The root problem is lack of competition. We have no competition because under our foreign ownership regime, Canada does not allow any.
> Unfortunately the CRTC are not helping matters, their board consists of ex > Bell and Cable people who are very conservative; to the point of choking off > any competition before is viable. I'm not a big fan of the CRTC for a lot of reasons but on this particular issue I always feel I have to defend them. The fact is, the CRTC was taking steps to increase competition and one of the first things the Conservatives did when they came to power in 2007 was order them to stop. Here is a nice little article in an archive that explains just how ticked off the bureaucrats at the CRTC were at the Conservatives (conform or quit): http://www.pugetsoundradio.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?v-print/m-1170784107/ And an original story from the CBC that explains what the government did and how happy the incumbents were: http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2006/06/13/crtc.html The Conservatives have also not lifted the foreign ownership restrictions in Telecom despite several bi-partisan reports that recommended they do so. As recently as this November, Tony Clement announced they would not be allowing competition (foreign owned companies) in Canadian Telecom any time soon. So on this one, it's squarely in the hands of the politicians, not the CRTC. Not to promote my own blog on this list but I've written extensively on competition, deregulation and the CRTC including a whole post on the favorite Canadian sport of bashing the CRTC for everything: http://www.johnlange.ca/2008/07/16/apparently-the-crtc-is-to-blame-for-everything/ -- John Lange www.johnlange.ca --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
