In reply to general questions about the CRTC:
The CRTC are like all regulators in this global industry, the problem
they were created to fix no longer exists.
Back in the early days of deregulation, governments encouraged CLECs to
enter into the telecom business without fear of
predatory pricing by the "big boys". So the regulators, (in their
infinite wisdom) decided to control the incumbent carrier by upholding
price tariffs and schedules
based on AT&T's "air circuit miles" for Long Distance calls, in this
respect CRTC were in "lock step" with the FCC rules.
This enabled lots of carriers to offer Long Distance and International
calls at very competitive prices, however, the incumbent still
maintained the advantage in being able to charge for the line rental
which accounts for about 72% of the overall subscriber bill.
(considering the age and quality of infrastructure this is money for old
rope!) Regulators were now being pressed to deregulate the last mile
(local loop) by CLECs who could see that outright
competition in the LD market was leading to ever increasing customer
"churn' and lower profit margins. ( they wanted a slice of this rental
market too!).
Now, with the advent of VoIP the deregulation rules are "moot" since the
general classification is a "Data call" and not a "Voice call".
So where is this going?
It won't be long before the traditional telephone company concept will
be supplanted by the ISP business model and voice will be just another
IP service. The large ILECs like Bell will move their customer base from
analog voice (PSTN) to VoIP via ADSL lines. At some point they will offer
to "upgrade" your phone line for free and the ILECs it will finally be
free of the regulator (they hope).
The roll of the regulator should then become one of insuring equal
access to products and services and networks for the consumer.
ISPs will rely heavily on bundling services like VoIP, Broadband and
Cell phones to gain (and keep) market share.
The Crystal Ball ....
We live in a bandwidth hungry environment with much more capacity than
demand . The conversion of all voice calls to VoIP would not pose any
serious
bandwidth problems, therefore we can expect to see even lower pricing
for VoIP than voice grade analog lines especially in the Long Distance
and International markets. The analog voice paradigm as we know it,
(where the longer the distance the more it costs) is now an outdated
concept.
And the Canadian Radio and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) ? ...well
like most government run departments, being completely irrelevant and
expensive to maintain does not guarantee that we will see it's demise
(this lifetime).
TTFN..... Henry L.Coleman (http://www.dragnetics.com)
