OTTAWA – The everyday consumer probably doesn’t understand – or care to understand – what the VOIP decision was all about. They just want better stuff cheaper.
In the end, the decision was more than a little anti-climactic. Each side had it figured out already because the CRTC had left more than enough clues about the way it was leaning.
The decision was made official at 4 p.m., www.cartt.ca posted its story at about 4:01 (as soon as the CRTC web-heads turned back on the WiFi) and the wave of pre-written press releases soon began to wash into the in-boxes – just in time for Friday’s newspaper deadlines.
And in the end, little changes in the near term. The cablecos and telcos will still bundle, offering savings for multiple services. The independents: the Vonages, Babytels and Primuses will continue to battle on price for a voice-only service.
The real changes will come via the Commission’s forbearance proceedings, where all are papering the CRTC with their ideas now, facing a public process coming in September.
The Commission will use this process to formulate the criteria on how and when the local telephony market is competitive enough so that they can deregulate the ILECs, too.
Chairman Charles Dalfen, who has made it part of his mandate to speed up the Commission, promises a decision in March.
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The ILECs will be able to compete, tariff-free, outside of their own incumbent regions. That means that Bell could launch VOIP in Calgary and compete with Shaw and Telus, without having to file rate tariffs. Same for Telus, if they were to launch in Toronto.
Interestingly, according to the decision, if Bell were to sell an Ontario customer a VOIP line, but gave them an out-of-market exchange (such as a 604-number from Vancouver or a 780- from Edmonton), for competitive purposes the Commission would consider that customer a Vancouver or Edmonton customer and Bell would be able to sell those without filing rate tariffs.
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It’s all well and good that Bell and Telus plan to appeal the decision to Federal Cabinet, but we wonder who the heck they’re going to find to listen to them. The current Cabinet is pre-occupied with keeping its government alive and putting off an election – all in the shadow of the Adscam inquiry.
As the opposition parties push and push and push for a non-confidence motion to topple the government, does anyone think Cabinet is about to pause and ponder the fate of poor Bell and Telus and their troubles with VOIP?
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There was a lone national TV reporter at the VOIP lock-up on Thursday. One would think that with all the huffing and puffing and procedural wrangling in the House of Commons making it seem ever more likely that we’re about to go to another election, Parliamentary bureau reporter David Akin would have been tied up at or near the House and not in a little conference room in Hull.
You wouldn’t think that spending two hours locked up in a boardroom trying to figure out how to make the VOIP decision palatable and understandable to the masses watching on TV would be job one for a Parliamentary reporter, especially on a day where the Official Opposition refused to show up to work.
Akin was good too, persistent in his questions for Chairman Dalfen as to why it is that the whole darn local phone market couldn’t just be deregulated, no matter the dominance of any incumbents, and don’t we already have the best, cheapest phone system already. Alas, I never did get to see his reports filed for ROBTv and CTV, both divisions of Bell Globemedia.
No, we’re not insinuating anything. We just thought it interesting, that’s all.
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“And now the shoe is on the other foot.” This sentence must be music to cable’s ears. It came from CRTC chair Charles Dalfen during his briefing to reporters. He was talking about how cable was once competitively held back to let satellite gain a foothold in the market and that now it’s the telcos’ turn to hurry up and wait while competition heats up in their traditional market.
– Greg O’Brien
