Why Canada can't artificially create broadband competition

OTTAWA – Canada should learn from Europe’s “mismanagement of broadband” and discontinue attempts to artificially create competition in the marketplace, says a new report from independent national public policy think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute.Winners and Losers in the Global Race for Ultra-Fast Broadband says that European governments’ “state-imposed mandates and top-down regulations have contributed to underinvestment and poor network quality”. It also criticizes recent Canadian federal telecommunications policies such as mandatory network sharing, the so-called “fourth player” policy, and the CRTC’s decision to impose the unbundling of fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) as examples of “Canada taking a heavy-handed regulatory approach to network infrastructure.”“From an...