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

The battle between Bell and Telus over wholesale fibre access is heating up as the telecom giants sue each other.

Telus filed a statement of defence and counterclaim on July 28 in response to a Bell lawsuit from June. Bell’s lawsuit accused Telus of training sales people to sell an unlicensed internet protocol television (IPTV) service in Ontario and Quebec, where it wholesales internet service from Bell.

Bell alleged that the salespeople were trained to “endorse the illegal Pirated TV Service and to employ these sales tactics to convert additional customers from Bell and other facilities-based providers of legitimate TV services to Telus,” and sought damages of up to $35 million.

Telus responded to the lawsuit by denying Bell’s claims and brought a counterclaim against the company over “anti-competitive acts.”

First, Telus denied that it trains or authorizes salespeople to promote or endorse illegal services or that it attempted to win over Bell customers with such services. The company did acknowledge that “an isolated number of rogue third-party agents attempted to market rogue services” but denied that it instructed those agents to do so. Further, Telus said it dealt with the third-party agents and issued a notice to salespeople informing them of its “zero tolerance” for installing illegal services.

Technology Bell lawsuit an “abuse of process”

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

Telus went on to call Bell’s lawsuit “frivolous, vexatious, and an abuse of process” and accused the company of bringing the suit to frustrate the CRTC’s wholesale fibre access mandate and suppress competition.

Moreover, Telus alleged that “Bell engages in anti-competitive acts calculated to induce TELUS’s customers in Ontario and Québec to switch to Bell,” such as predatory pricing, aggressive and misleading sales tactics, and disrupting Telus’ ability to connect customers. It claims customers have terminated agreements with Telus because of these acts.

One of the more notable details from Telus’ filing is that the company revealed it pays Bell $73 per subscriber for wholesale fibre access. It also said it pays Bell for each visit to install customer services, though it didn’t specify how much it pays per installation. At the time of writing, Telus charges $100/mo for its lone home internet plan in Ontario.

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

In an email to MobileSyrup, Telus called Bell’s lawsuit a “transparent attempt to block competition” and claimed Bell was attempting to “frustrate regulatory decisions that benefit consumers and suppress competition.”

Bell declined to comment on Telus’ counterclaim.

None of the allegations have yet been proven in court.

Technology A 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 issue is over allowing incumbent players to use the wholesale program to resell services. Telus has been the odd one out in its support for the ruling, while most other providers have fought against it. The company has already used the program to launch internet services in Ontario and Quebec using Bell’s network.

Bell has been one of the most vocal, launching a marketing campaign and pulling fibre investments in response to the ruling. (Ironically, Bell claimed the ruling would hamper building infrastructure, but while Bell slashes its own investments, Telus announced new infrastructure investments in Ontario and Quebec.) Cogeco and Eastlink also 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.

However, Telus’ repeated claims that it’s bringing additional competition to the internet market don’t always hold up to scrutiny. For example, Telus says it’s giving Canadians more choice, but the company’s lone internet plan is identical in features and price to Bell’s 1.5Gbps internet plan. It’s hardly a choice if the only difference is whether to overpay to Bell or Telus.