Critics claim that two recent judgments by Canada's telecom regulator have frozen out competition in the country's heavily concentrated market, making it even more difficult to lower mobile and internet service prices.
Consumers in Canada have long complained about high cellphone bills, which are among the highest in the world, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government has taken steps to address the issue.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has decided that the rates that small businesses must pay to access the high-speed broadband networks of larger competitors, such as BCE Inc, Telus Corp, and Rogers Communications Inc, known as the Big Three, will not be significantly reduced.
CRTC ruling in April when it asked large telecoms firms to offer wholesale wireless access to so-called Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), smaller outfits that can then resell the capacity at reduced retail prices and pass on the savings to consumers, but with several stipulations that were seen as wins for big companies.
While the two decisions were intended to foster competition, critics say they will only marginalize the smaller players.
