For the past nine days, the Canadian Radio-Television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has held hearings to gather information before
it decides whether or not it should force the prime providers of cell phone
services to sell to smaller companies access to their networks. If the smaller
companies could gain access to those networks, they suggest that they could
provide more cellular coverage at a potentially lower cost to the consumer. On
the surface, such a policy would make sense. After all - who doesn't like the
thought of more competition if it means that our costs will decrease? Except, why
is our government thinking about sticking its nose into this particular
business?
I am not a fan of the capitalistic system. I believe it is a
destructive force that feeds off of the labour of those under it. The capitalist
urge to make more and more money, to control more and more people and resources
can only bring the world to the verge of collapse. It is not a sustainable
system. But for the foreseeable future, it is the economic system we are stuck
with. The question is - should governments manipulate that system to give some
companies advantages over others, or should they just let the system be until
it sinks under its own weight?
The smaller providers of cell phone services argue that the
large companies (i.e. Telus, Rogers, Bell) have an unfair advantage because Telus,
Rogers, Bell get to use the cell towers that they built. The smaller companies
want access to those towers without investing capital in the construction of
such a network. It is not surprising that they can charge less for access -
they have not paid for the cost of creating the infrastructure. Telus, Rogers,
Bell in various ways have suggested to the CRTC that if their investors cannot
get back their "deserved" profits from their money - future
investments (i.e. jobs) in the infrastructure may not be as forthcoming.
The "need' for everyone to have affordable and
effective cell phone coverage is a need that was created by the capitalist.
Many Canadians survived quite nicely for most of their lives without needing to
carry a phone in their pockets. It is only within the last 10-15 years that we
have discovered that humankind cannot exist without these devices. It should be
noted that cell phone coverage is reasonably cheap - it is our constant need to
Google everything, to post the most mundane of thoughts on social media and our
compulsion to text everything to everyone that is costing us so much money.
It would seem to me that if everyone has the right to have a
cell phone and have good coverage - perhaps the Canadian government should
nationalize the whole thing and make it available at a far more reasonable cost.
Either that, or we stop being so habituated to using the silly things. In the
meantime, the Canadian government needs to decide whether or not it wants to
control the economy or let the capitalist do it.
