OTTAWA – A new poll completed just this week by Ipsos Reid on behalf of Bell Canada says the vast majority of Canadians agree with recent moves by the federal government towards deregulating the telecommunications market in Canada.
The polling data, released first to Cartt.ca, comes just days before a Monday meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology where telecom deregulation is again on the agenda.
In the poll of 1,000 Canadians done between January 12th and 22nd, when asked about the recent policy measures taken by Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, 68% said they found the changes were "acceptable."
The question asked was a long one: “Recently, the Federal Minister of Industry decided to reduce regulation of residential/home telephone services. Before this announcement, government policy would not allow a traditional telephone company the ability to set the price of its residential telephone service on its own unless the company could prove that they had lost 25% of their market share to other competitors, such as cable companies and other telephone service providers. Under the new rules, if there are three unaffiliated providers offering residential/home service in a given market, counting the traditional telephone company itself and its competitors, which may include wireless providers, the telephone company will then be allowed to price its residential/home telephone services as it wants. The Federal Competition Bureau would have oversight of the residential/home telephone services market and would be able to seek fines if companies were to act improperly. Do you think this new policy is acceptable or unacceptable to you?"
The same number of people – 68% – said it was just fine if, instead of three facilities-based providers in a market prior to deregulation, there were only two competitors.
And when asked if all players in the telecom space should be treated the same, 93% said yes. Eighty-five percent of respondents said there should be no win-back rules whatsoever and 82% support the removal of restrictions on the traditional telephone companies ability to bundle services (45% "strongly support" that).
Sixty-three percent said the Competition Bureau, and not the CRTC, should oversee the local phone market, and 79% support the removal of promotional restrictions faced by traditional telephone companies.
"We’re in a new era," said Lawson Hunter, Bell Canada’s chief corporate officer, in an interview with Cartt.ca. "(Consumers) know that more choice and good competition is good for them."
When its pointed out that there are those who say consumers still need protection from the big telcos, Hunter dismissed the naysayers.
"The people who say consumers don’t support these changes – these numbers don’t support that," he explained. "I trust the people more than I do those who they think they know what (consumers) want."
"Canadians know what’s in their best interests and this (poll) reflects that."
The poll by Ipsos Reid for Bell Canada was a representative randomly selected national weighted sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone from January 12-22nd, 2007, with booster samples added to Quebec (+260), Ontario (+115) and Atlantic Canada (+125) to allow for more fulsome regional analysis in these areas. With a sample of this size, the national results are considered accurate within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what it would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled.
