In the Cabinet’s December 2006 Policy Directive, the CRTC was told to rely on market forces to the greatest extent possible.
In Section 1(a)(ii), the CRTC was told
when relying on regulation, use measures that are efficient and proportionate to their purpose and that interfere with the operation of competitive market forces to the minimum extent necessary to meet the policy objectives;
On Friday, the CRTC opened a consultation to get input on issues associated with the incumbent telephone companies’ obligation to serve, basic service objectives, and local service subsidy regime.
Parties are to address the relationship between the obligation to serve, basic service objectives, and local service subsidies; and changes that have occurred in the telecom industry since these measures were first implemented (e.g. level of competition, technological change, regulatory environment, other jurisdictions).
According to an article on CBC, PIAC plans to argue that high speed internet services should be added to the list of basic service obligations. This raises an interesting issue, given that the telephone companies were second to market and have a smaller share than their cable counterparts.
In a competitive telecom sector, with a wide variety of service providers using a number of technology alternatives, what is the appropriate regulatory framework?