My two cents on the Competition

My two cents on the Competition Bureau, Bell, CRTC and whatever...

In 2005 The Telecommunications Policy Review Panel (http://www.telecomreview.ca/epic/site/tprp-gecrt.nsf/en/Home) was established whose mandate it was to:
"ensure that Canada has a strong, internationally competitive telecommunications industry, which delivers world-class affordable services and products for the economic and social benefit of all Canadians in all regions of Canada."

In 2006 they published their report, I won't quote the whole report but it does state
"Technological innovation is only one source of telecommunications success. An industry must also lead in the deployment of networks based on these new technologies. It must use these networks to offer high-quality products and services that respond to customer demands and generate revenue streams to attract and reward investors. The ultimate test of leadership is success in the telecommunications marketplace."

It also states that "There are a number of options for the future Canadian institutional framework, many of which have been proposed in submissions to the Panel during its public consultations. They include:

    * amending the Telecommunications Act to empower the CRTC to apply competition law
    * amending the Competition Act to better equip the Commissioner of Competition and the Competition Tribunal to carry out these functions
    * enabling the CRTC to consult with the Competition Bureau when considering competition issues
    * enabling the Competition Bureau to consult with the CRTC when considering telecommunications issues
    * enhancing the weight given to submissions presented by the Commissioner of Competition to the CRTC on competition-related issues
    * appointing the Commissioner of Competition or another person with competition law experience to sit on the CRTC in respect of competition issues
    * establishing a new specialized tribunal to consider competition issues arising in the telecommunications sector.

The Panel is not convinced that its concerns will be met by simply amending the Telecommunications Act to empower the CRTC to apply competition law principles to competitive telecommunications issues on a broader basis than it currently does".

The full report can be found at http://www.telecomreview.ca/epic/site/tprp-gecrt.nsf/en/h_rx00054e.html

Obviously this report was supposed to form the foundation of government regulation for the access to information by Canadians. Thus it was partially responsible for the recent CRTC on March 3rd that
"that DSL wholesale and Cable Modem wholesale will continue (PDF) until such time as a meaningful competitive source of supply of wholesale facilities develops. Aside from preserving the status-quo, the CRTC has also determined that unaggregated ADSL access (DSL wholesale for competitors who self-supply their facilities into telephone company central offices) is an essential service given the lack of unbundling for sub-loops. The CRTC ordered phone companies to re-price unaggregated DSL wholesale at forward-looking costs plus a mark-up of no more than 15%, opening the door for a significant reduction in the rates ISPs pay to the telephone companies for access to DSL wholesale."
See http://www.crtc.gc.ca/ENG/NEWS/RELEASES/2008/r080303.htm for more.

However it should be noted that shortly after The Telecommunications Policy Review Panel issued their report Bell informed the Competition Bureau of their intention to not abide by any ruling made by the CRTC based on the The Telecommunications Policy Review Panel report which among other things stated:
"Accordingly, the Companies encourage the Bureau to revise the TAB to include a discussion, pursuant to its competition advocacy role, on how competition law principles would apply to examinations of abuse of dominance, market definition or market power issues where telecom services remain subject to economic regulation by the CRTC, and on how reliance on these competition principles may assist in effecting an efficient and timely transition away from sector-specific regulation.", the companies being Bell Canada and Bell Aliant Regional Communications. See http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/epic/site/cb-bc.nsf/en/02255e.html for more.

This was early 2007.

Obviously Bell has long been planning to fight any CRTC ruling when it came, and as such has been selling it's wholesale services under false pretense as they planned their strike, and maybe they have even been planning it since the last time they were shot down 1998 (http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1998/08/14491).

However I would like to note for me a concern as big as the anti competition behavior of Bell, is that Bell is performing packet inspection on all traffic, which means bank transactions, downloads, doctors connecting to the hospital from home, etc..., what if some undiscovered exploit exists in the DPI technology being used, the extent of the possible compromise of private information could be catastrophic.

Jordan