Regulatory Wrangling

In a sign of things to come as the lines between carriers and cablecos disappear, Telus has filed an application with the CRTC to order Shaw Communications to stop selling telephony service. The complaint has to do with Shaw not filing the proper documentation with the CRTC and not following some minor rules. In response, Shaw accuses Telus of regulatory harassment and anti-competitive behaviour.
In and of itself, Telus' application is not terribly exciting but it offers some valuable insight into how carriers and cablecos are going to butt heads and use any weapons they can to fight it out. It's a logical environment when you are selling the exact same services to the same group of consumers. You can go battle it out using the big weapons – prices, customer service and bundles – but you can bet there's also going be plenty of picking, niggling, complaining and whinging going on in public and behind the scenes. The CRTC's decision to expedite its decision-making process will be a necessity as we see more focus on he-said, she-said regulatory spats.