A public interest group here is calling for Internet regulation based on a survey that showed almost two thirds of respondents think the government should oversee the Net to an extent.
“Canadian Internet customers are not being well served by the current hands-off approach to regulation of the Internet,” said Public Interest Advocacy Centre executive director Michael Janigan, announcing the survey results. “[We] found that almost two thirds of consumers think that the government should develop and enforce consumer protection rules. In particular, 62 percent of customers thought it was very important for the government to develop rules with respect to quality of service.”
Security issues appeared to be a primary concern, according to the survey. “Consumers also feel vulnerable with respect to computer viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, pop-up ads, and growing identity theft issues,” the PIAC report said. “Symantec recently reported that the volume of malicious computer worms and viruses appears to have peaked. However… the complexity of new computer bugs and the threat they pose is getting worse. According to a recent report, North American ISPs will spend $245 million fighting viruses in 2004, a cost that is ultimately passed along to customers.”
The study also said problems like spam, service outages and delays, and billing complaints are handled by Internet service providers “in ways which are frequently not transparent or standardized. ISP practices may create an imbalance in service arrangements to the customer’s disadvantage.”
The group also said high concentration in the broadband market, “dominated by two suppliers cable and local telephone companies, bodes ill for future Internet consumer welfare.”
Janigan emphasized that the first choice should be self-regulation as the best solution, but it had to be “meaningful” and enforce any codes of conduct developed by the relevant businesses. "There has to be some effort on the part of Internet service providers to put in an effective system of self-regulation first and foremost," he said.
The PIAC may not find that much support for its thinking so far, with the Canadian Association of Internet Providers saying they’re not even sure the PIAC study really backs any call for outright regulation. "I think what it's shown is for the most part the Internet service industry isn't unlike any service industry, in that we face some consumer challenges and customer service challenges," CAIP chairman Tom Copeland said in his own statement. "Yet we don't see a call for regulation of those other industries."
Copeland also said broadband competition is a lot more broad than the PIAC believes. "Admittedly, the number of competitors or the amount of market share the competitors have, aside from the phone companies and the cable companies, is minuscule,” he said.
Industry Canada, which helped finance the PIAC study, is believed now to be concentrating primarily on spam, having created a commission in the spring to find new ways to fight spam.
