Canada Nixes "Cell Phone Cost Calculator"

"Cell Phone Cost Calculator"
After spending scores of tax payer money, Industry Canada and the Industry Minister Tony Clement killed the project weeks before it was scheduled to launch.The popular Internet and e-commerce law proffessor, Michael Geist, (he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa,) sugeests in a column that Wireless industry lobbiests forced the shutdown of the cost calculator for cell phone services, weeks before it was released.
The industry Canada sighted technical incapability as the reason to chop off the project. In that case, suggests Michael Geist, release the tax payer funded projects source code, so that others may continue to develop it.

But this has also brought up that our own FCC is calling for similar consumer disclosures and cost comparisons.You can read the News release (PDF) at FCC, titled "FCC SEEKS COMMENT ON ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES TO PROTECT AND EMPOWER CONSUMERS IN COMMUNICATIONS MARKETPLACE"
"As communications technologies and services become more essential, and the communications market more complex, information is key to consumer protection and empowerment. The Commission seeks comment from communications service providers, academic researchers, consumer groups and third-party analysts on how best to ensure consumers have the information they need to make informed decisions in the communications marketplace."

Meanwhile Micheal has found two private sites that does the comparisons, cellphones.ca and cellplanexpert.ca.

I found Micheal to be a very interesting person.

Michael Geist (The Star) via Slashdot