{"id":6592,"date":"2013-08-16T11:48:10","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T15:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=6592"},"modified":"2013-08-16T11:48:10","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T15:48:10","slug":"should-canada-create-a-telco-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=6592","title":{"rendered":"Should Canada create a telco crown?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Canadian union is calling<\/a> for the Canadian government to get into the competitive telecommunications business:<\/p>\n

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada is calling on the Harper government to rescind advantages offered to Verizon Communications to set up as a fourth major carrier and to instead establish a Crown Corporation to fulfill this objective.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Has it really been such a long time that most of the planet got rid of their government owned telecom monopolies? They were called PTTs – agencies that ran the post office, telephone and telegraphs on a monopoly basis for most of the world. New housing developments and business parks could wait for years before new lines were run, unless proper political connections were had, strings were pulled, contributions were made. <\/p>\n

A tweet<\/a> suggested that we look at roads, power and water as examples of how government runs critical infrastructure:<\/p>\n

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.@Mark_Goldberg<\/a> it seems to work ok for power, water and roads. It's not like our telcos actually engineer ANYTHING anymore.<\/p>\n

— Mike West (@mwest_) August 16, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n