Telus responds to ‘frivolous’ lawsuit, accuses Bell of ‘anti-competitive acts’

The battle between Bell and Telus over wholesale fibre entry is heating up because the telecom giants sue one another.

Telus filed an announcement of defence and counterclaim on July 28 in response to a Bell lawsuit from June. Bell’s lawsuit accused Telus of coaching gross sales individuals to promote an unlicensed web protocol tv (IPTV) service in Ontario and Quebec, the place it wholesales internet service from Bell.

Bell alleged that the salespeople have been educated to “endorse the unlawful Pirated TV Service and to make use of these gross sales techniques to transform further prospects from Bell and different facilities-based suppliers of reliable TV providers to Telus,” and sought damages of as much as $35 million.

Telus responded to the lawsuit by denying Bell’s claims and introduced a counterclaim in opposition to the corporate over “anti-competitive acts.”

First, Telus denied that it trains or authorizes salespeople to advertise or endorse unlawful providers or that it tried to win over Bell prospects with such providers. The corporate did acknowledge that “an remoted variety of rogue third-party brokers tried to market rogue providers” however denied that it instructed these brokers to take action. Additional, Telus stated it handled the third-party brokers and issued a discover to salespeople informing them of its “zero tolerance” for putting in unlawful providers.

Bell lawsuit an “abuse of course of”

2025-07-25 – Statement of Defence and Counterclaim – Telus by jon on Scribd

Telus went on to name Bell’s lawsuit “frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of course of” and accused the corporate of bringing the go well with to frustrate the CRTC’s wholesale fibre access mandate and suppress competitors.

Furthermore, Telus alleged that “Bell engages in anti-competitive acts calculated to induce TELUS’s prospects in Ontario and Québec to change to Bell,” resembling predatory pricing, aggressive and deceptive gross sales techniques, and disrupting Telus’ means to attach prospects. It claims prospects have terminated agreements with Telus due to these acts.

One of many extra notable particulars from Telus’ submitting is that the corporate revealed it pays Bell $73 per subscriber for wholesale fibre entry. It additionally stated it pays Bell for every go to to put in buyer providers, although it didn’t specify how a lot it pays per set up. On the time of writing, Telus expenses $100/mo for its lone dwelling web plan in Ontario.

Statement of Claim Plaintiffs June 26 2025 – Bell by jon on Scribd

In an electronic mail to MobileSyrup, Telus referred to as Bell’s lawsuit a “clear try to dam competitors” and claimed Bell was trying to “frustrate regulatory selections that profit customers and suppress competitors.”

Bell declined to touch upon Telus’ counterclaim.

Not one of the allegations have but been confirmed in courtroom.

A brand new chapter in a long-running battle

Bell and Telus have been battling over the CRTC’s wholesale fibre access mandate for months. The core problem is over permitting incumbent gamers to make use of the wholesale program to resell providers. Telus has been the odd one out in its support for the ruling, whereas most different suppliers have fought in opposition to it. The corporate has already used this system to launch web providers in Ontario and Quebec utilizing Bell’s community.

Bell has been some of the vocal, launching a marketing campaign and pulling fibre investments in response to the ruling. (Sarcastically, Bell claimed the ruling would hamper constructing infrastructure, however whereas Bell slashes its personal investments, Telus announced new infrastructure investments in Ontario and Quebec.) Cogeco and Eastlink additionally sought a court appeal to stop the ruling, and Telus took shots at Cogeco in an announcement that it was powering the company’s newly-launched wireless service.

Nevertheless, Telus’ repeated claims that it’s bringing further competitors to the web market don’t at all times maintain as much as scrutiny. For instance, Telus says it’s giving Canadians extra selection, however the firm’s lone web plan is similar in options and value to Bell’s 1.5Gbps web plan. It’s hardly a selection if the one distinction is whether or not to overpay to Bell or Telus.