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Canadian DSL customers are living with the illusion of choice when it comes to their ability to choose the modem they use to connect them to the internet. Bell currently offers exclusively the Bell Home Hub 1000 and 2000 modem/router devices as options for their customers. Similarly, the Bell re-seller Teksavvy offers a selection of Bell approved modems/router combo devices with much the same functionality.
These modem/router combos provide users with everything they would need to connect to the internet, and share that connection to devices throughout their house. Every one who engages in a policy of selling products in any area of Canada at prices lower than those exacted by him elsewhere in Canada is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
This is Section 50, paragraph 1(b), of the Canadian Competition Act (1985) which outlines what constitutes discriminatory pricing.
The pricing practices of all of the major wireless providers in Canada perpetuate a highly uncompetitive marketplace practices which fall squarely under the definition of discriminatory pricing as defined about in the Competition Act. On Monday September 23rd the CRTC released the list of companies that had put forward a deposit with the intention to bid in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. Unfortunately that list of companies is populated with only incumbent Canadian carriers and small regional players looking to pick up localized spectrum blocks, none of which will poster much diversity in the Canadian wireless market.
The problem is that Canadians are still being left with no real chance to break out of the current three-player system Canada is currently stuck with.