Putting the "Competition" in Canadian Telecommunications

But there's no "competition" in Canadian Telecommunications?
Exactly.

Anyone old enough to fold open a newspaper (or those of us with a vested interest) has been inundated with the trials and tribulations of WIND mobile, a foreign company that fought to conduct business in Canada, and won, lost, won, maybe lost, sort of won back, and finally won. Having followed the process it seemed odd that it was getting so much press time, but after the CRTC's latest ruling, I can understand why. They were just playing at competition.

The large telecom providers in Canada have enjoyed an oligopoly in recent times, and this has been reflected in their push to instate usage based billing (UBB). They were stopped, at least temporarily, by the CRTC, and for a while it seemed like the CRTC was on our side. But it is clear we were just being strung along until after the election.

Since the only companies with the financial backing to build infrastructure are the telecom giants, new start-ups have to 'borrow' tower space for their subscribers. In a really dick move Rogers negotiated a deal with WIND, allowing their subscribers to use Roger's towers, but then giving their own users preferential treatment to the point that any WIND customer unlucky enough to stray into that zone is automatically dropped and must redial.

That's just the 'price of admission', the cost of start-up. They should stop whining.
Not enough dick for you? Rogers went ahead and advertised that their new Chatr service has "fewer dropped calls than new wireless carriers.” That's cold.

WIND did what any sensible company feeling unduly trod on would do - they went to the CRTC, who promptly ruled they didn't have enough evidence of preferential treatment, and dropped WIND on their heiney. Not because the behavior existed, they noted it did, but because the subsequent ad campaign did not cause enough of an imbalance in the consumer's view, and the contract did not specify that there needed to be seamless transitioning.

Further to that, the CRTC decided it wasn't going to dirty its hands with the issue of seamless roaming anymore, but companies are free to negotiate it amongst themselves. A powerful draw like seamless call transition is too valuable to give up for a small price, however, especially at the possible cost of their own customer's convenience, so it is likely new companies will be forced to contend without it, especially WIND, since the CRTC noted it would not allow WIND to renegotiate its contract with Rogers.

I wish I could advocate a system of impartial, federally owned towers, but the notion that the government has control of my cellphone is just too scary to accept, especially considering Bills B-52 and B-51.  

I suspect, considering roaming charges and the 'newsworthy' aspect of people outraged by huge bills, that this development will help WIND for a while, since people are notified immediately when they begin to incur roaming fees, but the question is whether people will appreciate it in time or simply find it a hindrance.

World Wide Elimination! Canadian edition!

I have concrete proof the reason for the existence of the world is to piss me off. I finally had to stop stealing some random "linksys" Internet hookup while at work, and bought my own Internet stick and connection plan like a grown-up. Since Wind mobile offered a no-contract 25$ a month unlimited plan, and all I had to do was buy a hundred dollar stick, I gleefully spent the money, pleased with the whole ordeal. Dimly aware, on some level, that I was flirting with fire, given the recent fervor over the CRTC's smack-down on unlimited, and the government's smack-down on the CRTC, but I was confident the worst I would incur would be a large contract plan for my precious Internet. I had no idea that, just like the WWE, there was another throw-down coming!

This time, in the title-weight bout: TELECOM vs. THE CABINET! And the crowd goes WILD!

As my sardonic readers mark another chalk line on the wall for the dominant ruler in this three-way slug fest, the more observant wonder why this makes a difference to me if I have already resigned myself to the financial slaughter. Apparently, the ruling this is all related to was also the one that sanctioned the emergence of Wind mobile into the Canadian market since, as an almost wholly Egyptian owned company, it fudged a bunch of Canadian corporation laws. So theoretically, it is possible this ruling will be reversed and, I assume, Wind mobile ousted from the company, leaving my husk to be scavenged by whichever Internet company wants to feast on my entrails.

Also, let me put my alarmist pants on, just for a second, and wonder about North America's loyalties to Israel,  and the fact that the Egyptian president who is currently under threat is supportive of Israel, and any new regime might not necessarily be so accommodating, and Wind mobile is Egyptian and may be supporting the revolution (probability 0.01%, one thing that is bad for business is revolutions, and another thing that is extra bad for Internet/phone companies is when the government shuts everything down). This whole convoluted series of events sounds unlikely until you remember that here in Edmonton, we had a man arrested for organizing terrorist activities that killed four United States soldiers. 

Anyway, back into the closet with my pants, and enough of that. The point is we have a fascinating battle for Canadian's browser-powered souls here; there is a lot exciting in Canada lately.

Companies Rule The Conservatives

In anticipation of shoving more CRTC/UBB/Internet garbage in my reader's faces, I have eaten the same meal for the past six days, so now that I am ready to exude spaghetti from my pores, here is some more news on the usage based bilking.(See, I can suffer for my art.)

As should be the case in situations where businesses and the federal boards that love them grow too large for their communal britches, the greater federal government is stepping in to smack people's hands away from the cookie jar of Canadian citizen's pockets. Or at least it plans to posture like it will. ("M-Muh-Muh-Mission accomplished, folks!") Before I get to the cynicism that you all know so well, I have to point out one other thing.

