Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

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Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

Postby jon » Fri Sep 23, 2011 5:17 pm

Today's packet of coupons in my (Canada Post) mail box included two that seem to indicate that Shaw is loosening up on their "nobody but us" use of the Shaw cable connection to my home.

Distributel.ca is selling what they call "Cable Internet" (they also offer "DSL Internet"), so I am assuming they are running on Shaw's cable network. Their selling point is unlimited downloads. You can also bundle with home phone service, which I assume is also on the Shaw cable network.

Revtel (1010738.ca) advertises that they can now offer "dial around" long distance for Shaw Home Phone customers, not just the traditional telcos. Their selling point is lower rates, but the fine print reveals the usual "minimum charge per call".

The CRTC ordered cable companies to allow access to their networks back in the 1990s, but only one did at that time, some little guy in Tillsonburg, Ontario, I think it was.
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Re: Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

Postby Mike Cleaver » Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:00 pm

Teksavvy already is offering cable internet using the Shaw Cable distribution system in Metro Vancouver.
They plan to extend this over the entire Shaw network if they can get Shaw to co-operate.
They're offering most of the same speeds and caps as Shaw but for a lower price.
We haven't changed over from Teksavvy DSL just yet, which runs on Telus distribution in Vancouver and has been rock solid for three years since being introduced here.
But we're thinking of ditching the Telus landline and going with Teksavvy Cable and the cell phones with what we have now, only basic cable from Shaw while getting our local HDTV signals over the air.
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Re: Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

Postby Paul P » Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:05 pm

I'm still not sure why these start-ups who did nothing in the way of infrastructure development or paid the costs involved, should be allowed to piggyback on the hardwire that other companies have put in.
I read recently that Shaw is planning city-wide wi-fi in a number of areas. I wonder if the regulators will force them to share that bandwidth with others?
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Re: Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

Postby jon » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:28 pm

Paul P wrote:I'm still not sure why these start-ups who did nothing in the way of infrastructure development or paid the costs involved, should be allowed to piggyback on the hardwire that other companies have put in.
I read recently that Shaw is planning city-wide wi-fi in a number of areas. I wonder if the regulators will force them to share that bandwidth with others?
It doesn't seen right

I'm not sure where the idea originated -- various levels of government or the CRTC itself -- but their argument is that Regulated Monopolies (cable companies, telcos and other utilities) built their infrastructure without fear of competition cutting into their profit margins. And that gives them an unfair advantage over startups, which the CRTC and/or governments now want in the marketplace.

Some go as far as calling their infrastructures "taxpayer-built".

Only flaw in the argument is that most of these former Regulated Monopolies built their infrastructures on borrowed money. And are still paying back that borrowed money, which could be a major problem for them if their income is drastically cut thanks to competition they could never have imagined when they made the original investment.
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Re: Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

Postby Mike Cleaver » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:19 pm

Teksavvy's DSL in Vancouver is their own network from Toronto right up to the Telus building in downtown Vancouver.
They only use Telus lines to get the service to their subscribers.
Telus lines were paid for by Alberta taxpayers when it was Alberta Government Telephones as were the lines they took over from BC Tel, also financed by taxpayers.
It's difficult for other smaller companies to get easements for cables, either above ground or under.
Teksavvy is planning to install it's own fiber optic cables in major metropolitan areas but is being fought by the big cable and telco companies which are trying to refuse access to "their" poles and "their" conduits.
Telus and Shaw have a virtual monopoly on wired services in Greater Vancouver.
That's why the CRTC authorized smaller competitors access to the so called "last mile," the connection to the customer's home or business.
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Re: Shaw Losing Its Stranglehold?

Postby jon » Sat Sep 24, 2011 12:24 pm

Mike Cleaver wrote:Telus lines were paid for by Alberta taxpayers when it was Alberta Government Telephones as were the lines they took over from BC Tel, also financed by taxpayers.

While that is true, those taxpayers were paid back when TELUS was privatized. For example, here in Edmonton, the huge chunk of change the City received from TELUS for Edmonton Telephones in one of a handful of funds that cut our property taxes in half, i.e. - provide half the City's revenue.

Where did the money come from to pay back the taxpayers? Most of it was borrowed under the assumption that things would stay as they were as a regulated monopoly. Instead, long distance competition came along pretty quickly. Since long distance revenue had been subsidizing local telephone service, it was a huge revenue problem for companies like TELUS that still had their big "mortgage payments" to make for all the borrowed money they used to acquire all the pieces of TELUS in the first place.

If it had not been for their huge cell phone service revenues -- in those days, 80 cents of every dollar of revenue was profit -- TELUS would have gone belly up.

Times, of course, have changed as Internet and other services are now extremely profitable. But when Broadband Internet was introduced in the late 1990s, TELUS lost about $1500 per customer, because the ADSL technology was so expensive at that time, especially in comparison with the Cable Internet technology used by the cable companies.

My point is not that the playing field does not need leveling. It certainly does. My point is that there are no easy answers. And I'm not sure that the CRTC ever fully understood the environment they were regulating.
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