OTTAWA – Given that the conference theme is "Towards a National Digital Strategy for Canada" how could federal Industry Minister Tony Clement not be the opening speaker at the 2010 International Institute of Communications Canadian chapter conference next month in Ottawa?
The Minister, whose pet project has been the construction of this strategy (fed by two months of consultations held during the summer), isn’t expected to announce the strategy itself (it’s a bit too soon), but it is hoped he’ll reveal some of the direction he and his ministry is headed said Bernard Lord, chair of the conference this year and president and CEO of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association.
“We’re very hopeful the Minister will have something significant to say,” said Lord in an interview with Cartt.ca. “We think he will. I had the chance to meet with him recently and he’s certainly working very hard on the digital economy strategy.
“We expect he’ll have something very interesting,” but it likely won’t be the strategy reveal. “I think it would be surprising if he did that,” added Lord. “I think we’ll get an update on where he’s at and what his thinking is – and what we can expect in terms of next steps.”
The rest of the two-day program looks pretty meaty as well, especially if policy matters are your thing.
There will be a lot to chew on from an international perspective as well, with a few sessions looking at what’s going on south of the border and overseas. “We’ll be seeing if there’s anything Canada can learn from other countries,” said Lord.
“There are some challenges (such as privacy, intellectual property protection, etc.) that are similar here as to what you would find in other parts of the world and getting different perspectives is what we want to do at this conference.”
But if Lord and his CWTA membership had their druthers, what is the number one policy issue they would like addressed (and will be examined at the IIC event), we asked?
“We’re looking for more predictable spectrum management, or better management policies, if I can put it that way,” he said.
“We want government to have a better inventory of the spectrum… and to identify the spectrum that could be transferred from the current users or holders of the spectrum to a more useful, innovative industry that we have in the wireless sector.
“We feel the most important thing that will happen in the next decade is the combination of wireless telephony with high speed internet to create mobile high speed internet – and really unleashing the power of these two incredible technologies and combining them,” explained Lord.
“Spectrum should be allocated in a more predictable manner over the next 10 years. Otherwise we could face a data traffic jam on our networks and consumers, small businesses ,and governments will not be able to access the full potential.”
Just looking at all the new devices (tablets, powerful smartphones) out or coming out which are multi-media rich and dramatically increasing the burden on the existing wireless networks shows that spectrum auctions have to be planned now so that new networks can be deployed quickly.
“Those devices can consume a thousand times the bandwidth of a traditional cell phone,” noted the CEO.
“To be able to meet that demand… it can only happen if the networks are built and if we have the spectrum to allow the traffic to flow smoothly and quickly.”
Cartt.ca is the media sponsor of the IIC Canadian chapter conference. You can get more information and register by clicking here.
