TekSavvy wants to break up Canada’s national telecom companies.
Peter Nowak, vice president of insight and engagement at TekSavvy, pointed to the recent price hikes from Rogers and Bell as one reason why. Some Rogers wireless customers are now paying up to $9 more per month for their wireless plans. Bell will start charging more for its wireless offerings in February.
“A new direction has never been so badly needed. Competition has been crushed and customers continue to get fleeced during a time of staggering unaffordability and oligopolistic profiteering across multiple industries,” Nowak wrote in a blog post.
He states people want to know why they have to pay more for services, especially given the various promises several parties have made.
When Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne approved Rogers’ takeover of Shaw in March 2023, he said he would take action if wireless prices didn’t “see a clear and meaningful reduction.”
Additionally, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) set rules for smaller providers to access the network of incumbents as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). Nowak notes the commission called the move an “important milestone.”
Soon after reports of the price hikes surfaced, some MPs from the Industry committee called on their colleagues to meet to discuss the matter. The two-hour-long meeting discussed the possibility of a study but didn’t reach a verdict before the session expired.
While Nowak believes the only solution is wholesale, he says Canada’s national telecom companies constantly fight against this. A permanent fix will need a “structural and cultural change,” which will only come by “splitting the big telcos into separate parts.”
“Preventing companies from both owning networks and selling retail services would remove roadblocks to competition and create incentives to embrace it,” Nowak wrote. “Rather than trying to kill wholesale-based competitors, network owners would instead treat them as proper customers and encourage their proliferation and prosperity.”
Other countries have successfully split up big telecom companies, a process known as structural separation, Nowak wrote. He said the company will share more on the process soon.
Image credit: TekSavvy
Source: TekSavvy
