WHISTLER, B.C, – There was precious little new information doled out today by some of the participants at RBC Capital Markets annual telecom and media conference in the B.C. ski town.
However, one key parallel was drawn during the afternoon session featuring Shaw Communications president Peter Bissonnette, Rogers Cable president Edward Rogers, Bell Canada’s consumer solutions president Kevin Crull and Bell Nordiq CEO Roch Dubé.
When talking about the potential for cable telephony market penetration, Rogers said that a 15% to 20% local market share gain by cable companies was probably too conservative when saying it could be done over five years, adding, "in three years it is an achievable number."
Later in the conversation, when attention turned to Bell’s upcoming IPTV launch, Crull said that penetration figures over a similar time frame for Bell’s terrestrial TV service is not out of line. "I would expect that we will have similar share take in those markets where we attack with IPTV."
Bissonnette, on the other hand, doubted such penetration would happen. "We think it’s going to be significantly less," he said.
As is inevitable with such a panel, questions turned to the regulatory environment and the CRTC’s local forbearance hearings in September. The Commission promised a decision within 150 days of the end of the hearings, so it’s due in early March.
The decision will set out new competitive benchmarks for local telephony players, saying when and how voice markets will be deregulated.
Crull said forbearing from regulating the local phone market is key, since competition is already here, adding "win-back is probably the biggest thing." Incumbent telcos can’t contact customers who have left them for a competitor for 12 months.
"We’re not afraid of competition but we have to be given some kind of opportunity to at least get the (voice) business to the point where it’s sustaining itself," said Bissonnette. "Clearly the win-back side of the equation troubles us in that before we even get out of the gate and we’ve got this weaning baby that we don’t have an opportunity in the short period of time with forbearance that could really impact us – particularly in smaller markets."
"If there were more aggressive win-back opportunities, we would never get out of the blocks in those small communities because we’d be targeted."
– Greg O’Brien
