Holy (cash) cow!
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- “After spending tens of thousands of dollars creating and testing an online calculator designed to help consumers select their ideal wireless plan, Industry Minister Tony Clement killed the project weeks before it was scheduled to launch. Government records suggest intense lobbying this spring by Canada’s wireless companies, who feared the service would promote lower cost plans, played a key role in the decision.”
The words are Michael Geist’s and they came in his post on a farce which, it’s now been revealed, cost Canadian tax payers not thousands of dollars, but almost $1.5 million.
And all for nothing.
The federal government spent $1.4 million over three years on the project before shutting it down, says the CBC, going on:
“About 60 per cent of the cost went toward services within Industry Canada, the ministry overseeing the project, and staff time for product and IT development. The remaining costs were for research, design and other services from outside contractors, as well as administrative costs.”
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, “expected the calculator to launch in June after receiving glowing reviews from focus groups that had tested it,” says the story, continuing:
“The calculator let users punch in how many minutes and text messages they expected to use, and which extra features — such as voice mail — they wanted. It then listed offers from Canada’s various cellphone providers.”
But according to Industry Canada, the giant telecommunication companies worked behind the decision.
The Harper government department, “said the tool was scrapped because of technical limitations that would have prevented accurate results,” says the TPC, adding:
“Critics blasted Industry Minister Tony Clement for caving in to lobbying from providers such as Bell, Rogers and Telus, which argued through their industry group that the tool was not useful because it did not include data rates or service bundle discounts.”
But it wasn’t all money down the drain, according to Industry Canada spokesman Michel Cimpaye.
“Through this project, the Office of Consumer Affairs has developed a greater understanding of consumer needs in the cellphone marketplace,” CBC has him say.
It doesn’t mention whether or not he was blushing.
(Thanks, Marc, and thanks for the headline 
)
killed the project – Telcos helped kill cellphone cost calculator, September 1, 2009
Michael Geist – How Telco Lobby Helped Kill Consumer Cell Phone Cost Calculator, August 31, 2009
CBC – Aborted cellphone rate calculator cost Ottawa $1.4M, September 10, 2009
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September 11th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
3 YEARS! Wtf?
Were they making a cell phone rate calculator or a new lord of the rings?!!
More difficult problems have been solved and presented in a 1/3 of the time it takes the Canadian Govt to start a stupid cellphone rate calculator.
1.4 million down the toilet.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Why not release this calculator to the Open Source community? Canada has one of the poorest least affordable wireless internet networks in the developed world and this calculator would have changed the status quo. Let the people eat cake.
September 11th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I would recommend 3 things to the government and developers:
1. Release a beta version of the calculator as an open source software
2. Developers should expand it’s capabilities to compare not only CANADIAN cell phone plans, but what the same plan would cost you in the US, Europe, Asia. And demonstrate those costs in CAD$.
3. Monitor the response of the Canadian cell phone firms on what they would do once this cell phone calculator is made public.
Good luck to the 3 incumbents once this is made public.
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
lot about you