Comments on: Cabinet must tread warily on Globalive appeal

By: David

David — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:42:42 +0000

Hehehe…

I’m the proud father of a 4 week old baby boy – I’m probably awake at 5AM.

In all seriousness I thought the “typo” was quite clever and wasn’t altogether sure it actually was a typo. Comments like that add a bit of satire and humanity to a blog – both of which are next to impossible to find on the net.

Look at it this way, you are an engaging enough writer that a Vanouverite wanders over to your site even when you write about the TPA.

By: Mark McQueen

Mark McQueen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:49:40 +0000

David

Most blogs get written at 5am, before the Latte store opens. I was particularly weary that morning, and only caught the typo when a Wireless blog emailed to ask if they could repost it.

Send me your home tel #, and we can do a snap spelling bee tomorrow at 5am.

I agree with your last point. Thanks for stopping by.

MRM

By: David

David — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:44:45 +0000

First of all I noticed your edit… (from tread wearily to tread warily) – I would have left the mistake as is – it provided a good deal of amusement.

I had a long response typed out, but I think I can shorten it to this… As much as the NEP was a failure (and I’m a westerner) there is no doubt that the Canadian economy is still a colonial economy – hewers of wood and drawers of water. There needs to be some aspect of protectionism in terms of ownership of our resources (natural, intellectual, etc.), I would consider spectrum just such a resource.

Whether we give it away or sell it away, there is still a hollowing out of Canadian ownership of Canadian assets.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:51:32 +0000

I also fully agree; it is about time Canada applies the Free-Trade-Agreement to wireless networks in Canada. The oligopoly of Bell, Rogers, and Telus need to stop hiding behind the CRTC and get real. These are large companies and they should be able to compete fairly. If they can’t operate profitably without new competition, with new competition being able to compete on a national level, then they should not be in the business. Just because the CRTC believes they should be allowed to gouge Canadians doesn’t mean Canadians feel the same way.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:25:53 +0000

I fully agree, but isn’t this the crux of it? We’ve been talking about deregulating telcom (changing the telcom act) to allow foreign ownership for a decade now.

There used to be old arguments about cultural protectionism in the telecom and broadcast acts. But these are based on last century’s distribution models.

The internet makes it a different world. The owners of the pipes are no longer synonymous with the content and the services that run along them.

The argument now comes down to economic protectionism, or this "hollowing out" argument.

Would it really be so bad if, like in every other industrialized country, some or all of the telcoms were owned/operated by large scale multinationals?

Maybe it’s time we had this debate. I’d like to hear both sides. Got an opinion?