TORONTO – Andre Tremblay believes Canada lags significantly behind global wireless markets – and that the recent recommendations from the Telecom Policy Review Panel (TPRP), which he helped author, will enable Canada to develop a more efficient and vibrant wireless industry.
During a keynote address at the Canadian Wireless Telecom Association’s “Work.Live.Play.” wireless conference held this week in Toronto, the Telecom Policy Review Panel’s main recommendations for reforming Canada’s Telecommunications Act – in light of 21st-century telecom market realities – were outlined by TPRP member Tremblay, who is the former president and CEO of Microcell Telecom. The TPRP released its report in March of this year after a year-long consultation and policy review process.
“As it relates specifically to wireless, the report notes that Canada cannot be considered a leader and, to the contrary, would better be characterized as a laggard, especially when compared to some leading Asian countries,” Tremblay said.
“Leaving aside the wireless stars such as Japan and South Korea, which are clear leaders for their next-generation network deployments and their innovative service offerings, Canada ranked 29th out of 30 OECD countries for the percentage of penetration of its current wireless services.”
A good example of how Canada lags behind global markets in terms of launching new wireless services is wireless local number portability (LNP), Tremblay said. Wireless LNP was launched in the 1998-2000 timeframe in the United Kingdom, Netherlands and Sweden, and in 2003 in the United States. In comparison, wireless LNP is not expected in Canada before March 2007.
With regard to specific recommendations, the TPRP has advised Industry Canada to clarify its spectrum policy to facilitate the rollout of advanced wireless networks, Tremblay said. In the TPRP’s opinion, a new telecommunications policy framework should rely substantially more on market forces and, in terms of the wireless market specifically, meet a number of new objectives.
These objectives include ensuring that an adequate amount of spectrum is made available to meet demand for mobile broadband access across Canada, relying as much as possible on market-based approaches to spectrum management, recovering and reforming previously assigned spectrum that is unused or underutilized to accommodate new service launches, and moving toward the establishment of market-based exclusive spectrum rights.
Another TPRP recommendation would see the foreign investment restrictions that exist today replaced by a “public interest test” to filter foreign investment. This would attract and support new entrants, small or large, in the Canadian wireless market, according to Tremblay.
“We suggest as a first step that any investment in a company holding less than 10 per cent of a given Canadian telecom market be considered in the public interest, except if proven otherwise,” Tremblay said. “For example, these rules would generally allow international wireless carriers, such as Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and others, to enter or to own a new entrant in the Canadian wireless market place.”
One area in which the Canadian telecom market in general has excelled in comparison to global players is the high-speed Internet access market. “I think in 2003 we were second in the world for high-speed Internet penetration across the country, and I think right now we’re sixth in the world,” Tremblay said.
“Right now, 90 per cent of the country has access to high-speed Internet, either on DSL or cable or both, so I think it’s one place where we could applaud what has been done by the private sector and the government.”
Tremblay said he expects market forces will help industry to achieve another five-per-cent market share in high-speed Internet access in Canada, between now and 2010. And in his view, wireless technology will have a key role in addressing the remaining unserviced market for high-speed Internet, which represents roughly 1.5 million Canadian customers.
“In remote communities, it seems obvious to us that the solution will be a wireless solution in most cases, because of the difficulty of reaching houses (in those areas),” Tremblay said.
In addition, wireless is expected to impose itself as a high-speed access solution not only in remote communities, but also in urban centres. “There are a lot of active projects around the world where, in fact, wireless is competing head to head with DSL and cable to provide high-speed Internet,” Tremblay said, adding that he expects to see the same trend emerge in Canada as well.
During an interview after his keynote speech, Tremblay responded to questions concerning another area of potential legislative review, Canada’s Broadcasting Act. Although reviewing the federal government’s broadcasting policies was not part of the TPRP’s mandate, the panel’s report did include some recommendations regarding the country’s broadcasting regulatory framework.
Essentially, the TPRP believes there should be a review of the old radio communication policy framework as well, because the same trends that are happening in the telecom industry are happening in the radiocom environment as well, Tremblay explained.
Lawrence Surtees, vice president and principal analyst, communications research, at Toronto market research firm IDC Canada, agrees, given the current communications environment where telecom companies are becoming broadcasters and vice versa.
“The technology has all converged,” Surtees explained. “So if technology, industry players and services are converging, but two (government) departments are separate and each has their own Act, there’s a policy disconnect.”
He added that there’s “a sort of retrograde approach on the broadcasting side of the house.” However, Surtees said he expects that the philosophy and recommendations of the TPRP will ultimately come to bear and have some sway, “regardless of the artificial construct of two regulatory regimes.”
Linda Stuart is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
