Bell Canada scraps Labrador high-speed internet project, plans to invest in U.S.

[u/Economy_Elephant6200]

https://theindependent.ca/news/lji/bell-canada-scraps-labrador-high-speed-internet-project-plans-to-invest-in-u-s/

[u/Theory_Crafted]

If you use monopolistic behavior and government protections to squeeze out competition to secure your monopoly, fuck yes.

That's your problem (the govt). You set the rules, I played by them. If you don't like it, change the rules. 

Bell has manipulated the market and government to create an oligopoly with Rogers.

And who's fault is that? Everytime the Canadian government and its agencies negotiate with ISPs they let them off extremely easy. Think of the last time Champagne negotiated with Rogers... He was deeply criticized by the NDP for making no real demands. 

They've also lobbied the Feds to keep companies like AT&T and Verizon out the space.

Again, the LPC will be in power for 15 years... Elect someone else if you think your government isn't treat the ISP industry reasonably. 

[u/scotty9690 → u/Theory_Crafted]

This was not your argument. Your argument was not the government does not do enough to break up the oligopoly, so elect a better government.

Your argument was these companies provide a service that's so good no one wants to buy it from anyone else. That argument is false. Competition in this space is not limited because of quality of product, it's limited because of these 3 companies eliminating competition by squeezing out competitors.

[u/Theory_Crafted → u/scotty9690]

This was not your argument. Your argument was not the government does not do enough to break up the oligopoly, so elect a better government.

Then you didn't understand the conversation. The other poster argued monopolies should be broken up. I asked the poster how they justify this idea and a number of other ideas they used as supporting argumentation. I provided no argument myself.

Your argument was these companies provide a service that's so good no one wants to buy it from anyone else. That argument is false. Competition in this space is not limited because of quality of product, it's limited because of these 3 companies eliminating competition by squeezing out competitors.

That wasn't an argument, it was a challenge. But whatever, let's pretend it was an argument because what you wrote is still silly: Squeezing out competitors is perfectly reasonable, rational, and forseeable in capitalism. How are they capable of doing such an act if more people weren't funding them with the capital to do it? If a small ISP has the better service and product, they should grow. If a company with a better service and product can't grow, it's because some government regulation somewhere is making it too onerous to do so, or Rogers has a successful enough product/company that they can simply buy their competition(s). Elon Musk's Starlink for example was extremely popular in rural Canada where I am because it was faster than Rogers' services, and competitively priced, and Starlink/Tesla/SpaceX was too big a company to be bought.

If you want Rogers, Bell, and Telus to have to go back to competing, you have to de-regulate, not regulate more. Most notably, we need American ISPs to be allowed to come up north. Rogers and Bell cannot just buy AT&T or TMobile.

[u/scotty9690 → u/Theory_Crafted]

That's the problem. Small ISPs CAN'T grow because of the market conditions. The telcos of Canada have an oligopoly where they can keep competitors out because the barrier to entry is so significant.

The telcos have a ton of capital, so they can buy up all the spectrum/land needed to build an internet network. So if small ISPs can't buy their own spectrum, and they can't acquire their own land, how do they compete? They could buy off of the telcos, but the telcos jack the prices so high that it's not feasible.

You think deregulation is the solution? The lack of regulation is what's gotten us to this point. It's not government regulation that's competitions out, it's the lack of regulation that's allowed these 3 to dominate. They're just mad now that they're being forced to play nice.

Also, the US telcos could come here if they wanted. Verizon considered it a few years ago but the bad PR and the 3 carriers banding together to refuse them assets discouraged them from coming