The Competitive Network Operators of Canada (CNOC) announced Tuesday a new digital advertising and social media campaign encouraging Canadians to join its fight to have the Big Three telecoms — Telus, Bell and Rogers — banned from accessing the wholesale aggregated internet regime.
CNOC’s “Break Free from the Big 3” campaign asserts, among other things, “Canadian regulators have allowed the Big 3 internet providers in Canada to freeze out the competition, giving them an unfair advantage over smaller and regional companies. Don’t fall for the illusion of choice.”
“Allowing the Big 3 to resell internet among their own networks and across others allows them to crush smaller players and eliminate the competition by taking advantage of pricing structures that were not designed for them,” CNOC’s dedicated campaign website says.
In a Tuesday press release, CNOC said Canadians face less choice, less affordable and less connected internet services without prompt action from federal government regulators.
“The Big Three companies will offer bundled wireless and internet services at attractive prices outside of the traditional operating territories for a time while squeezing smaller regional and independent providers out of the market. Once this brief flurry of ‘competition’ passes, they will return to form, end discounts and hike prices,” CNOC’s press release said.
While CNOC’s campaign targets the Big Three, its message is more focused on Telus, which is the only one of the three large ISPs that wants wholesale internet access outside of its operating territory. Rogers and Bell have each taken the position that this would be bad for smaller competitors.
“Oligopolies are taking advantage of a decision that was designed to benefit new entrants and competitors — not established players like TELUS. The CRTC must act to close this loophole so that Canadians have real choice in the telecommunications market with more options, better service, and fair pricing,” CNOC’s press release said.
The campaign’s launch comes ahead of a Feb. 4 deadline by which the CRTC must reconsider whether the three largest internet service providers in Canada should be prohibited from accessing aggregated fibre-to-the-premises services in Ontario and Quebec, as per the federal cabinet’s Nov. 6 reconsideration order.
The CRTC launched a consultation on Nov. 21 to gather stakeholder input into the matter and said it will follow the 90-day timeline prescribed by cabinet’s Nov. 6 recommendation.
In early December, CNOC along with SaskTel, Eastlink and Cogeco filed a petition to cabinet on a precautionary basis asking it to vary the CRTC’s wholesale framework decision from August 2024 in case the regulator decides not to ban the three largest ISPs from accessing the regime.
