telus, SaskTel, Shaw, Cogeco, MTS and Videotron must charge smaller companies for access to their high-speed networks. The smaller service providers rely on those networks to offer Internet, TV and telephone services.

The regulator set interim rates in October that were mostly lower — in some cases by up to 89 per cent — than what many of the incumbents wanted to charge. The CRTC says it’s setting the fees to help foster competition.

If the final fees remain close to the interim ones, the smaller companies could pass on the savings to consumers by lowering their prices. That could put pressure on the bigger companies to follow suit.

However, some of the incumbents have warned that low fees may slow or halt their broadband network investment — a threat some experts take with a grain of salt.

The final rates are expected in the first half of 2017.
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Wed Dec 21, 2016 9:22 am

TekSavvy will be jumping the gun, announcing new pricing on January 16th. They have already sent letters to existing customers with details specific to their existing plan.

From MobileSyrup:
“We’ve been pushing for this for a long time, so it feels great to be able to bring more value to our customers this holiday season. This is one of the largest price drops we’ve ever seen. We are making changes for virtually our entire customer base,” said Marc Gaudrault, CEO TekSavvy Solutions

Changes vary widely. While one customer reported a speed increase of 10mb/sec. AND a $10 monthly price drop, another will see no speed change and only $2 lower in monthly price.

TD reports that Distributel has decided to sit on the sidelines for now, and simply add the cash from the lower costs to their Bottom Line.
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby Mike Cleaver » Wed Dec 21, 2016 1:43 pm

Yep, ten dollars less a month for Teksavvy and another 100gb of data monthly.
Still free unlimited downloads between midnight and 8am Eastern time as well.
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby jon » Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:56 pm

Pricing has started to tumble, though mostly for Cable-delivered Internet, as opposed to DSL.

Biggest drop I've seen is vmedia.ca. Current price for Cable-delivered 120Mbps download/10Mbps upload with unlimited monthly data is $69.95 per month. That is down from $124.95.

If you subscribe to their cable TV equivalent, that price drops to $64.95. Their TV offerings include a $17.95 Skinny package. What I'm less clear about is the impact of the Bell lawsuit against them.
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Re: CRTC Slashes Wholesale Internet Rates for Small ISPs

Postby kal » Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:30 pm

I suggest pricing may be driven by Shaw's Internet 150 ... basically $80/month. Renewal price after two years is listed at $100/month.
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