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Considering the CRTC already plays a very large role in regulating telecommunications in Canada, a job at which they have utterly failed (some of the highest mo

by refurb 4y ago

Considering the CRTC already plays a very large role in regulating telecommunications in Canada, a job at which they have utterly failed (some of the highest mobile rates in the world), I'm not sure why one would want to wholesale have them run the entire internet in Canada. And that's not to mention the horribly run airlines and rapidly crumbling healthcare system (post-Covid). A far better solution would be regulation of the wires, but open competition for providing the final connection to the internet - a la Singapore. Despite a population smaller than Toronto it has 3 major providers with per month costs dipping below $50 (all in) for 1 GB fiber.

kennywinker 4y ago
The referee hasn’t stopped the players from cheating - from that you’ve concluded that the referee’s employer shouldn’t field a team because they would be bad at the sport. Meanwhile your water hookups just work, aren’t expensive, and you barely ever think about them. I’m not familiar with singapore’s situation, but we do already have shared use of the wires.
- refurb 4y ago
  If the referee, with the power of the sovereign state behind it, is incapable of stopping the cheating (more accurately they are actually enabling it through regulation), what makes you think if they had total control they could do better? I remember when Telus used to be run by the government (Alberta Government Telephones). Telus might be a mess today, but I don't have fond memories of AGT either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Government_Telephones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Government_Telephones
  - kennywinker 4y ago
    It’s possible for gov to be bad at one thing - regulating bad actors in a system that both encourages monopoly, and allows the regulated corps to influence the regulators - and yet be good at another fairly different thing. In this case providing a service to a large number of people at a low per-person cost - see the post office or water + sewer as positive examples. State-run isn’t synonymous with “badly run”, except it is when the state is actively trying to sabotage it so they can privatize it to enrich their pals. I don’t know that was the case in alberta, but it wouldn’t exactly shock me if it was… certainly that is the case with the post office in the states in the past 30 years, icbc under the bc liberals, and plenty of other examples
    - refurb 4y ago
      I agree that state-run doesn't have to be bad. But man, at least the examples I've seen in North America, the probability of state-run being mediocre is really high. What seems to be true is the more local it is, the better run it is. Running something at the national level is pretty much a guaranteed that some soft-middle will be forced on everyone.
      - kennywinker 4y ago
        Fair enough. Per the article, the internet is good at decentralized. National framework + municipal or regional gov based carriers… sounds perfect.

by refurb 4y ago

kennywinker 4y ago

The referee hasn’t stopped the players from cheating - from that you’ve concluded that the referee’s employer shouldn’t field a team because they would be bad at the sport. Meanwhile your water hookups just work, aren’t expensive, and you barely ever think about them. I’m not familiar with singapore’s situation, but we do already have shared use of the wires.

refurb 4y ago
If the referee, with the power of the sovereign state behind it, is incapable of stopping the cheating (more accurately they are actually enabling it through regulation), what makes you think if they had total control they could do better? I remember when Telus used to be run by the government (Alberta Government Telephones). Telus might be a mess today, but I don't have fond memories of AGT either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Government_Telephones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Government_Telephones
- kennywinker 4y ago
  It’s possible for gov to be bad at one thing - regulating bad actors in a system that both encourages monopoly, and allows the regulated corps to influence the regulators - and yet be good at another fairly different thing. In this case providing a service to a large number of people at a low per-person cost - see the post office or water + sewer as positive examples. State-run isn’t synonymous with “badly run”, except it is when the state is actively trying to sabotage it so they can privatize it to enrich their pals. I don’t know that was the case in alberta, but it wouldn’t exactly shock me if it was… certainly that is the case with the post office in the states in the past 30 years, icbc under the bc liberals, and plenty of other examples
  - refurb 4y ago
    I agree that state-run doesn't have to be bad. But man, at least the examples I've seen in North America, the probability of state-run being mediocre is really high. What seems to be true is the more local it is, the better run it is. Running something at the national level is pretty much a guaranteed that some soft-middle will be forced on everyone.
    - kennywinker 4y ago
      Fair enough. Per the article, the internet is good at decentralized. National framework + municipal or regional gov based carriers… sounds perfect.