CRTC begins deregulating home phone rates

[RedHot25]

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/200...s.html?ref=rss

The CRTC is deregulating home phone rates in some Canadian cities, enabling phone companies to better compete with cable and wireless firms that they claim have been encroaching on their turf without being subject to the same rules.

...

The home phone rates will be deregulated first in Halifax, Fort McMurray, Alta., and some Maritime cities such as Fredericton and Charlottetown, the telecom regulator said. The ruling opens the way for deregulation to occur in major Canadian cities over the next few months, industry sources said.

....

Telus has applied for restrictions to be lifted from its home phone market in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Rimouski, Que., and Fort McMurray. MTS has applied for Winnipeg, and Bell Canada has made requests for Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, London, Ont., Hamilton and Quebec City.

[ken0042]

I guess in my mind it isn't the basic rates that needed deregulation; it was how much Telus et al decided they could add on to our accounts. Like when I dropped long distance from Telus they wanted $7/month just to have a long distance plan with them. $8 for call display was a little much in my mind as well.

Besides, it's not like they couldn't offer packages. For example in Winnipeg MTS responded to Shaw by offerring a $40 package that included everything Shaw had in the $55 package. Shaw then lowered their price to $40 to match.

The big losers in all of this will be Ma and Pa living in small town Saskatchewan; when suddenly they have to pay $50 for local phone service.

[Flame On]

/\ Yes I always thought 8$ish for call display was insane!