Rogers Joins Telus In Seeking National Regulation 53
silentbrad writes "Canada's largest mobile service provider is urging the federal telecom regulator to implement a mandatory national consumer protection code (PDF; actual filing with the CRTC) in order to defuse the threat posed by a growing hotchpotch of provincial regulations for wireless services. Rogers Communications Inc. submitted that proposal to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in an application late Thursday. In doing so, Rogers becomes the second major carrier to ask the CRTC to resume active regulation of the terms and conditions for wireless service contracts, a practice it largely abandoned during the 1990s. Nonetheless, those regulatory powers, while latent, remain in the Telecommunications Act, meaning the CRTC can still exercise its authority over those matters."
Re:Oooh (Score:2, Interesting)
It is easy to manipulate a single Federal regulator than all those pesky provinces. No business seeks to protect consumers, just themselves. If they say otherwise it is just spin.
Defuse not diffuse - Language Nazi post (Score:0, Interesting)
You defuse bombs, and language may have morphed so that you can defuse any type of threat.
Diffuse means spread out like the potential regulations.
It's all about the contracts (Score:4, Interesting)
Getting the cheap/free cellphone in Canada often involves signing up for long 3 year plan with huge penalties if you quit early.
I'm not sure of all the provinces, but I know that both Quebec and Manitoba have new laws in place requiring better contract disclosure and limiting those penalties.
I suspect that Rogers and Telus are afraid the other provinces will enact the same or stronger legislation.
Re:Surprising. (Score:3, Interesting)
bureaucracy gets the blame for every half-wit legislative idea that is implemented poorly because it cannot be implemented correctly due to being not thought out at all and being written by an idiot.
bureaucracy is what first implements laws, written by morons, into regulations then implement regulations into a process that actually gets something done.
like anything else a department can be poorly structured and inefficient in which case it should be reformed, but those "unelected Bureaucrats" are all that stands between you and a million monkeys on typwriters, well 535 monkeys actually
imagine if every law included it's exact implementation right down to design of paperwork, office procedure, etc.