Quote:
The Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission has made itself a powerful enemy. Maxime Bernier, a candidate for the Conservative leadership, stated at the Canadian Telecom Summit that the CRTC should be phased out.
“Presumably in order to protect competition, the CRTC was preventing some providers from really competing and offering better deals to consumers. That’s what I call a policy of false competition,” Bernier said in his address at the summit.
Bernier is a former minister of Industry and held the role of Opposition critic for Innovation, Science and Economic Development just a few months ago. He recently announced his candidacy for the leadership of the conservative party. He is currently serving as a Member of Parliament for the riding Beauce in Quebec.
During his address Bernier also claimed that the CRTC has stifled competition with several decisions, including the recent announcement that large network providers will be forced to sell space on their high-speed infrastructure to smaller rivals at wholesale prices. Bell petitioned heavily against the decision, saying it would impact competition and investment in new technologies.
He went on to say the the telecom industry is a mature, competitive market and shouldn’t be treated as a “playground for bureaucrats.”
“Canadian consumers are best served when telecom providers are free to compete and invest, not when bureaucrats tell them what to do,” Bernier went on to say.
With these claims, he introduced several proposals to supposedly improve competition in the Canadian telecom market. These include eliminating the mandated sharing of networks, relieve the CRTC of its role as a telecom regulator, hold spectrum auctions without preferential rules “so that everyone is on a level-playing field,” and opening the sector fully to foreign investments.
It’s important to note that American telecom companies have attempted to enter the Canadian market in the past. In 2013, when it was speculated that Verizon would make a spectrum bid for entrance into Canada, Rogers Communications Inc., Bell’s parent company BCE Inc. and TELUS Corp. launched a campaign in opposition of this entry, stating that a foreign company would have an unfair advantage.
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http://mobilesyrup.com/2016/06/07/co...m-competition/
Interesting take. The decision to force wholesale rates for backhaul bandwidth will create more competition in the internet industry, so backtracking that would certainly create a problem.
He is correct in saying that if Verizon or another big player would enter the Canadian market it would drive prices down.
But then again, if Shaw built out Wind a lot faster it would also create more competition. Why would a brand new carrier spend billions to build a network?