CALGARY – Could it be any other way for Shaw?
The company has long been a proponent of deregulation on the broadcast and cable side of its businesses, so it would have been disingenuous for the company to come down on the side of those who want to maintain regulation in Canadian telecom.
On Tuesday, the day after Industry Minister Maxime Bernier’s well-publicized announcement which will see the feds override a CRTC decision and move towards deregulation of the local phone space, the western cableco said it "had reviewed Minister Bernier’s decision to vary the CRTC’s decision on local forbearance and that it supported the Minister’s decision to rely more on market forces for the regulation of local telephone service."
"We agree entirely with Minister Bernier that the interest of consumers must come first," said CEO Jim Shaw. "Canadians can best be served by an approach that relies on market forces and facilities-based competition to the maximum extent possible and to regulate the services we provide to our customers only when necessary."
Shaw launched its voice over IP service on February 14, 2005 and now has over 200,000 telephone customers in all major markets across Western Canada. "We plan to compete strenuously with the monopoly telcos in all markets across western Canada and we are confident that we have the ability to offer the services and prices customers are looking for in a competitive market place," says the press release.
Shaw then added that the Minister’s initiative should apply to the deregulation of all the services the company offers. The rules governing the provision of cable and satellite services to our customers are equally cumbersome and complex, he said. "Canadians expect and are entitled to receive the best level of service we can offer. The time has come to provide a simplified regulatory framework for all the services we offer our customers" added Shaw.
And, Cartt.ca has learned, this will come. Look for 2007 to be another busy regulatory year as rumblings out of Ottawa say the CRTC will review its policies on broadcast distribution undertakings (cable, telco TV, wireless and satellite) likely in the second half of next year.
