But it also may be a way foreign telecom providers can bypass Canadian telecom ownership rules and sell more services here by leasing fiber.

"It's really clarified that you don't have to be Canadian to light up [leased] dark fiber here," said Mark Goldberg, a Thornhill, Ont.-based telecommunications consultant. "Presumably that creates opportunities for other service providers from around the world who want to get into business here."

The issue began in 2009 when AboveNet asked the CRTC to designate AboveNet Canada as a reseller allowed to light fiber it planned to lease from Vancouver-based Telus Corp., one of the country's biggest telephone and wireless companies.

Telus and BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada, objected, arguing that attaching the optical equipment to light dark fiber makes any provider into a carrier under the Telecommunications Act. The act defines a telecom common carrier as a company that operates a transmission facility.

AboveNet argued its Canadian unit wouldn't control or own the fiber optic, therefore can't be a telecom carrier.