The Globe and Mail on why telecom deregulation may actually result in higher, not lower pricing. As Ivey School of Business professor Guy Holburn notes "It's a fairly concentrated industry. It's just not obvious rates are going to go down."
Telecom Reform and Consumer Prices
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Because it’s more like long distance
It may not be obvious to Holburn, but there is less concentration in telephony than he acknowledges. Perhaps in a battle of the business schools, I see that Mihkel Tombak of Rotman thinks that prices could go down.
As I am quoted in that same article, “You have all sorts of outsiders who can discipline the pricing from the incumbent phone companies.” Look at all the alternatives: cable-based voice services, cell phone competition, over-the-top VoIP – local phone service is more likely to behave like long distance.
And one thing is for certain, consumers won’t save money under regulated pricing.