arrangements on the competitiveness of the Canadian wireless industry,
the Commission initiated this proceeding to consider whether or not, as
a question of fact, there is a situation of unjust discrimination or undue
preference with respect to wholesale roaming arrangements in Canada.
The Commission noted in particular that the wholesale roaming rates
paid by Canadian carriers were higher than the rates paid by American
carriers. In addition, the Commission intends to initiate a separate
proceeding in early 2014 to further examine matters related to the
wholesale mobile wireless roaming market in Canada and the impact
on the competitiveness of the industry.
Government Announcement Regarding Roaming Rates and
Enforcement
In December, the federal government announced that it would
introduce legislation in 2014. Firstly, it would enact a legislation that
would cap wholesale domestic roaming rates at a rate no higher than
the rates the carrier charges its own retail customers. Secondly, the
government would amend the Radio-communications Act and the
Telecommunications Act to permit Industry Canada and the CRTC to
impose monetary penalties in order to enforce telecommunications
regulations. Details of the announced legislation have not yet been
released.
CABLE
Vertical Integration
The CRTC considers our Cable business to be vertically integrated
because we own or control both programming and distribution services.
It sets out the rules for vertically integrated companies in the broadcast
sector in its Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2011-601. The policy:
 Does not allow companies to make their television programs
exclusive to their mobile or Internet subscribers. Any program
broadcast on television, including hockey games and other live
events, must be made available to competitors under fair and
reasonable terms.
 Allows companies to offer exclusive programming to their Internet or
mobile customers provided it is produced specifically for an Internet
portal or a mobile device.
 Adopts a code of conduct to prevent anti-competitive behaviour and
ensure all distributors, broadcasters and online programming services
negotiate in good faith. To protect Canadians from losing availability
of a television service during negotiations, broadcasters must
continue to provide the service in question and distributors must
continue to offer it to their subscribers.
 Required vertically integrated entities to report by April 2012 on how
they have provided consumers with more flexibility in the services
that they can subscribe to through, for example, pick-and-pay
models. In our April 2012 report, we presented the results of a
market trial we conducted in London, Ontario that provides
additional programming flexibility to consumers.
2013 ANNUAL REPORT ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS INC. 69