The Canadian Broadband Wars Heat Up

A new initiative was recently launched to battle the CRTC rulings regarding Bell and Telus and access to network infrastructure.  Competitivebroadband.com, which is comprised of a wide range of independent ISPs and coalitions, is aiming squarely at making the consumer aware of, and getting them involved with, the proceedings.  From their mission statement…

Following the decision by the CRTC, which was released on 11 December 2008, MTS Allstream decided to petition the federal Cabinet, which has the power to reverse this decision. Others have also made their views known in opposition to this decision, including the Canadian Association of Internet Service Providers.

The government has up to one year after the decision to respond to this petition, and in the meantime, we believe it is vital that they hear from concerned citizens and businesses. The campaign is designed to provide those who are concerned with ways to communicate their concerns to key people in the federal political system.

So if you want to make a difference, head on over.  In the meantime, to read their Top 10 Reasons to reverse the decision…

Top 10 reasons why Ottawa must reverse the CRTC decision:

1. Bell and Telus and other incumbent telcos control roughly 90% of the local market for business telecom services today. If they have any more power, they will shut off competition completely.
2. Canada already has more expensive and slower broadband services than many countries. Within the OECD, Mexico and Turkey are the only countries where broadband services are more expensive.
3. Businesses need the latest and best technology solutions in order to stay competitive. If they re-monopolize the business telecom market, Bell and Telus will feel no pressure to innovate and Canadian productivity will be at risk.
4. Bell and Telus were subsidized for many years by taxpayers to build their networks, and we all did that because we wanted the networks to help serve the public interest, not just the private interests of the telephone companies. The networks should continue to be regulated to ensure they serve the public interest, since we helped foot the bill to construct them.
5. Private enterprise is what makes our economy grow, but to work properly, government needs to regulate and ensure that there is healthy competition. Allowing monopolies, especially unregulated monopolies, is bad economic policy, and kills jobs.
6. The evidence is clear from the past….when competition arrived in broadcast and telecom markets, consumers got more and better services, at lower prices than when we were served by monopolies. Turning back the clock would produce exactly the opposite effect.
7. The US tried the approach the CRTC is advocating and it was a disaster. Estimates are that the cost to the US economy were $66 billion and 234,000 jobs.
8. If the only way competitors can get access to customers is to build completely new and parallel networks, alongside the ones that our tax dollars helped Bell and Telus build, its completely unreasonable to expect this to happen.
9. Bell and Telus, like most major companies, offer more attentive service and more attractive offers when they know you have a choice.
10. The past rules have not harmed Bell and Telus on the contrary, they are among the largest and most profitable companies in Canada.

Sounds like a compelling argument to me.  What, you haven’t hit the link yet?