We hope that you will consider supporting and participating in this campaign. We believe that if the CRTC decision to allow Bell and Telus to decide whether or not to provide competitor access to broadband is not changed, prices for broadband and other next generation telecom services to all customers will spiral upwards, innovation and service will suffer, and business customers will have little or no power to protect their interests.

• As you may know, incumbent telephone companies like Bell Canada and Telus built networks over decades supported by federal rules which gave them monopolies over telephone service. This was effectively a subsidy by taxpayers, guaranteeing that these companies would be profitable, so that the public could benefit from having telecommunications networks built across the country.
• Once these networks were built, and the telephone companies were very well established, the federal government put in rules to help create healthy competition. One of these rules was to require Bell and Telus to allow competitors to connect to their networks, at prices that were regulated by the CRTC. This allowed Canadians to have access to a choice of provider for telephone and other telecom services.
• Competition in telecommunications has been good for Canadians and Canadian businesses, ensuring lower prices, more innovation, and better service than would be the case if they were captive to a single monopoly provider.
• The CRTC's recent decision would destroy this framework. It would allow Bell, Telus and other incumbent Telco's to set whatever prices they choose for competitor access to their networks. If this decision stands, we should all expect massive price increases designed to choke off competition. One way or another, we foresee higher prices, lower service standards, and little if any innovation.

MTS Allstream, along with many other businesses, wants the federal Cabinet to reverse this decision and ensure a healthy competitive market for business telecom services. Our advocacy and outreach program is intended to inform Canadian consumers and businesses of the issue at hand and provide an opportunity for their voice to be heard in Ottawa.

Please take a moment and consider if you can add your voice to ours, and encourage the federal government to reverse this decision. If you want to do that now, click here.

Elsewhere on this site, under our background documents section, you will find all of the formal petitions, filings and news releases that are at the core of this issue.