REGINA – The province of Saskatchewan – owners of provincial telco SaskTel – added its voice to the other incumbent telephone companies demanding the Federal Cabinet tell the CRTC to reconsider its recent decision on local telephony forbearance.
"It is important that all Saskatchewan residents have access to new telecommunications technologies and services, regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas," said the minister responsible for information technology Andrew Thomson "It is our belief that SaskTel should be able to compete on a level playing field and provide these new technologies and services at prices competitive with other companies."
With the local forbearance decision, "not only did the CRTC choose an artificially high market share that SaskTel must lose before it would be able to compete on an even footing, it has also included massive rural areas with urban areas in defining the relevant geographic market," says the province’s press release. "The result will be that deregulation could be virtually unachievable in many parts of Saskatchewan."
The province believes that Saskatchewan telecom customers will not then, feel the benefit of market forces. "Equally important is the financial impact of the decision on SaskTel and its ability to continue to invest in new services and technologies that drive growth and improve productivity," says the release.
"This government is committed to the development of a competitive and cutting edge telecommunications industry in Canada and we believe that can only occur if competition and markets are as unencumbered as possible," added the minister responsible for SaskTel, Deb Higgins. "Rather than adopt a more light-handed regulatory approach, the CRTC has added further regulatory rules that will be harmful to both Saskatchewan consumers and to SaskTel, our publicly owned telecommunications company."
