明报/联邦政府宣布4月18日开放本地电话市场竞争的新政策后，各大电话公司立即把握时机，向加拿大广播及电讯管理委员会(CRTC)递交申请，要求在全国多个主要城市，解除本地电话服务的管制。
目前的规例严格管制大电话公司，如何推销本地电话服务和收费。贝尔(Bell Canada)、研科(Telus)、阿利安特(Aliant)日前都向广播及电讯管理委员会，提出要求放宽这些规例的申请。
贝尔公司提出的申请，将影响多伦多、满地可、渥太华与加丁诺、伦敦、咸美顿、魁北克市地区。它说，将会提出其他市场的申请。研科提出类似的申请，区域覆盖温哥华、爱蒙顿。它也说，将会提出其他主要市场的申请。阿利安特提出哈利法克斯地区电话服务解除管制的申请。
工业部长伯尼尔(Maxime Bernier)4月4日宣布，如果某地区有最少3个不同的营运公司，包括手机服务商，他会开放当地的电话市场竞争。各电话公司随后开始递交解除管制申请。
广播及电讯管理委员原有政策规定，现有电话公司本地电话服务，将继续受到限制，除非对手的市场占有率达到25%。伯尼尔的宣布将推翻这项原有政策。
伯尼尔说，在4月18日生效的新政策，会为消费者带来更多选择、更低的费用。
电话公司周四也纷纷这样说。研科行政副总裁耶尔(Janet Yale)说：“解除温哥华和爱蒙顿本地电话市场管制，会为这些城市带来竞争的充分效益。”
阿利安特说，它的用户“将得到竞争的全部利益，有更多选择、以更适时方式提供的灵活计划。”
Phone market freed
Deregulation plan for local services going ahead early
Apr 05, 2007 04:30 AM
Chris Sorensen
Business Reporter
The federal government will push ahead with a controversial plan to hasten the deregulation of the $9.8 billion local telephone industry, paving the way for former monopolies such as Bell Canada Enterprises Inc. and Telus Corp. to lower prices and better compete with phone services offered by cable companies.
Industry Minister Maxime Bernier said yesterday that he will implement his December proposal to accelerate the deregulation of local phone service – a move that reverses an April 2006 decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and goes against the wishes of a parliamentary committee.
“We think we have competition in the big urban centres and it’s time for deregulation,” Bernier said during a conference call yesterday afternoon.
The policy change, which will go into effect April 18, promises to affect roughly 60 per cent of Canadians by providing them with more choice of telephone services and lower prices in major centres across the country, Bernier said.
“We believe it’s important to put the customer first.”
The new rules are a victory for Bell Canada and Vancouver-based Telus since they will no longer need federal regulatory approval to change their prices in any consumer market as long as there are three competing service providers, one of which can be a wireless carrier. For business customers, there must be a choice of at least two phone providers.
The CRTC will have 120 days to review a telephone company’s application for deregulation in a given market, Bernier said.
Previously, the former monopolies had to seek approval from the CRTC to change prices for a given geographic area – unless they could demonstrate they had lost at least 25 per cent of the market to competitors.
But cable companies that offer telephone services, such as Rogers Communications Inc., and Internet telephone providers, such as Vonage Canada, have had much more price flexibility. This has enabled these competitors to offer lower rates that have lured away thousands of customers.
Bell lost 181,000 subscribers in the latest quarter. Telus lost 31,000.
For the former telephone monopolies, another key element of Ottawa’s rule changes is that they will no longer be required to wait three months before trying to win back customers who have defected to a rival service provider.
Bell Canada lauded the move yesterday and said it plans to file applications in qualifying areas – Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa-Gatineau, London, Hamilton and Quebec City – in the coming days.
“Customers will see the benefits of increased competition, including greater value through more choice and new offers as soon as the order takes effect,” said Michael Sabia, the CEO of Bell Canada and its parent BCE.
Telus, meanwhile, said it now has the flexibility to “swiftly move towards deregulation of local phone services in key markets across B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec,” and similarly emphasized the positive nature of the changes for consumers.
But not everybody was convinced.
“I think to wholly deregulate the sector is premature,” said Lawrence Surtees, the vice-president of communications research at IDC Canada Ltd. in Toronto. “It’s not just about competition, it’s about ensuring there isn’t abuse of a dominant position.”
He added that it’s difficult to predict whether consumers will actually benefit from Ottawa’s new policy, arguing that a premature deregulation of the market could actually stifle competition if bigger competitors roll over the smaller ones.
“I would argue that all those benefits – greater choice, new services and better prices – come from competition, not deregulation by itself.”
While the CRTC and an opposition-dominated parliamentary committee that reviewed Bernier’s proposal took a similar view, they nevertheless did win creation of a consumer agency to resolve complaints from individuals and small business customers.
with files from the Star’s wire services
http://www.thestar.com/article/199748
