COMMENTARY: A new phone plan from Ma Bell: Competition without competitors

It has now been a year since Videotron launched its cable telephone service, offering consumers an affordable alternative to the residential phone service provided by the major telephone companies such as Bell and Telus. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has allowed competition in local telephone markets since 1997 but this is the first real breach in the big phone companies’ age-old monopoly. Jumping into a market in which giants such as AT&T and Sprint have foundered meant a massive investment in infrastructure and technology for Videotron, and of course a big risk. The response from the marketplace has...