
The CRTC tries to eliminate ISP competition in Canada - acangiano
http://antoniocangiano.com/2009/09/24/the-crtc-tries-to-eliminate-isp-competition-in-canada/
======
electromagnetic
Canada has a serious anti-competition problem. It doesn't allow foreign
telecommunication providers in, the government allowed the formation of a
monopoly book seller (Indigo/Chapters/Coles) and Indigo attempted to prevent
Amazon from selling within Canada. The government is pathetic, they claim it
helps Canadian industry when really it just gives the companies carte blanche
for abuse.

Bell was once government owned and still acts like it, and the government
still acts like it. It's pathetic and is hurting consumers, but higher prices
means more taxes so of course the government doesn't care.

~~~
igrekel
Actually, if I remember correctly Bell was not own by the government, Telus
was. Over time Bell as sold and bought different telephone services from or to
the provincial governments.

It was however granted a monopoly by the government on long distance, and by
some provinces on local service. The monopoly was granted to allow them to
create the infrastructure, even to places where it would probably not pay off.

They still are a terrible company to deal with and the internet service
offering is really not that good in Canada.

------
igrekel
I can find no link or detail or reference to what exactly is the CRTC's
decision.

From a few mentions in the text, I suspect it is related to making broadband
internet access an essential service that should be available to all
canadians. Right now, many not so remote communities don't have broadband
internet access and the situation is stagnating.

~~~
powdercake
The sector may be anti-competitive but it certainly hasn't stifled innovation,
at least not across the board. The province I live in is almost the size of
Texas with about 1/24 of Texas' population. Yet we'll have 100% broadband
penetration by 2011.

~~~
sdp
When Bell was a monopoly, they had a phone in every household which you leased
from Bell. Monopolies seem to penetrate the market very well, regardless of
their level of innovation so I don't think market penetration should be by any
means a measure of innovation.

------
omgsean
We'll know it's bad when Canadians start threatening to move to America.

