I think it is time the government of Canada seriously considers dissolving the CRTC. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is supposed to be the holder of the public good in regulating those industries listed in the CRTC’s name. They have once again backed away from protecting the public good and are allowing telecom companies in Canada to do what they will with the traffic that is on their networks. Canadian telcos have been given the green light to censor anything they want if it travels on their network. We have already seen Telus do this in the past by blocking a labour groups web site.
What is the point of having a regulator that fails to regulate? It’s not like the situation is going to get any worse. I’m sure that frequency licensing could be handed to another bureaucratic arm of the government. The media likes to call the CRTC a “watchdog”. I think it has become a guard dog, watching out for the interests of the major telcos and media companies.
You know, if you listen to the major media companies, they want it dissolved for the exact opposite reason. They say it unnecessarily restricts what they do.
When it comes to network neutrality, there is no position that wouldn’t get people screaming. The deregulation of Long Distance telephone is the same thing. They forced Bell to open up their long distance lines to other carriers. Bell screamed that they couldn’t do that and then screamed when the CRTC didn’t care. Consumers screamed that their local rates went up…
To me, when neither side is happy, that’s a good sign that their doing a good job with regulation. Find the middle ground and stick with it.
That was a decade ago in a very different environment. You are talking forcing a monopoly to open up the industry to competition. What exactly have they done since then? Why do they sit and allow the telcos to make a profit on 911 service when the CRTC’s rules expressly forbid it? Why do they allow telcos to charge a “System Access Fee” when the CRTC hasn’t levied that charge in years?
The CRTC is a lame duck. We need regulation in Canada and we need a regulating body that is willing to do it’s job. I expect to get pissed off on occasion by one of their rulings but they need to start enforcing their own rules also.
They are not the only government branch that seems to exist these days by doing nothing. To bad the conservatives won’t act like the conservatives of the past and do a little tree shaking.
Fees never die and no-one has shown that 911 fees are profitable.
The problem with calling for CRTC to be abolished now is the CRTC hasn’t made ANY decision on if throttling is good or bad. Right now, all they have said is that Bell was non-discriminatory in their throttling.
They’ve recognized that the whole issue is too big and broken the bigger question into its own hearing next year.