It is not called the Opposition party for nothing. It is one of the perks of being the antagonist is you can pick and chooses the battles to finger-wave at, purporting to support the populous, while your real motivations, intentions, and goals remain hidden behind a veneer of hand-wringing impotence. The very fact that the Liberals and the NDP are linking arms to heckle and molest the Tories about the CRTC's ruling is hilarious because I have got twenty dollars that says if the situation were reversed, the Liberals would have allowed the CRTC to do whatever they wanted (the NDPs would still be hungover from the massive love-fest they had for being elected, so their actions are pretty indeterminate). I hate that newspapers still publish about the opposition's reaction to government rulings as if it changed anything.

Anyway, on to the reason why the Conservative government will hem and haw, scratching their chin and adjusting their glasses while peering at the CRTC issue until such time as the population has calmed a little, then do nothing about it: it is saving them money. Well, sort of. The reason being waved around for the higher billing is to disincentive people from using the Internet for frivolous activities since the companies' systems are unable to handle the high demands and so everyone is slowing down, even the people that the bourgeois consider "important" (Not sure why my thirteen hour cheezburger marathon does not qualify). This means the people that the Internet companies want to keep happy are getting grumpy. To combat this, they jack up the cost of surfing, making people really consider whether they need to stream that video of the funny ostrich. Which is, understandably, infuriating, because what they should be doing, if they were good companies that wanted to continue making money, is expand their system to accommodate for the increased traffic, but the siren call of gouging current customers was better than the possibility of gaining new customers or offering better service to existing ones.

That whole decision making tree means one of two things to me, however: one, the breadth of the Internet empire has become so large and unwieldy that it is unfeasible to grow it any further, or two, the government finally said they would no longer subsidize the growth of the industry, which is also why they will not do anything about the CRTC's ruling. They tired of giving tax money  to the Internet companies to expand their areas, and so figure they will just look the other way past the blatant money grubbing that will finance the expansions from now on. I mean, there is only so long you can keep giving your kid money to build a lemonade stand for until eventually you have to wonder why he does not just build an Orange Julius. Like, seriously, kid, you are fifty.

You bet they are going to keep jerking our chain until past the theoretical might-be-an election, though. No sense spoiling all their fun too soon.

 UPDATE February 2nd,  2011
Holy crap I never thought they would do it. But it looks like they are actually going to do it. Be advised; they have not actually done it, but they have pledged to do it unless the CRTC does it first, but that could be a bluff...
UPDATE February 3rd, 2011
What did I say? What did I tell you? I love gloating so I am going to repeat this; the CRTC is going to debate the decision until May. How convenient. Bookmark the petitions people, because we are going to be kicking asses again in May.

UPDATE February 5th, 2011
Hold my seat, I have to get popcorn for this.

You Have Had Your Fun

The last two days I have been actually working for my wage, as a result of a coworker having attempted to explode his knee across the driveway (his foot swings sideways when free of encumbrances now - how gross is that?), so I have not had the usual research and post time I have enjoyed. On the other hand, new schedule changes ensure I have a better division of my hours into more convenient blocks; my timetable is officially 'day shift' now, since the majority of my shifts are now day shifts.

I plan to use this short day (I am still annoyed I was not able to post yesterday, but I spent two solid hours stuffed in my broken-down truck in a spot in Sherwood Park that was bereft of any free Wi-fi, and I was concussed into pleasant sleep by a chocolate cake the size of a brick upon my homecoming.) to talk about the UBB because the whole situation makes me so angry and sick to my stomach, that I feel it is inevitable that we will have no say in the matter, the whole issue will push ahead, and we will forget that we were ever given unlimited Internet except for the times we gustily espouse to our grand-children that we remember when we had Internet, and it was everywhere, growing wild, and now they have ruined it all.

But why is this being allowed? Especially when you consider the amount of business being conducted online. a staggering amount of transactions and indeed, new industries and companies being created simply to serve the pipes, a limitation or tollbooth on the whole affair seems destined to choke the life from this burgeoning money-mine; I could throw a lot of facts and figures at the screen, but I have never found myself the most interested in the hard realities of these ordeals. I content myself with the philosophy of events.

At the root of it, the recession is the problem. Obviously, the first goal is to make money, and they stand to do so through the nose. Leaving the Internet to develop to an almost cult-like dependency (guilty!) and then exploiting the addict's desperation is a plan so fiendish, but so effective, I would not even bat an eye if I saw it on a company's ten year plan.

Furthering that, the government is not stepping in because, let us face it, the Internet is also a time waster. Email, Facebook, Youtube, Netflix, even random Google, are so perfectly reward centered that one can simply dive in and waste away for the end of their days until such time as their bills are cut for non-payment and the neighbors start to Google, "How to tell your neighbour they smell like death (without offending them)". So you are the government, how does one extract the citizens from their contended cocoons so they can get back to the business of making the country money while at the same time not discouraging new businesses? Simple; up the ante. This new dynamic forces the average person to really consider the worth, the value, of the activity one is about to engage in, but businesses are always willing to sacrifice money on the alter of the Profit God because he always pays his debts, rewarding his followers with a short, sharp, shower of sheckles.

That is why it will go through. That is why it will become normal, why we will all roll over, whining the whole way, and take it. Start perfecting your "when I was your age" voice; the golden days are over.