More Gouging by our Friendly Neigbourhood Telecom Oligopoly

I really, really, hate the telecoms. I'm just going to put that out there from the get go. Let's toss the CRTC in there too. I really hate the CRTC.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, on to why I am particularly peeved today. Bell and Telus have announced that in August, customers who do not have a text messaging package on their contracts will have to pay $0.15 per incoming SMS. That is bullshit.

It costs the telecoms absolutely nothing to deliver an SMS to a mobile phone, since the sending person has already paid. The telecoms are simply trying to force people into buying SMS packages on their phone systems. I for one don't use text messages all that much, so when I got my current contract, I didn't bother getting a text messaging package. This means that were I a Bell or Telus customer (which I am not), I would be forced into paying for something I don't want and don't need.

This is especially bull because there is no capacity to block unwanted text messages. A person is not given the opportunity to refuse an SMS when it comes it. This is like forcing a person to accept a collect call. If the company is going to make me pay for incoming text messages, they had damn well better let me choose which ones I do and don't want to accept. People who get SMS spam shouldn't be stuck having to pay for it.

This is gouging of the worst kind, and clear evidence of the existence of a predatory oligopoly. On the one hand, we have Bell and Telus, who want to impose bullshit charges on incoming texts. On the other, we have Rogers, which refuses to institute an unlimited data plan for it's smart phones. Between the three of them, Canadians pay vastly more for cell phone service than citizens of pretty much any other country in the world. And this is where we come to why I hate the CRTC.

The CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) has been given the task of regulating the telecom industry. At this job, it has failed grievously. The CRTC has allowed unprecedented concentration in the telecom industry, allowing only three companies (and don't think I've forgotten Fido, but they are owned by Rogers now) to control the entire market. If the CRTC was doing it's job, it would never have allowed Rogers to buy Fido, and it would pursue much more stringent competition policies. Instead, it has been asleep at the switch, and what is more sleeping in the same bed as the telecoms.

We need to give the CRTC a massive kick in the pants to wake it up. The CRTC is an organ of the state, and the state is (at least theoretically) controlled by the citizens. What we also need to do is put in place a state-owned telecom, to enter the market and provide for-cost mobile phone, internet and television service. Force the telecoms to either give up their predatory practices or fade away. The people should control the economy. The economy should be democratic. But under capitalism, it is no such thing. The economy under capitalism responds to those with money, and through the economy, they control the state. A nationalized telecom wouldn't break the hold of the capitalists and the bourgeoisie, but it would start the ball rolling, proving to people that a democratic economy is possible, and indeed desirable.

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