Summary

  • The CRTC has made Rogers’ new wholesale speed tiers final and approved the retirement of older tiers for new customers; current wholesale customers may keep their existing tier.
  • In Rogers West, the regulator rejected Québecor’s request to price 300/50 at the outgoing 250/50 tier’s provisional rate. Québecor said the provisional comparison was 23% higher, but that is neither a final wholesale rate nor an observed retail bill increase.

The catalogue changed before the price question was settled

Telecom Order CRTC 2026-263, issued on 7 October, closes one question and leaves another open. Rogers’ competitors can now order the new speed tiers on a final basis, and the older wholesale tiers that Rogers no longer sells to new retail customers are destandardized. The order does not decide the final cable-company wholesale rates being examined in the proceeding that began with Telecom Notice of Consultation 2023-56. (Order 2026-263)

For Rogers West—the former Shaw operating territory—the new menu includes 75/50, 300/50 and 300/200 Mbps. The outgoing menu includes 50/50, 250/50, 250/200, 750/50, 750/200 and 1,000/25. Rogers East receives its own changes: 300/30 and 300/200 are added, while 250/30 and 250/200 are destandardized. These are wholesale speed options, not a notice that every household must change plans.

The rates are the harder part. Rogers proposed no new rates for the added speeds because each falls within an existing speed band carrying an interim rate. The 300/50 tier has been available provisionally since 5 September 2025; its rate, like other cable rates in scope, remains interim until the 2023-56 review produces final terms. (Order 2025-229; Notice 2023-56)

Québecor asked for a bridge: until final rates arrive, Rogers West 300/50 should cost wholesalers the same as the outgoing 250/50 tier. Its intervention compared the approved provisional rates and put the difference at 23%, for 50 Mbps more download speed and the same 50 Mbps upload. Québecor said passing that difference through could constrain reseller competitiveness and noted that 250/50 was popular among customers of its subsidiary Freedom Mobile. Those are a party’s arguments, not a CRTC finding that retail prices have risen by 23%.

The Commission recognized that losing 250/50 could harm competitors. It still refused the requested price bridge, reasoning that it would be inappropriate to change established speed bands or rates while the broader rate proceeding is under way. The current wholesale customers can retain their existing tiers; the order therefore does not mandate an immediate migration of the installed base.

Two forms of parity

The regulatory rule that makes wholesale speeds track an incumbent’s retail options addresses whether a competitor can sell a comparable speed. It does not guarantee that the replacement tier will carry the same wholesale price, margin or resale economics as the tier it replaces. A more capable catalogue can coexist with a more expensive input.

That distinction matters most at the point of a new sale or replacement, not necessarily on the day of the order. A reseller may decide whether to absorb a provisional cost difference, adjust its retail offer, or steer a new customer to another tier. The public order does not show which response any provider has chosen, nor does it show that an existing customer has been repriced.

The Commission also gave Rogers 10 calendar days to issue revised tariff pages, by 17 October. That filing should make the approved speed menu easier to inspect, but it will not itself settle the final cable-rate question.

Sources