Summary

  • The CRTC wants a current, area-by-area account of wholesale MVNO use and regional network expansion before responses are due on 13 November 2026.
  • The requested figures can illuminate how access and build-out overlap, but do not establish causation, service quality, profitability or durable competition.

The deadline is concrete; the outcome is not. In a staff letter dated 13 October, the CRTC asks carriers to describe the wholesale mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreements in force and the network expansion associated with regional access. The request arrives as the seven-year framework approaches its midpoint. Under the letter, the obligation ends on 9 May 2030, after which the named incumbents will no longer be required to provide MVNO access to regional carriers.

The CRTC seeks two views of the arrangement. Bell Mobility, Rogers, TELUS and SaskTel must list every access agreement with a regional carrier as of the letter date, identify the counterparties and effective start and expiry dates, and attach the agreements. Bragg Communications, doing business as Eastlink; Cogeco; Iristel; and Quebecor, on behalf of Videotron and Freedom Mobile, must report their agreements and dates too.

They must also identify each Tier 4 spectrum area where they use access to provide retail service, the latest available customer count in each area, and the number of new radio access network (RAN) sites deployed there since access began. Shared towers count when RAN equipment has been installed on them.

The regional carriers are also asked for the capital invested in expansion into the reported areas, or their best estimate where actual figures are not readily available, and the additional RAN sites they plan to deploy between their response and 9 May 2030. Responses must be received by 13 November, not merely sent. Abridged versions of documents will enter the public record; any confidentiality designation needs complete reasons.

The framework was designed to give eligible regional carriers a way to serve new areas on incumbent networks while they built their own. The 2022 decision describes a facilities-based model: eligible carriers need spectrum and a home network with RAN and core infrastructure. It did not impose specific investment targets. Rates are negotiated commercially, with final-offer arbitration available if negotiations fail. That distinction matters: the new request measures activity, not compliance with a construction quota that the decision never set.

Customer counts and site totals will be most informative when they can be matched to consistent geography and dates. Even then, they cannot show whether access caused a carrier to build, whether a reported site delivers a particular level of coverage or service, or whether the investment earns a return. A site on a shared tower is still a RAN deployment, but not necessarily a new tower or a stand-alone facility. Planned sites are intentions, not completed networks. A causal claim would need a baseline and a credible comparison with what the carrier would have built without access.

The letter calls this a separate, consolidated snapshot from existing reporting. That separation is timely: in a 6 October consultation, the CRTC said annual MVNO progress reports may duplicate information now collected through its Data Collection System and invited comment on whether to simplify or remove them. The consultation remains open; it has not changed the rule. Its intervention deadline is 20 November 2026. The one-off October request still asks for information as the access framework enters its second half.

The filings can therefore establish a more legible midterm record: who has agreements, where regional carriers say they use access, how many customers they report there, what RAN sites and capital they associate with expansion, and what they plan before the sunset. They cannot settle whether temporary wholesale access produces durable competition. That is the question the data may help the regulator examine, not a conclusion already contained in the request.