Some people fear market forces. I fear the ever-increasing lack of them.
Telecom industry will thrive with more freedom
The Montreal Gazette
Published: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 [Vancouver Sun]
A commentator gave a knee-slapper of an analysis last week. It concerned recommendations by a government review panel to sweep away restrictions imposed on telecom companies.
“If these proposals are adopted (by the industry regulator, the CRTC),” warned Philippa Lawson, executive director of the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Policy Clinic, “telecom consumers will be left at the mercy of market forces.”
Lawson is evidently not a disciple of Adam Smith and his notion of God’s “invisible hand” guiding market forces. Her point, in fairness, was that leaving phone companies entirely to their own devices would render consumers powerless against “abusive industry practices such as hidden fees, misleading bills, excessive late-payment fees and other after-the-fact charges.”
That might be true if the same Technology Policy Review panel had not also specifically advised that the government set up an ombudsman to monitor how telecom firms respond to greater market freedom. That might do more for consumers than the so-called protection offered by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The panel took its time—nearly one year—in coming up with its long list of suggestions. But in the end, the call for the regulator to get out of the way and for the market to work its magic was received generally warmly by the industry, and dovetails with the agenda of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, which views market forces as a good thing.
The nugget among the 127 recommendations is for the market, not the CRTC, to determine how much competition should exist in the industry. If past deregulations and privatizations are any indication, the panel’s conclusion will be proven right: Telecom deregulation will mean more competition, which will mean lower prices, more selection and more innovation. The counter argument—that no innovating upstart will have the deep pockets, the vision or the talent required to compete with Bell, Telus, Allstream and the other big boys—will be proven wrong.
[…] The reality is that a free market—under supervision for fairness, naturally—always creates opportunities. It gives energetic entrepreneurs a chance to create jobs, companies, even industries—in a word, wealth. That’s how it will pan out with telecoms.
One happy outcome of the panel’s work, if Ottawa adopts its proposals, would be not just toning down the CRTC’s ham-fisted policeman role, but eliminating its very existence. The proposal to merge it with the Competition Bureau is just fine.
(Yellow highlighting mine)
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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