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Box 1: Conditions of Licence for Mandatory Roaming
The conditions of licence described below will apply to all licensees in the cellular, PCS and AWS bands.
Where the conditions of licence refer to “A new entrant” or “A national new entrant,” definitions can be found in the AWS Policy Framework of November 2007 and the subsequent Responses to Questions for Clarification on the AWS Policy and Licensing Frameworks of February 2008.
1. The Licensee must provide automatic digital roaming (roaming) by way of Roaming Agreements on its cellular, PCS and AWS networks to any of the parties defined below (“A Requesting Operator”):
(a) To all cellular, PCS and AWS licensees outside of their licensed area, for at least the 10-year term of the AWS licences. For clarity, the licensed areas will be viewed as any area in which the Requesting Operator holds a licence for any of cellular, PCS or AWS spectrum;
(b) To all new entrants in their licensed areas, for a period of five years commencing with the date of issuance of their licence;
(c) To national new entrants who have substantially met the five-year roll-out requirements outlined on their licence, as determined by Industry Canada, for an additional five years; and
(d) To a party who is a provisional licence winner following the Auction for Spectrum Licences for Advanced Wireless Services and other Spectrum in the 2 GHz Range and who will meet one of the criteria set out in subsection (a) or (b) above.
2. For greater certainty, the roaming which must be offered in accordance with this licence condition is defined by the following characteristics:
- Roaming must enable a subscriber (a Roamer) already served by the Requesting Operator’s network (Home Network) to originate or terminate communications on the Licensee’s network when out of range of the Home Network, wherever technically feasible;
- The roaming offered must provide connectivity for digital voice and data services, including access to the public-switched network and the Internet, regardless of the spectrum band or underlying network technology used, provided that the Roamer’s device is capable of accessing the Licensee’s network. Roaming should provide a Roamer with the ability to access voice and data services offered by the Requesting Operator’s network at a level of quality comparable to that offered for similar services by the Licensee’s Home Network. For greater certainty, this condition does not require the Licensee to provide to a Roamer a service which the Licensee does not itself provide on its own Home Network, nor to provide to a Roamer a service or level of service which
the Requesting Operator will not or does not itself provide;
- Roaming as provided for in this condition does not include resale;
- Roaming can commence as soon as the Requesting Operator is offering service on its own radio access network and a Roaming Agreement is in place;
- Roaming does not require communications hand-off between home and host networks such that there is no interruption of communications in progress;
- Roaming should function without the need for any special facilitating action by the customer.
3. In order to satisfy the condition of roaming in accordance with this licence, the Licensee must respond to a request for information by a Requesting Operator in a timely manner by providing preliminary technical information to the Requesting Operator, such as technical data, engineering information, network requirements, and other information relevant to formulating a Roaming Proposal.
4. The Licensee must respond to a Roaming Proposal from a Requesting Operator within 30 days as follows:
(a) The Licensee must provide the Requesting Operator with a response in writing and an offer to enter into a Roaming Agreement. Industry Canada expects that Roaming Agreements will be offered at commercial rates that are reasonably comparable to rates currently charged to others for similar roaming services;
(b) In the event that the Licensee believes that the Roaming Proposal is not technically feasible, the Licensee must provide the Requesting Operator with a response detailing the reasons why it considers that roaming is not feasible (accompanied by any applicable technical information) and submit that evidence to Industry Canada as directed if the Requesting Operator requests that Industry Canada review the reasons provided by the Licensee in accordance with this condition.
5. Notwithstanding the Licensee’s initial response, if Industry Canada reviews the matter of technical feasibility under 4(b) above and finds that Roaming is technically feasible, then the Licensee will respond to the Roaming Proposal with an offer to enter into a Roaming Agreement.
6. Licensees must negotiate with a Requesting Operator in good faith, with a view to concluding a Roaming Agreement in a timely manner.
7. If after 90 days from the date that the Licensee receives the Roaming Proposal, the Licensee and the Requesting Operator have not entered into a Roaming Agreement or have not agreed to any interim arrangement, the Licensee must submit or agree to submit the matter to arbitration in accordance with Industry Canada’s Arbitration Rules and Procedures, as amended from time to time. The Licensee shall agree that the arbitral tribunal shall have all necessary powers to determine all of the questions in dispute (including those relating to determining the appropriate terms of the Roaming Agreement and those relating to procedural matters under the arbitration) and that any arbitral award or results under this condition of licence shall be final and binding with no right of appeal subject to applicable provincial or territorial legislation. The Licensee must participate fully in such an arbitration and follow all directions of the arbitral tribunal in accordance with Industry Canada’s Arbitration Rules and Procedures and any arbitration procedures established by the arbitral tribunal.
Source: Canada (Industry Canada), Conditions of Licence for Mandatory Roaming and Antenna Tower and Site Sharing and to Prohibit Exclusive Site Arrangements CPC-2-0-17, November 2008, available online at http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/vwapj/cpc-2-0-17e-issue1-nov08.pdf/$FILE/cpc-2-0-17e-issue1-nov08.pdf. |