First, you could not possibly have picked a worse analogy than a supermarket. The grocery business in Canada is one of the most brutally competitive anywhere, with low margins and a large number of players.
But back to the issue at hand: it should not be allowed because it's anticompetitive and flies in the face of the entire idea of net neutrality. Can Netflix get around the caps? iTunes? No. But because Bell is both in the business of content and in the business of infrastructure, they are in a unique position to abuse their power. And they are doing so.
Further to that is the example of third-parties being forced to pass on Bell's usage-based-billing. They make use of the last mile infrastructure, graciously provided to Bell courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer, but are responsible for providing their own DSLAMs and peering arrangements. Why should Bell be able to dictate terms to third-party ISPs? How does that promote competition?
A lot of public money went into building out the infrastructure that Bell apparently believes it owns. Internet infrastructure, especially the last mile, greatly lends itself to a monopoly or at most duopoly. This is bad for Canada in a mindboggling number of ways - the internet is an economic necessity, and our digital economy is just barely starting to turn into something with real legs. Just like we regulate electricity, water, oil/natural gas, and food, we should be regulating this.
Anti-competitive, agreed, mostly (see next point). Net Neutrality, whole other debate. Should Bell be forced to allow equivalent pricing to a competitor to operate the same level of service? Maybe (probably).
The pivotal argument in terms of anti-competition, to my view, is: Could someone else build out the infrastructure to allow them to compete? Yes, they could install a CDN close to the DSLAMs, and create their own backhaul. Are Bell making the cost of doing this prohibitively expensive? I don't know the answer to that.
EDIT: OK, it appears they are, by not allowing 3rd parties to their fibre backhaul. That really stinks.
Bell being allowed to set it's own pricing on the backhaul - exchange to ISP PoP? It's reasonable, the way the regulator let it be implemented? Despicable.
I would take a broader view of it like so: would not having access to the internet be seriously crippling economically? Are market mechanisms providing service to all Canadians at a reasonable price?
I'm going to argue yes to the first point and no to the second. The internet is absolutely necessary to be competitive. As prices continue to ratchet upwards, even as the number of legitimate uses for large amounts of bandwidth rise, it is fast becoming increasingly more unaffordable.
With those two criteria met, I would say it's time to regulate access to the internet. In particular, I would like to see the last mile and backhaul infrastructure owned independently of any content business and available to any reseller at the same wholesale rates. Content and infrastructure MUST be separated if we are to effectively create fair pricing conditions and net neutrality.
"Content and infrastructure MUST be separated if we are to effectively create fair pricing conditions and net neutrality."
Or at least strongly regulated. The more I read about the situation there, the more it sucks.
Especially because I remember 10 years ago I was boggling at guys in Canada with 10mbit cable connections (getting 4mbps), whilst 512/128 (getting 200mbps down) ADSL or cable was just becoming a reality here.
But back to the issue at hand: it should not be allowed because it's anticompetitive and flies in the face of the entire idea of net neutrality. Can Netflix get around the caps? iTunes? No. But because Bell is both in the business of content and in the business of infrastructure, they are in a unique position to abuse their power. And they are doing so.
Further to that is the example of third-parties being forced to pass on Bell's usage-based-billing. They make use of the last mile infrastructure, graciously provided to Bell courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer, but are responsible for providing their own DSLAMs and peering arrangements. Why should Bell be able to dictate terms to third-party ISPs? How does that promote competition?
A lot of public money went into building out the infrastructure that Bell apparently believes it owns. Internet infrastructure, especially the last mile, greatly lends itself to a monopoly or at most duopoly. This is bad for Canada in a mindboggling number of ways - the internet is an economic necessity, and our digital economy is just barely starting to turn into something with real legs. Just like we regulate electricity, water, oil/natural gas, and food, we should be regulating this.