News

Liberals Call for Better Internet and Wireless Competition, Net Neutrality

The Liberals have issued a noteworthy release calling for better competition and service for wireless and Internet services in Canada.  The party says there is a real competition problem that calls for "concrete proposals to lower prices and improve cell phone and Internet service for urban and rural Canadians." The specific recommendations include:

  • clear guidelines to facilitate tower-sharing and roaming agreements for new entrants
  • re-instating the cellphone cost calculator to provide greater transparency
  • adopt clear net neutrality principles and regulations.  The proposed neutrality principles include "all internet networks, including wireless networks, must treat all lawful content, applications and services in a non-discriminatory manner."  The policy also calls for full disclosure of network management practices
  • new regulations for wholesale Internet services and encourage investment in Internet infrastructure

The release demonstrates the increasing political attention to digital economy issues and mounting concern over Canada's lagging performance.  Given yesterday's CRTC decision involving Globalive, it would be useful for the party to state its position on foreign ownership restrictions for telecom providers as there is an urgent need to address the issue of injecting new competition into the Canadian marketplace.

7 Comments

  1. Laurel L. Russwurm says:

    Are they actually listening?
    There’s something to be said for minority governments. When we have a minority, sometimes the politicians actually listen to the citizens… to some extent.

    That said, I’ll take this with a grain of salt, since Liberal Marc Garneau (mailto:Garneau.M@parl.gc.ca) was one of the MPs on the committee for Bill C-27… and one of the Federal MPs who deleted my email without even opening it:
    http://stopusagebasedbilling.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/bill-c-27-canadian-democracy-in-action/

    Forget the fact that he doesn’t want to hear from me and is so utterly contemptuous of the citizens he is supposed to represent that he doesn’t even look at our emails … what I want to know is why we have politicians like Mr. Garneau who are so computer illiterate writing making computer legislation?

    (Anyone who doesn’t know enough to turn off their auto-replies before “deleting without reading” easily qualifies as computer illiterate.)

  2. The Liberals are not exactly blameless here. They appointed Sheridan Scott as Commissioner of Competition in 2003, who brought her BCE experience to bear on allowing any vestige of competition in telecom, broadcasting and the ISP biz to go down the toilet. A disastrous appointment.

    They also appointed Chuck Dalfen, who also had close BCE ties, to run the CRTC in 2002. Also a disaster.

    Are the Liberals finally getting it? We can only hope.

  3. Robert Smits says:

    Liberals Inconsistent
    The Liberals have no real digital policy and it seems they’re flying by the seat of their pants. How else do you explain their support for gutting C27 while at the same time allegedly supporting net neutrality.

    Bob Smits

  4. The Liberals Brought C-60 || Conservatives Bring C-61..
    Who should we trust? I mean honestly.. Liberals seem to be out to drum up support now.. Lets actually hope we get decent copyright law that is not an American DMCA etc..

  5. wolfgang muller says:

    wireless internet
    Previously up to 1 Mbps speeds are acceptable for wireless internet, but with content providers who provide speed at 8 Kbps and up to business and residential customers through cable (fiber optic), wireless internet expectations running too high.

  6. 100 Mbit for all!!!
    http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/a095s/100_mbit_for_all/

    A demonstration by the Pirate Party in Germany “100 Mbit for all!”

    And “It’s already a human right in Finland, Estonia, France and Greece. 100mb by 2015 for every citizen.”

  7. E-stonia đŸ™‚
    http://thirdpipe.com/2009/04/24/estonia-has-been-100-connected-for-a-year-next-100mbps/?hai

    While muni wifi languishes in larger American cities, and US rural coverage is spotty at best, former Soviet state Estonia now has Wifi service reaching any location within its boundaries. Quite a feat from a country that was in total financial and technological melt down a couple of decades ago. This has been accomplished the without support of, or more importantly, __without interference__ from the government.

    CRTC must be dissolved to stop it from interfering with our Net.