TORONTO -- TekSavvy Solutions Inc. says it's owed tens of millions of dollars in rebates from excessive wholesale internet fees and won't pay more to Bell or Rogers until the balance is settled.

TekSavvy's announcement comes a day after the Federal Court of Appeal ruled against Bell, Rogers and several other carriers that sought to overturn a 2019 regulator's order for them to slash wholesale rates retroactively and refund excess amounts collected over several years.

The CRTC's order was stayed last September by the appeal court, meaning the rates charged to independent ISPs didn't change and the big carriers weren't required to pay the rebates until the court issued its final judgments.

The 3-0 ruling Thursday rejected the big carriers' arguments and ordered them to pay TekSavvy and its industry association for the cost of fighting the appeal.

TekSavvy said Friday that the judgment means the court has lifted the stay that blocked the CRTC decision in August 2019.

Andy Kaplan-Myrth, vice-president of regulatory and carrier affairs for TekSavvy, said the appeal court decision "is a major step forward in the fight for fair Internet pricing for Canadians."

The independent ISPs argue that the interim wholesale prices they've been paying since 2016 have always been excessively high and they'll be able to lower retail rates for their customers if the CRTC's decision is put in place.

TekSavvy and several other members of the Canadian Network Operators Consortium initially lowered their retail rates shortly after the CRTC's decision but later raised them again as the court process prevented them from collecting rebates from their wholesale suppliers.

"The arguments of Bell and the other carriers have been revealed (by the court) to be just more baseless tactics designed to stifle competition and keep prices high", Kaplan-Myrth said in Friday's statement.

Bell's and Rogers' responses to TekSavvy's statement weren't immediately available Friday.

With about 300,000 customers, TekSavvy is the largest of Canada's independent internet service providers, which collectively share about 10 per cent of the market.

The company is based in Chatham, Ont., and its largest base of customers in Ontario, where Bell and Rogers are the largest internet service providers.

Canada's small and mid-sized ISPs collectively serve about one million households using infrastructure they either own or rent.

However, the independent ISPs depend on connecting their equipment to networks built and owned by the "facilities based" carriers

The facilities-based carriers have mounted several individual and collective challenges to the CRTC's rate decision, including to the federal cabinet and to the regulator itself.

The court appeal involved Bell Canada, the country's largest phone company, and five of Canada's largest cable operators: Rogers, Shaw, Quebecor's Videotron, Cogeco and Eastlink.