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Canada Splits Local Phone, DSL Services

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the one-or-the-other-not-both dept.

s20451 writes "Running counter to the recent string of pro-consolidation FCC rulings in the United States, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that big Telcos like Bell and Telus must offer ADSL service even when local phone service is provided by another company. Effectively this ruling splits local phone and net services, opening both up for competition and lower prices. Press release here."

4 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. A word of caution: by Meat+Blaster · · Score: 4, Insightful
    We split our national phone company, and it turns out the rates kept going up while the level of service went down. Apparently, there's some sort of economic force called "scale economy" that reflects the fact that having multiple companies providing the same service means a lot of costly redundancy.

    Some monopolies should be broken, but others are better off regulated. We got Unix out of AT&T, but I'm not even getting reliable Caller ID out of the local tel.

    1. Re:A word of caution: by Realistic_Dragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We split our national phone company, and it turns out the rates kept going up while the level of service went down.

      We split up our ADSL providers in the UK, and service went up while costs went down with the exception of the services offered by the old monopolist.

      They offer the worst service with the worst reliability at almost the highest cost - now imagine how bad it would be if they had no competition at all?

      --
      Beep beep.
  2. Two edged sword by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Effectively this ruling splits local phone and net services, opening both up for competition and lower prices

    This also opens up the possibility of finger-pointing and blame assigning, instead of problem resolution. A couple of years ago, I had difficulty getting DSL from DirecTV DSL over BellSouth's phone lines - rather than solving my problem, the two companies used me as a message carrier in their blame war. I gave up, got a cable modem, and haven;t looked back.

  3. land line telephone services = days are numbered by Supero100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Interesting - let the competition begin.

    However, we'll all be wireless before too long, and there will be no place for DSL - unless this market competition drives the overall costs down. Who wants to pay for local phone service (if you're already paying for it with your wireless plan) if you just want DSL, which would then be an additional cost to the local line?

    $30 local phone
    +$60 DSL service
    -----------------
    ($50) Digital Cable + ($45) Cable Internet

    Assumption: You already pay $35 for a cellphone.

    Sure, I'll take 125 channels as a perk for my decision making skills.

    I hope this will make it harder for my decision making skills, it's amazing how quickly you learn that you have 125 channels and nothing is ever on!