TORONTO – The Canadian Telecom Summit’s "regulatory blockbuster" session is a must-view event every year.
This year was no different as regulatory chiefs from Bell Canada (Mirko Bibic), Rogers Communications (Ken Englehart), Telus (Janet Yale), Shaw Communications (Jean Brazeau), and MTS Allstream (Chris Peirce) traded barbs for over an hour about the competitive state of the industry, and just whom is benefiting most from the current state of regulation. It was funny and terse and interesting. ("Ken Englehart’s has such a learned and scholarly style, you automoatically think what he’s saying must be true, even though it isn’t," said Yale, right after Englehart had finished his opening presentation.)
Then, 25 minutes later, when Industry Minister Maxime Bernier gave his speech announcing that the federal conservative government wants market forces to predominate telecom regulation – which on the face of it seems like a serious win for the incumbent telcos, the regulatory session was rendered mostly moot.
In fact, Yale argued extensively that when it comes to calculating local telephony market deregulation, wireless service should be included because a growing number of Canadians are abandoning wireline telephones for wireless – and Minister Bernier is one of those people. " More and more Canadians have no telephones plugged into the walls of their homes. They use only cell phones, like me," said the Minister..
The minister told the telecom executive gathering that the government had tabled a policy directive to the CRTC in the House of Commons this morning which "signals the government’s intention to direct the CRTC to rely on market forces to the maximum extent feasible under the Telecommunications Act and regulate – where there is still a need to do so – in a manner that interferes with market forces to the minimum extent necessary," said Minister Bernier.
He said this is just the first step in the government’s formal policy direction to the CRTC. The rest will come after his department fully analyzes the 127 recommendations of the Telecom Policy Review Report, which was released in March and reported on extensively by Cartt.ca. Looking at relaxing the foreign ownership rules for telcos and others is part of this analysis, he said.
The proposed directive, which will take about 40 days to get through both the House and the Senate, "is a significant step forward in making Canada’s telecommunications regulatory system more modern, flexible and efficient," added Minister Bernier. "We want to ensure that Canada’s telecommunications industry is internationally competitive and successful and is shaped to best support our ever-evolving and rapidly changing telecommunications needs."
While the directive uses vague, governmentspeak words, such as asking for minimum regulation, it’s clear the government thinks the Commission has got it wrong. "It calls on the CRTC to regulate telecommunications services only when necessary," said the Minister. When is it necessary? Minister Bernier pointed to rural Canadians who may not have much choice in telecom providers and the poor, who may need certain price controls.
Basically, the CRTC is being told to get out of the way and with one decision (VOIP) now being reconsidered and local forbearance under appeal (and it now seems likely that one will come back, too), the competitive landscape in the local telecom market is about to undergo dramatic change.
"(O)ur government endorses the concept of reliance on market forces to the maximum extent feasible under the Telecommunications Act while using regulatory tools to deal only with those issues that market forces cannot address," added Minister Bernier.
Bell Canada’s head of regulatory, Lawson Hunter, was pleased. "I find it refreshing the minister has views and values and the courage of his convictions and intends to act on this," he said. "We think it’s fundamentally important for the economy and consumers."
"Relying on market forces in our view is the right direction."
It should be very interesting to hear what CRTC chair Charles Dalfen says tomorrow afternoon during his own speech at the Summit.
Surf back to Cartt.ca for more on the Canadian Telecom Summit throughout the week.
