Prentice, “Bell, Telus must explain charges…”
July 9, 2008 · By Greg Farries
Telus and Bell should explain the additional charges to their customers, and justify the action to their shareholders. They clearly do not have to explain themselves to the Industry Minister.
OTTAWA — Industry Minister Jim Prentice is taking Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility to task for their plans to charge their wireless customers for each incoming text message to the cellphones unless they subscribe to a product bundle.
Incoming text messages have been free.
Mr. Prentice says he believes the decision to begin charging for incoming text messages is ill-thought out and will harm consumers.
Perhaps Prentice and Jim “I hate ATM banking fees” Flaherty should brush up on the concept of laissez-faire economics.
While it’s true that a conservative viewpoint (or libertarian) is one of non-intervention into policies and practices of companies, as long as the government is intervening somewhere, there is a good reason for them to interfere again.
Ie. in the wireless industry, government has limited competition, and these companies have profited from that. If the companies then turn around and use the leverage the government has given them to gouge customers, then the government should be able to intervene, or revoke the monopoly the companies enjoy.
I am for just opening Canada up to international wireless competition. See how long those incoming text charges last. But failing that, government should be able to say, “Hey boys. Whoa. We’re giving you a good ride here, don’t take advantage.”
This is just a cheap PR stunt. Just like the Harry Potter crap, the government wants to make the appearance of giving a damn about the consumer with a distraction.
The two companies will answer Prentice’s call and explain why. By the time everybody is done groveling, the consumer will have been used to the extra charges or bundles and the attention is diverted. Like Shane said, the real issue of international competition will be avoided.
Who knows? Maybe their “explanation” will just pave the way for Rogers to start charging too! We would not want Rogers to engage in predatory pricing, now, would we?
The NDP has launched a petition about this:
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6577
The government has already intervened through regulation and has ultimately created a long-standing telecoms oligopoly.
One might argue a highly regulated industry is needed because wireless spectrum is a limited public resource, but in fact the CRTC is controlled by the companies it is intended to regulate and the industry has been shaped in their greedy vision for decades.
Laissez-faire is well and good, but at this stage we need government to intervene to fix a broken industry. Creating space for competition is essential, but until now all efforts to nurture new entrants has only led to their eventual purchase by the incumbent carrier monopolies.
Canadians own the wireless spectrum, Government needs to reassert our interests in this area.
[...] Telus and Bell both decided to charge for incoming text messages. I personally think it’s a poor business move on their part, but it’s a move that is enti…. However, in a typical knee jerk reaction, Industry Minister Prentice demanded they reconsider the [...]