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Mobile Syrup

Canadians aren’t confident the government is doing enough for affordable telecom services: poll

A new poll shows the majority of Canadians are concerned about monopolies and the way they impact prices.

The data from Mainstreet Research shows 92 percent of those surveyed blame market concentration for higher prices across grocery and telecom sectors. A further 69 percent said current competition regulations are benefiting large companies at the expense of consumers.

Results are based on automated telephone interviews conducted between March 29th and 30th. The sample consists of 1267 adults residing in Canada and represents the country’s voting population.

According to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s 2019 monitoring report, the big three (Bell, Rogers, and Telus) controlled 91 percent of the mobile and internet services market, and Canadians believe this is a problem.

Polling results show 72 percent of Canadians aren’t confident the government is doing enough for affordable and competitive telecom services in Canada; the results label 44 percent as “strongly not confident.” A majority of respondents who felt this way reside in Alberta and Ontario.

“Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne just permitted the Shaw buyout, crowning Rogers the single largest company in our telecom sector in one of the biggest buyouts the country’s ever seen,” OpenMedia Campaigns Director, Matt Hatfield, said.

“These clear poll results should be setting off alarm bells in government offices across the country: band-aid solutions aren’t enough.”

The Minister’s approval was the final step Rogers needed to complete its $26-billion takeover of Shaw. Vidéotron was also approved to take over Freedom Mobile from Shaw in an effort to create a fourth leading wireless provider. Despite the approval, critics have voiced their concerns about the merger, arguing the approval will come at a cost to Canadians.

The poll further shows 83 percent of Canadians believe the current costs of internet and mobile services are impacting their budget, with 44 percent labeling the action as significant.

Source: OpenMedia

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Mobile Syrup

OpenMedia backs bill to make ISPs provide internet speed reports

Aerial view of mobile phone cell tower to illustrate lack of broadband internet service in rural areas and need for investment

OpenMedia is asking the government to do more to address internet speed reporting from Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

The non-profit specifically points to Bil C-288, a bill that seeks to revise the Telecommunications Act to require ISPs to publicly share broadband network performance.

OpenMedia argues the private member’s bill will help Canadians make educated decisions when picking internet services. It will also see service providers compete on the network performance they’re providing customers.

OpenMedia’s campaigns director, Matt Hatfield, says the matter addresses truth and transparency.

“If an internet provider is advertising certain speeds, consumers have the right to know before they buy if those speeds accurately reflect average network performance.”

Hatfield said the bill hosts particular importance for Canadians residing in rural areas and those who rely on low-cost services. “High-speed internet underperformance is irritating; but when lower-speed internet underperforms, it effectively denies people an essential service.”

The group says Canada is behind in adopting such legislation. Australia and the U.K. recently adopted reporting requirements, and the FCC in the U.S. has required companies to provide labels that inform customers on a range of factors, OpenMedia says.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: OpenMedia

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Mobile Syrup

Sunshine, light winds, and a 100 percent chance of personal data selling

The convenience of checking the weather on your phone might be easy, but it isn’t free of consequences.

According to a recent blog post by OpenMedia‘s privacy campaigner, Bryan Short, Canadians’ personal data is sold to third parties, including the federal government, when they use weather apps installed on their phones.

The Pelmorex Corporation, the parent company of the Weather Network and other weather-related apps, collects personal information and sells it in a live bidding process whenever a user connects to a property the company owns. The weather apps that come installed on Apple and Android devices also source their data from Pelmorex.

IP addresses, locations, and web browsing history are some information Pelmorex collects.

“This data has immense value to advertisers and marketers who are looking for audiences in specific demographic categories and geographic areas,” Short writes.

Some companies buy this data to sort people into categories that could lead to discriminatory practices. Environics Analytics, for example, sorts Canadians into 67 groups of affluence. “Asian Sophisticates” sits on the wealthy end of the spectrum, while other labels like “Indigenous Families” sits on the other side.

Furthermore, a May 2022 Parliamentary investigation found Pelmorex was one of the companies that sold personal user information to user data company BlueDot, which sold it to the federal government.

“This cycle can continue in perpetuity, with our data being sold to untold amounts of third parties, and combined with other data, creating new risks for re-identification and discrimination, and further clouding our ability to exercise any meaningful control over our own information,” Short says.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: OpenMedia

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Mobile Syrup

Advocacy agencies call on Minister Champagne to end Canada’s telecom monopoly

Non-profit Canadian advocacy agencies OpenMedia and Leadnow got over 28,000 petition signatures and called for an end to Canada’s telecom monopoly.

In a press release sent to MobileSyrup, OpenMedia said it and Leadnow issued a joint statement to Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) Minister François-Philippe Champagne. The statement highlights issues with Canada’s telecom monopoly and calls for guaranteed affordable, reliable high-speed internet for all Canadians.

The statement comes as a response to the July 8th Rogers outage — called ‘Red Friday’ by some — which saw the company’s wireless and wireline network collapse, taking out mobile, internet and other services for millions of Canadians for some 19 hours. Many were impacted well beyond the initial scope of the outage. Moreover, Red Friday prevented Canadians from accessing emergency and financial services.

“July’s Rogers outage must be a turning point for Canada. People from coast to coast are waking up to how rigged our telecom system has become, functioning primarily to benefit Rogers, Telus, and Bell at the expense of ordinary Canadians,” the statement reads.

OpenMedia highlighted key options for reducing the monopoly power of telecom in Canada, which include creating a national public competitor to deliver internet services, expanding support for local public ownership of community networks, structural separation of telecom companies that own wireline and wireless services, and mandating telecom network access for small companies, which would increase competition and help reduce prices.

It remains to be seen what impact, if any, this has on the government’s response to Red Friday. Champagne has already demanded the major telecom players work together to develop a fallback system for future outages, the House of Commons committee on industry (INDU) is studying the Rogers outage, and the company answered CRTC questions about what happened. However, some have criticized Rogers for promoting transparency while heavily redacting its response to the CRTC, while others believe the government’s response — such as mandating the major telecom players work together — will worsen competition issues.

You can read the full statement from OpenMedia and Leadnow here.