Among the themes being explored at this week’s telemarketing Do Not Call List hearings in Ottawa were ‘who pays’ and ‘how do we charge’? Do you think there will be a charge to people who want to be added to the list, after all, aren’t they the real users, like people who want to have an unlisted phone number?
When it comes to upgrading the emergency service bureaus for 911 calls from VoIP phones, we keep hearing the question of ‘who pays’? Do you think it should be the police departments?
Broadband service for rural markets? Who pays? Should it be telephone subscribers in the cities or regional economic development agencies?
See the trend? In the past, the telecom service providers were able to be a source of social welfare funding. After all, in a fully regulated, non-competitive environment, phone companies could easily act as Robin Hood to do all sorts of good deeds without any impact to the shareholders. Those days are gone.
Despite best efforts to continue to have various forms of cross-subsidies funded by a wider array of competitive service providers, there are too many types of service providers that are able to avoid contributing.
How do we create fair funding?