InsightaaS: Michael Geist, leading Canadian expert on communications policy and privacy legislation, has been a key voice in the current debate regarding wireless policies generally, and Verizon’s potential entry to the Canadian market specifically.
In the spirit of full disclosure, we at InsightaaS.com are admirers of Mr. Geist, and we often applaud his willingness to speak up for what we perceive as the public good. We believe that the public good is clear in this debate, that (as voices ranging from Geist to the government) believe, additional wireless competition would be good for Canada and Canadians, and that the incumbents are actively defending their own commercial interests in working actively against new entrants (this video posted to our YouTibe site provides some interesting additional perspective on this point). With that said, we are puzzled by many of the comments appended to this post. Is it possible that the “big three” lobbying efforts are now extended to pseudonymous blog responses?
Fresh off predictions that the CRTC would not eliminate three-year contracts and that a Verizon entry into Canada was “highly unlikely“, Scotiabank’s Jeff Fan is apparently back with another report that claims it is a myth that Verizon’s entry would lead to lower costs for consumers (I say apparently because Scotiabank declined my request for a copy of the report). The claim mirrors the talking points of the incumbent carriers, who have argued that Verizon is a high-cost carrier that will not enter the market with lower prices.
While no one knows what Verizon’s business model will be (or even if they will come), the arguments that they will not result in lower prices requires you to believe that a major new competitor will simply enter with high prices that keep the current incumbent-friendly situation largely intact. One does not need a doctorate in economics to recognize this is highly unlikely…
Read the entire post: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6930/125/
