Darryl_V link said:
[quote author=Zakk link=topic=2001.msg15380#msg15380 date=1327639989]
[quote author=Darryl_V link=topic=2001.msg15377#msg15377 date=1327634019]
News flash...if it wasnt for the CRTC prices and competition would be even more pathetic than they already are.
Could they do more ya.....definitely not the free market at work though.
Well, if the CRTC didn't pander so much to the big corps, and really anything Bell petitions them for, they get, unless it gets a huge public outcry (UBB for example).
I'm just glad there is a choice (such as it is). Our internet is actually paid for by my wife's company, this is more of a statement move. I said to the guy "so your idea of increasing profits is to raise rates, instead of improving services and attracting more customers?" (they have actually reduced services considerably over the past 5 years). He had no answer for that one. Example: My apartments all used to have 'rogers light' internet, which had 50GIG of download per month. Suddenly, they dropped it from 50 to 2(!!!). I asked them at that point how a 96% reduction in download with a 0% reduction in price, is at all fair. This latest round of price increases is just too much for me to take. They claim it was a "CRTC DECISION" but correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they ask the CRTC for the increase?? To ask fo it, then say "it was mandated by the CRTC" seems retarded. As far as I can tell, the CRTC seems intent on protecting the big corps, and doesn't do much at all to foster any kind of competition.
http://forums.redflagdeals.com/merged-rogers-annual-price-increases-coming-march-1st-2012-all-services-1130129/
[/quote]People have a very poor understanding of the telecommunications technical and business aspects. The CRTC does not pander to the big guys...what they do is put them in the corner for being bad..... but what you would like them to do is give them a knock out punch to the face.
Here is an interesting fact. About 4 or 5yrs ago the CRTC regulated that bell couldnt restructure/reduce pricing on its home phone service until they lost 30% of their client base. I would hardly call that pandering. As well as being forced to offer there equipment and infastructure and employees service to resellers and the competition. Like I said .....with out the CRTC competition in the country would be even more pathetic.
UBB is also a fair pricing structure....bandwidth costs money. We all share the internet so a pay per use pricing structure is appropriate as long as the pricing structure itself is fair (which it isnt right now but that is the true issue).
Dont get me wrong....I agree more competition in Canada and Ontario is what we need....the question is how do we get there....
[/quote]
The issue with UBB was that it would benefit Rogers, for example, and punish any small competitor that had to 'buy bandwidth' from them. So it instantly would have eliminated any small competitor offering unlimited bandwidth. Inone thread it was simplified down to actual bandwidth costing $.00001 per gig to actually transfer, and they wanted to charge $2 per gig to consumers. That's an exaggeration I think, but not by much. Competitors were buying the bandwidth for a fair price from providers, but charging a much better price to consumers. The providers weren't losing any money, except from the loss of revenue from people that switched to the competition.
The 50gig to 2 gig cap that I talked about... approved by the CRTC. Right when netflix came into canada, rogers suddenly wanted to drop all their caps. At 2 gig you can't even get one movie from netflix, but you could get it from 'rogers on demand'. So conflict of interest approved by the CRTC in favour of a cable company. Should rogers also be able to have a sports access channel AND own the blue jays AND have radio? These are things the CRTC should address, but doesn't. Why is there a regulated YEARLY increase in fees? What if costs actually go down in a calendar year, the fee increase is already approved. This doesn't seem to me like the CRTC is in favour of competition at all, they let one company own, regulate and resell EVERYTHING. And when another compnay comes along with a better deal, rogers runs to the CRTC with something like the UBB and -almost- gets it approved. Only a huge public outcry stopped that. Now they are trying for a backdoor UBB, because they have the CRTC convinced that they will go out of business
I will say that all the info I get about the CRTC, I get from online sources, I have probably read an encyclopedia of accusations on redflagdeals alone. However, the overwhelming consensus seems to be that the CRTC is more interested in keeping itself a valid entity, then protecting consumers. That said, I'm not an industry insider, and I'm not an activist, I just think we constantly get a raw deal here in Canada. Also, I don't want to get into an argument over it, as I like your corals too much ;D
