In chess there perhaps ought to be a move called The Incumbent's Gambit. It's certainly a very popular play in the telecoms game. The latest carrier to try it on is North American incumbent Bell Canada where, essentially, the operator is doing the corporate equivalent of poking a stick in a watchdog's ear whilst hiding safely behind mommy's skirts, writes Martyn Warwick.
Bell Canada's parent company BCE (Bell Canada Enterprises) is using its clout to appeal the decision of the national regulator, the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), requiring the incumbent telco to provide rivals with competitive access to its next generation network. Sound familiar? It should do, it's a ploy that's been tried before in other parts of the world - with varying degrees of success.
So, BCE is warning of looming telephonic Armageddon either because, at one extreme, it says the opening up a new network to competitors would deepen Canada's digital divide, cost jobs and stop investment whilst at the other end of the continuum it seems the company believes that any sharing of resources will immediately exacerbate the global recession in general and tip Canada in particular into an unending spiral of economic decline and social despair.
And Bell Canada's ultimate weapon? To threaten not to upgrade to next-generation technology. A "cut off your nose to spite your face" rationale if ever there was one.
The CRTC published Telecom Decision 2008 -117 on December 11, 2008. It mandates that Bell Canada should share its new network with rival carriers to foster genuine competition in the telecoms sector. Decision 2008 - 17 was supplemented on March 3 this year by 2009 - 111 that confirms the requirement and that competitive access will be orderly and moderated by the regulator.
However, BCE doesn't want Bell Canada to share anything with anyone and is therefore attempting to circumvent the CTRC by appealing directly to the federal government and asking it to confirm that investment in and construction of next generation networks is a central plank in the Canadian administration's development policy.
In a thinly-veiled threat to delay or even completely curtail any further investment in next generation networks, George Cope, the president and CEO of BCE says, "As in any other competitive industry in Canada, we should be able to choose who distributes our services and how, be it wholesale, retail, direct or any other creative form of distribution channel. The alternative of regulated access will have significant implications for our network and other investments going forward. Despite current economic conditions, BCE has committed to investing more than $2.5 billion in the Canadian economy in 2009 alone."
Adding an extra twist to the scare-mongering Mr.
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