Bell Canada Seeks Death Blow For Indie ISPs

Bell Canada Seeks Death Blow For Indie ISPs

by: Karl

With third-party ISPs now unable to offer unthrottled service, Bell Canada now looks to achieve what U.S. incumbents have: total freedom from pesky, independent ISP competition through government lobbying. According to the CBC, Bell Canada is asking the courts to scrap mandated access by competitors to its citizenry-funded network.

The CRTC recently stated that wholesale access to indie ISPs must continue, but soon they'll mirror U.S. broadband policy where third party ISPs are not given mandated access to next-generation networks. As U.S. incumbents did, Bell Canada is arguing that there's just so much competition these days, such rules are no longer necessary:

In its appeal, Bell said such regulation is no longer necessary now that there is enough competition in phone and internet markets. In home phones, Bell is competing with a number of major cable companies, not to mention Voice over Internet Protocol providers and cellphone carriers. On the internet side, Bell faces competition from cable companies.

Users of Teksavvy, one of the more popular indie ISPs in Canada, give their thoughts in our Teksavvy forum. "I feel like I have been taking crazy pills," says one Canadian user. "Here we all are, complaining to the CRTC about how uncompetitive things are, and they are arguing the exact opposite." Sound familiar?

View the original at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/Bell-Canada-Seeks-Death-Blow-For-Indie-ISPs-93251