More Thoughts on the CRTC VoIP Ruling

To keep the ball rolling, I just wanted to share some keen insights from the blogs of Mark Evans and Alec Saunders about the ruling. Both are based here in Ontario, and have a local perspective. I haven't heard much stateside from bloggers, and would love to hear their take - and would gladly share it here.

That said, Jeff Pulver noted that in the long run, the CRTC may have made the right call. Maybe - just way too early to tell. Also, our market really is different from the US, so it's hard to make fair comparisons.


Sounds like Mark and I are on the same page. We both agree Canadians have been spoiled by affordable, reliable service, and the incumbent brand power is very strong. It's still their market to lose, and they have so many table stakes on their side that will be expensive for any competitor to match, let alone take away. However... there's nothing like a good shoot-out, and that's what we're going to get now.

For a year now, my mantra to the major US service providers is this: WATCH ONTARIO. We have the ultimate test lab for VoIP. Bell Canada is by far the most sophisticated ILEC in North America, and the same holds for Rogers in the cable space. And both can offer the quad play - voice, data, video and wireless. The US majors are a long way from doing this, let alone go head to head like this. Also, Ontario is on par with almost any US state in terms of being a great market. The critical mass is here - 11 million people, and it's the economic engine of Canada - it's by far the most affluent market here.