Mark Evans points to a Globe and Mail article about why our friends to the North won't see the kind of price wars we see in the USA.
I beg to differ as we have enterered the era of global telephony carriers, where as a result of IP boundaries no longer exist. For years when I traveled internationally I had to use callback systems, now for the time I've been working out of the country I've made likely less than 20 calls on my International calling card or direct calls from my cell phone. Almost all my calls have been via Truphone, GizmoProject, Skype, SightSpeed or GoogleTalk via the Nokia N800. GrandCentral has handled where the calls end up. I could have also used services like Jajah, Rebtel, Mint Telecom and others too. We're way beyond local numbers being portable between local carriers and mobile operators. We're at a point where numbers start in one place, end in another and appear to be where they seem to be but really aren't.
With numbers and area codes becoming irrelevant, as long as their is an unblocked, real Internet connection, price wars will be there, just not from the traditional outlets. I don't mean via the tariffed carriers, but from the ones who say "use us" and do the same thing or more than your local phone company. You see, the local carrier is gone. Those that still carry the placard don't realize they've already been made obsolete, but that no one has told them the news. When you see AT&T sponsoring Formula One racing, and companies like Sprint and Covad working seriously in WiMax you have to realize that the game is changing.
Companies like Cisco, Intel, Google, Skype, Microsoft are fueling a new economy and a new way to make phone calls so to the traditional carriers in Canada, keep your prices high or better yet adopt the new technologies like Shift is doing in your own backyard.
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