TORONTO – While there are no Canadian carrier CEOs on the speakers’ schedule this year, those executives not in attendance will certainly be paying attention to next week’s Canadian Telecom Summit when it opens Monday morning.
(Ed note: For long-time CTS attendees, this year it is being held at the International Centre, which is just up Airport Road a ways from its former Congress Centre home.)
The event kicks off with an interview on stage with Rola Dagher, president of Cisco Canada (the questions, however, are coming from another Cisco-ite, Ian Campbell, the company’s CTO, service provider mobility and automation, so hopefully not too many of the softball variety), but the news of the day may well come from Janet Yale, the former Telus executive who is the current chair of the Broadcasting and Telecom Legislative Review panel.
The BTLR panel is supposed to have its preliminary report ready in June (with the final report due January 2020). Will it be ready this early for Yale’s 9:45 speech? We don’t know at this point, but it sure would be a newsy announcement, if so. (UPDATE: We've been told they wanted it to be ready for the Summit, but it won't be.)
That morning will then see a panel on the customer experience (where they might talk about the telecom sales practices report, we would think), and then a luncheon keynote by Huawei's Dr. Peiying Zhu, senior vice-president wireless research, a company which has been in the headlines somewhat of late.
Then, Monday afternoon’s panels on cyber security and innovation will be broken up by a keynote from CRTC chair Ian Scott, whose organization has more than a few things on its full plate.
Tuesday’s keynotes will include Freedom Mobile’s chief Paul McAleese, Dr. Gail Murphy, professor and VP – research and innovation, UBC, and the CWTA CEO Robert Ghiz, among others. Panel sessions will be on topics including 5G, robocalls and the always enlightening and entertaining Regulatory Blockbuster (and no, we’re not saying that because Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien is moderating. It’s a panel we wish the CRTC would construct once in a while during its public processes…).
No offence to everyone else speaking on Wednesday, but the news cycle that day will probably belong to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains, who will speak at 2:15, where it is expected he will unveil details surrounding next year’s auction of mid-band (3500 MHz) spectrum, the chunk of wireless airwaves best suited for the first iteration of 5G, which carriers will be launching soon.
It’s also hoped the Minister will have a final word on the federal government’s proposed directive to the CRTC, where the word “proposed” is dropped.
The rest of Wednesday’s lineup does look good though. Among the various speeches will be Telus EVP technology strategy and business transformation, Eros Spadotto in the morning, a panel on artificial intelligence, another on the innovation economy, and a lunch presentation from Yossi Abadi, head of telecom and media at Meitar, Israel's leading international law firm. He will enlighten the industry crowd with a Bell-sponsored presentation on “Israel’s experience with the quest for low wireless prices.”
Cartt.ca will be there of course. Say hi if you see one of us.
