Deals have eluded Internet provider
By KEITH DAMSELL
MEDIA REPORTER
Friday, June 14, 2002 – Print Edition, Page B5
TORONTO -- The Canadian arm of AOL Time Warner Inc. delivered a stinging critique of this country's cable and telecommunications players yesterday, alleging incumbent high-speed Internet providers enjoy an unfair advantage over the U.S. media giant.
"Fundamentally, some of our customers want [high-speed] broadband [access] and if they want it, we want to give it to them," said Steven McArthur, president and chief executive officer of Toronto-based AOL Canada Inc. "But we refuse to do it in a manner that is not on a level playing field. And the current environment in Canada continues to not be on a level playing field."
AOL Canada launched its Internet service in Canada six years ago and today has more than 450,000 dial-up subscribers. The company is 80 per cent owned by New York's AOL Time Warner, a U.S. communications giant with vast media, cable and Internet assets. The remaining 20 per cent is owned by Royal Bank of Canada.
AOL Canada's media content and dozens of on-line partnerships have made the company's Web site this country's second-most-visited Web portal behind Microsoft Corp.'s msn.com portal. But gaining access to high-speed internet networks has proved elusive.
For much of the past year, AOL Canada has struggled without success to negotiate an access agreement with a potential cable or telecom partner. To date, potential telecom deals have been uneconomical for AOL Canada while cable providers have shown "an extraordinary level of foot-dragging and stalling," Mr. McArthur said.
"Canada is probably the only market in the world that infrastructure players are caught up in this 'We want to do it ourselves,' "
Telecom and cable companies disputed AOL Canada's allegations.
"There's absolutely no truth to the suggestion we won't talk," said Ken Engelhart, vice-president of regulatory at Rogers Communications Inc. Under 2000 guidelines from the federal broadcasting regulator, the Toronto cable provider offers third-party Internet providers wholesale access at a "very generous" rate of $21 per month per subscriber, he said.
Access to Telus Corp.'s digital subscriber lines (DSL) network is "open to everybody," said Nick Culo, spokesman for the Burnaby, B.C.-based telecommunications company.
AOL Canada must secure broadband access if it is to become a serious competitor against larger telecom and cable providers, said Brahm Eiley, president of Convergence Consulting Group Ltd.
According to the Toronto consulting company, the number of Canadian high-speed-access subscribers continues to grow while dial-up growth is slightly declining. By the end of this year, about half of the nearly seven million Canadian homes connected to the Internet will have a high-speed connection, the group reports.
By KEITH DAMSELL
MEDIA REPORTER
Friday, June 14, 2002 – Print Edition, Page B5
TORONTO -- The Canadian arm of AOL Time Warner Inc. delivered a stinging critique of this country's cable and telecommunications players yesterday, alleging incumbent high-speed Internet providers enjoy an unfair advantage over the U.S. media giant.
"Fundamentally, some of our customers want [high-speed] broadband [access] and if they want it, we want to give it to them," said Steven McArthur, president and chief executive officer of Toronto-based AOL Canada Inc. "But we refuse to do it in a manner that is not on a level playing field. And the current environment in Canada continues to not be on a level playing field."
AOL Canada launched its Internet service in Canada six years ago and today has more than 450,000 dial-up subscribers. The company is 80 per cent owned by New York's AOL Time Warner, a U.S. communications giant with vast media, cable and Internet assets. The remaining 20 per cent is owned by Royal Bank of Canada.
AOL Canada's media content and dozens of on-line partnerships have made the company's Web site this country's second-most-visited Web portal behind Microsoft Corp.'s msn.com portal. But gaining access to high-speed internet networks has proved elusive.
For much of the past year, AOL Canada has struggled without success to negotiate an access agreement with a potential cable or telecom partner. To date, potential telecom deals have been uneconomical for AOL Canada while cable providers have shown "an extraordinary level of foot-dragging and stalling," Mr. McArthur said.
"Canada is probably the only market in the world that infrastructure players are caught up in this 'We want to do it ourselves,' "
Telecom and cable companies disputed AOL Canada's allegations.
"There's absolutely no truth to the suggestion we won't talk," said Ken Engelhart, vice-president of regulatory at Rogers Communications Inc. Under 2000 guidelines from the federal broadcasting regulator, the Toronto cable provider offers third-party Internet providers wholesale access at a "very generous" rate of $21 per month per subscriber, he said.
Access to Telus Corp.'s digital subscriber lines (DSL) network is "open to everybody," said Nick Culo, spokesman for the Burnaby, B.C.-based telecommunications company.
AOL Canada must secure broadband access if it is to become a serious competitor against larger telecom and cable providers, said Brahm Eiley, president of Convergence Consulting Group Ltd.
According to the Toronto consulting company, the number of Canadian high-speed-access subscribers continues to grow while dial-up growth is slightly declining. By the end of this year, about half of the nearly seven million Canadian homes connected to the Internet will have a high-speed connection, the group reports.