Sunday, February 11, 2007

 

The end of rural and remote phone service?

CRTCIn case my post from Thursday interested you in examining the more entertaining regulatory decisions, I have another set of dissenting opinions to share with you for your reading pleasure.

In one of the final Orders of the year 2006, the CRTC authorized Northwestel to withdraw local service from a small town on Baffin Island, presumably because it was too costly. This despite the fact that the costs were underwritten by the contribution subsidy payments.

I am sorry I missed this story when it was fresh last December.
From this day onward, the concept of basic service as a given in Canada and the notion that established phone companies have an obligation to provide such service to Canadians may be gone forever. My reading of the message underlying the majority decision is that access to phone service is only a given if companies are confident it can be provided profitably. In my view, that is not good enough.
A regulatory colleague tipped me to this CRTC Order.
The nearest hospital is 1200 km away and it's dark all the time up there this time of year. Still, the majority figures there's no obligation to serve. No wonder Canadians shake their heads over the value of regulation.
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Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 2/11/2007 07:54:00 AM
Comments:
If you read the order, you will see that service is being withdrawn because there is no longer any "there" there. Nanisivik is (was) a mining community without a mine. The only current residents are employees of the mine and the demolition company that is removing the minesite and the town facilities. This is not an abrogation of the obligation to serve.

Regards,
Jody Woodland (a Northwestel employee)
Posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 7:30 PM, February 19, 2007
 
There appear to be at least two businesses there: the mine and a demolition company. There are also residential customers and the fact that all or some of these customers work for one, two or 23 different employers should be irrelevant.

Is the logic of NW Tel that the mine should be its own phone company? Do we expect any other business to be the phone company for its employees, their families' homes and their suppliers?
Posted by Blogger Mark Goldberg : 8:19 PM, February 19, 2007
 
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