> and to a lesser extent Canada's
Not to turn this into a pissing contest, but Canada's internet is far more shite and far more captured by an oligopoly. Independent ISPs are harder to find than competition up here in the North.
Not to turn this into a pissing contest, but Canada's internet is far more shite and far more captured by an oligopoly. Independent ISPs are harder to find than competition up here in the North.
The mobile space is more challenging. A number of those co-ops and government ISPs were running mobile service back in the mid 2000s, but they never found the customer base and most of them eventually shut it down, Tbaytel and Sasktel being the exceptions.
That said, many of those ISPs have more recently turned to reselling Big 3 service, so you can still at least minimize how much the Big 3 take, giving the small guy at least some of the cut. Maybe some day they can take that small cut and build out their own network again? But, you get what you choose to become a customer of, I suppose.
That's cold comfort to the overwhelming majority of people who aren't served by such ISPs. Population of...
Saskatchewan (Sasktel): 1.1M
Bruce County (Bruce Telecom): 66.5k
Thunder Bay District (Tbaytel): 146k
Prince Rupert, British Columbia (CityWest): 13k
That makes up a total of 1.3M, against Canada's population of 37.0M.
Moreover, looking at Sasktel's website[1], their prices don't look too competitive. They're asking for $105/month for 1G (promotional offer, regular price $150), which is actually worse than what corporate ISPs offer, eg. $110/month for 1.5G (promotional offer, regular price $130)[2].
[1] https://www.sasktel.com/store/browse/Personal/Internet/Inter...
But is actually warm comfort as it shows a proven model that anyone, anywhere in Canada can also do. It's just a matter of whether or not the people actually care if they are a customer of an independent, or if being a customer of a major is just as good or better.
> Moreover, looking at Sasktel's website[1], their prices don't look too competitive.
Sure. Nobody said owning your own business allowed it to operate for free. Publicly-owned and co-op businesses are not a panacea. But they are independent and free of a major private business, which is the topic at hand.
Saskatchewan's population is ~80% rural, and Sasktel doesn't operate outside of Saskatchewan. It isn't terribly surprising that it costs more to service rural areas, and without much in the way of an urban base to help subsidize the operation. But this does indicate that other providers are operating within reasonable margins. Indeed, Canada is a very expensive place to do business in, and not just in telecom. You are never going to see cheap internet compared to other countries, or much of anything, without radically upheaving what the country stands for.
But quite relevant as they provide a proven, working model that can be used anywhere in Canada. That's the beauty of public/cooperative ownership – all people have to do is do it.
> here in Quebec it's either Videotron or bell
What about CoopTel, Sogetel, and Téléphone de Courcelles?
Also a part from sogetel, those are either very small or regional. Even sogetel is regional and doesn't really provide services outside small villages and cities. That's not bad, but it's not enough to say that Canada's market isn't deeply uncompetitive. Even the US has tons of cooperative and WISPs that follow a similar coop pattern.
The vast majority of people can do the same. What do you think public/cooperate ownership is, exactly? It isn't something that magically comes down from space by aliens or sent to us by god. They are by the people. All the people have to do is do it!
> Also a part from sogetel, those are either very small or regional.
So? They still exist in Quebec. The question was really trying to ask why you didn't mention them?
If you like their model, and want to see them grow, then you'd think you'd be preaching their existence to high heaven. The only way small businesses can grow to cover the nation is to have people talk about them. No business has ever swept the nation in secrecy. Yet here we are, even after we started talking about them, being told that they shouldn't be talked about because they are too "insignificant".
Why is it that the people who complain about the "Big 3" most are the ones who seem most happy to keep on using their service?