Canadian telco monopolists run the show

The CRTC just put Teksavvy out of business.

If there’s one lesson you’d hope governments would take away from the pandemic and the lockdown, it’s that good internet policy — universal access at fair prices, managed in the public interest — is a prerequisite for all good policy.

Canada didn’t get the memo.

Last week, the CRTC — Canada’s telecoms regulator — released its long-awaited decision on the wholesale prices paid by small, innovative ISPs to access the facilities of Canada’s telecoms monopolists.

It’s the worst such decision in history.

https://blogs.teksavvy.com/the-liberal-government-must-fire-crtc-chair-ian-scott

Ian Scott (a former teleco lobbyist that Justin Trudeau’s Liberals put in charge of the CRTC) shocked the nation by reversing the Commission’s own policy, dramatically raising wholesale prices, signing a death-warrant for Canada’s entire independent ISP sector.

The decision means hundreds of millions of dollars in windfall profits for the Big Three Canadian telco monopolists, and ends ambitious plans by Canada’s wonderful indie ISPs like Teksavvy to lay both rural and urban fiber.