(Hat tip to conservativegal for this and many stories as usual this morning!)
Key win for BCE, Telus: Sign to regulator to look again at ‘market dynamics’
Paul Vieiria, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, May 06, 2006OTTAWA – The federal Conservative government looks ready to overhaul the rules governing Canada’s $32-billion telecom industry after it ordered the CRTC yesterday to review and reconsider its decision on Internet telephony, or VoIP.
The move represents a significant victory for the country’s biggest telephone companies, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp., which had appealed to the federal cabinet to have the VoIP decision overturned. More important, it signals that Industry Minister Maxime Bernier is set to accept the findings of the blue-chip Telecommunications Policy Review panel, which in March called on regulators to let market forces determine the industry’s competitive landscape. That could lead, industry observers say, to changes to the role of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
[…] “This should speak volumes to the CRTC that the government is serious about reform,” said Iain Grant, Montreal-based managing director of Seaboard Group, a telecom consultancy. “This is a significant sign to the CRTC that it is time to take another look at market dynamics.”
Of course those on the liberal-left with a slightly less free-market bent, say things like this, as I reported back on April 3 regarding another related article:
“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.”
My my. Can you just imagine it? Market forces! Consumers will be left at the mercy of the evil market forces! That ain’t liberal (or communist).
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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