We still do need real accountability, and the real beefing up of the enforcements, regulations against the much too many con artists liars, thieves, crooks, imposters, pretenders. being basically motivated by greed, increasing the profits. Bait and switch, Misleading advertising, Unfair and Restrictive business trade practices seem to be a common thing in the Internet Service Providers industry too, especially since generally the ISP are unregulated both by the Courts and the governments. It is a sad reality that even what is advertised is also next what the customer next consistently gets. ” The first biggest unacceptable bad culprits still who need to be fired ASAP are those rather toothless, pretentious, federal and provincial consumer Ministers and their mostly bad subordinates. Healthy Competition was supposedly a good way to decrease the prices and increase the services, but instead we get price fixings, unfair and restrictive trade practices.. which still all reminds me of the bad immoral Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper trying to murder all of the opposition out of existence too.. for he himself is no better as a leader, example of ethics, morality too. We do need still a new real, tougher cop on the beat. to strengthen all business, financial regulatory agencies and crack down on runaway “greed and scheming” , to really clean up the worlds of politics , finance, business and really help to put in help put in place new, common-sense rules of the road that will protect investors, consumers and our entire economy from fraud and manipulation by an irresponsible few caused also by a lack of “adult supervision” and managers not being as aggressive as they should in properly managing subordinates, others. Conservative and Liberal governments administration’s laissez-faire philosophy is also allowing excessive risk and corruption at the highest echelons and also by too many people with a false disdain for regulation. We need more activist regulatory approaches, no-nonsense regulators. Too many of these crooks are still governed by a mentality governed by the principle that, “whatever is good for me, I do.” Behave Honourable or you will be fired, terminated message needs to be to apply to a range of social, physical, financial, governmental institutions — and to individuals across right across the board. A real restoration of a sense of responsibility, personal accountability and the notions of advocating beneficial values not just for ourselves, but what’s good for the others, the country as a whole, operating in reality out of a sense of what is being done is for the common good , Our too often poor Regulators do unacceptably “drop the ball,” and have failed to crack down on the bad culture of greed and scheming, to take seriously their own responsibility to “operate honourably. The CRTC also itself has not put much of a dent in fraud, abuses, and the entire system needs an overhaul. The CRTC also has missed too many red flags in its oversight of it’s duties, responsibilities..
Clearly you cannot trust too often crooked Bell or the CRTC . “Why is Bell allowed to control stuff that isn’t theirs? ” ” However I do have a problem with wholesalers, customers not being able to use the full speed of a network. After all, they pay for the full speed when getting it from the phone companies. They should get the full speed.” ” Bell’s known poor acts, actions deserve all kinds of vilification. What a completely asinine company Bell is. I will never, ever deal with them again. Worst company I’ve ever encountered, what stupid business practices.” ” Bell’s actions too often are still motivated by a desire to undermine competition and to increase their customer base seems too often as well to lose more customers.. ” Bell and Rogers caused a lot of the problem themselves, with selling so called “unlimited” packages, only to find new applications use more bandwidth than they had available ot had deployed. “ “It is not just about the price too, Bell can be real jerks to its customers. I used to be one until I got sick of their lack of customer service, etc., and even having 2 providers Bell and Rogers/local cable providers essentially in Ontario will NOT decrease prices. Look at the current cell-phone market as an indirect example of how low competition keeps prices high. ” ” and are they Bell and the others going to put unadvertised cap on how much we could download because basically the can to meet their advertised speeds due to their bolster, too often inadequate support structures, equipment too..” Bottom line is that when it comes to telecommunications and especially high speed internet, no one can be trusted, for the fact is that ISP – Cable, Telco etc – on their own will not invest in faster networks and bigger coverage areas because of the costs, and the main Corporate desire not to offer a service but a false desire to make maximum profits with a minimum of capital investment. Services will evolve but at a slower pace until competitors are forced to invest in their own infrastrucuture.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Thursday issued a decision ordering Canada’s big phone companies, including Bell, Telus Corp., MTS Allstream Inc., SaskTel and Bell Aliant, to offer the same internet speeds to smaller wholesale customers as they themselves sell on a retail basis.” Service speed is an important competitive attribute, with rates differing significantly by speed and speed often being a major differentiation point from a marketing standpoint,” the CRTC ruled.
Under existing CRTC regulations, the big phone companies are required to rent out their networks to smaller service providers, who then sell internet access to their own customers. The rules boost the number of competitors selling internet access to the public, and thus keep prices down and service levels up. The regulations, however, have only applied to older infrastructure based in phone companies’ centralized office buildings.
Recently, phone companies have been pushing their networks out of those buildings by putting new equipment into streetside cabinets in an effort to boost their customers’ internet speeds. Smaller internet service providers haven’t had regulated access to those cabinets, however, which means they have been limited to selling slower speeds than those offered by the big phone companies.
In Quebec, for example, Bell has been selling internet connections with download speeds around 16 megabits per second while small ISPs have topped out at less than half that. The phone companies will only be required to offer faster speeds to wholesale ISPs when they sell them on a retail basis in a given area. Smaller ISPs will therefore have to request the faster connections from the phone companies. Bell, Telus and the others have 45 days to file with the CRTC the proposed rates they intend to charge the small ISPs for faster services. The rates will have to represent the actual cost of the service, plus “a reasonable mark-up,” the regulator said.
“The CRTC has had a “cosy” relationship with Bell for as long as I can remember. It is obvious it continues. Short of replacing all the Commissioners with officials elected by net users this will never change. Time for a “revolution” IMO.” ” I really wonder who we have in charge of the CRTC. I would prefer a 13 year old nerd that has the slightest clue about the new hype of the Internet, ”
” Net neutrality is one of the most significant “sleeper” issues that will confront the people of Canada over the next decade. Just as we have demanded regulation for our road traffic and public utilities, we will demand fair access to our data services and even to each other. “
“Indeed, it is important not to lose sight of how much has changed in the past year. In the fall of 2007, net neutrality was viewed as a fringe issue in Canada without much political traction. In the span of 12 months, there has been a major CRTC case, the Angus bill, a rally on Parliament Hill, a more vocal business community supporting net neutrality and a gradual shift of this issue into the political mainstream. ” http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/542156 http://www.neutrality.ca/
Telecom dinosaurs are like the Big Three auto makers… act now to avoid more future tax funded bailouts.
Fair game
MONTREAL — The chairman of Bell Canada (TSX:BCE) and three other directors plan to step down from telecom giant’s board early next year, following the collapse of the $52 billion takeover by private equity.
Richard Currie, who was president of Loblaws parent company, George Weston Ltd., is expected to be replaced by Thomas O’Neill at the company’s next shareholders’ meeting in February.
The move was widely expected since the failure of the proposed privatization of Bell Canada by a consortium led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Also exiting the board are Judith Maxwell, John McArthur and Robert Pozen.
Currie said serving as BCE chairman during the tumultuous time of change was one of the great honours of his business career.
“The specific measures to create shareholder value announced last Friday make this an opportune time for me to relinquish my board duties,” he stated.
The 71-year-old Currie was elected BCE chairman in April 2002.
O’Neill has served on several committees since joining the board in 2003. The former CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers is a director of Adecco S.A., the Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS), Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX:L), Nexen Inc. (TSX:NXY), and St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
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