For YEARS we’ve been at the mercy of Big Telecom for high-speed internet. They’ve been gobbling up small ISPs left and right, dropping real competition all across Canada. Now a HUGE decision is hanging in the balance that will decide whether we FINALLY get competitive Internet options everywhere - or lock just one or two monopoly choices in for GOOD. Let’s explain, real quick!
In 2015, the CRTC ruled that you should have access to fibre internet from any choice of provider you want.1 But then, they dawdled, leaving rules in place at the time so restrictive, small ISPs couldn’t actually do it, and were forced to sell us low-speed Internet scraps. They briefly introduced fair prices for older cable Internet access in 2019 - but following heavy Big Telecom lobbying and a sudden intervention by Cabinet, we lost that partial win too! As a direct result, Big Telecom has maintained a near complete monopoly on both cable and fibre Internet access to your home, ever since.2,3
In August 2024, the CRTC finally decided that anyone who will sell you Internet service in your community should be able to access the local fibre network at a fair price. Sounds good, right?
Here's the catch: they haven't decided what that 'fair' price will be yet. And if the access rate is too high, no one new will enter the market and NOTHING will change!
We've seen it happen time after time: the CRTC starts to do the right thing, then Big Telecom convinces them and Cabinet to subvert their own system and make sure it can't possibly work.
Enough is enough; we’re sick and tired of a broken system! It’s time the CRTC brings TRULY affordable cable AND fibre access from any provider, anywhere in Canada that infrastructure exists. 4,5,6 Email Canadian leaders to ask to guarantee LOW cable and fibre rates and LOTS of competition, right NOW!