Many customers know that TekSavvy isn’t just a telecom service provider. Sure, we sell internet, phone and TV, but we do much more than that. We fight. For a heck of a lot of stuff.

For nearly 25 years, TekSavvy has been an advocate for a fairer, more competitive marketplace. We have always believed that Canadians should be able to get the services they need from more than just one or two telecom giants.

But the big companies don’t share that view, and they’re constantly trying to make themselves the only game in town. If no one opposes them, they’ll get their way. And to be honest, with their buying up so much of the competition over the past few years, they’re nearly there.

Which is why we fight. With almost no one else left, we’re fighting harder than we ever have.

The past year was exceptionally busy as a result. In 2024, TekSavvy made more than 40 regulatory and legal filings – a pace of nearly one per week. Some of these related to seemingly minor issues, like access to utility poles or better allocation of phone numbers.

But even the small things are parts of the bigger picture, which is convincing and reminding our governments, courts, and regulators that a fairer playing field is a worthwhile and necessary goal that Canada – a country plagued by monopolies – badly needs to achieve.

The big battles are where this need is really highlighted, and we took part in some doozies this year:

*The Supreme Court: In October, TekSavvy filed an application for leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada. If leave is granted, we'll ask the court to overturn the Federal Court of Appeal's recent decision, which upheld the CRTC’s disastrous 2021 decision on wholesale broadband rates that determine the retail prices paid by Canadian consumers. That CRTC decision, which left rates and therefore our main cost of business too high, led to higher prices and many fellow independents throwing in the towel. We believe this deeply flawed decision must be reversed because it was arbitrary and tainted by a reasonable apprehension of bias. It’s not every day that a smaller company like TekSavvy fights all the way to the Supreme Court, but this battle sits at the heart of whether or not Canada will have a fair and competitive telecom market.

*CRTC rates: Speaking of those rates, it’s the fight that seemingly never ends. TekSavvy has been advocating for more reasonable rates for most of its existence. The CRTC is in the midst of another review and this year we once again argued that the rates – which we pay the large telcos to use parts of their networks – are much too high. The CRTC issued interim rates on fibre services in October and… they didn’t change much, which means that Canadians will continue paying among the highest broadband bills in the world. Lower wholesale rates are the only way to bring real competition to the marketplace, so this battle will continue into 2025.

*Copper networks: Some of the big network owners are using these continuing high wholesale fibre rates to squeeze smaller competitors using older connections. Cogeco has been moving to decommission some of its copper networks, thereby stranding existing TekSavvy customers and giving them no choice but to get service from that company. We fought that and in August we scored a partial win – the CRTC ordered the continuation of wholesale service over copper while it examines the issue. We also negotiated a similar solution with Rogers.

Overall, we are encouraged that policy makers are increasingly coming to terms with Canada’s massive, widespread competitive problems. These issues are at the core of why daily life has become unaffordable for so many Canadians, and it’s good to see that this is starting to be understood.

We have yet to see big action by the government or CRTC that will bring about significant changes in telecom services, but we’ll continue to fight until it happens – because that’s what we do.