It appears that the incumbent wireline carriers in Canda use the same strategy as incumbent carriers in the U.S., i.e., play the investment disincentive card by threatening to delay or abandon infrastructure investment, coupled with a Constitutional claim of property confiscation. The current economic crisis supports an additional adverse impact to employment gambit. See Telecom TV, Can't share. Won't share. Bell Canada has hissy fit (March 18, 2009); available at: http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=44661&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10.
I marvel at how quickly incumbent carriers play the property confiscation argument even as they got billions of dollars in free rights of way. Do these former public utilities have any public interest obligations--no matter how market countervailing--in light of their free access to public and often private property?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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