FORMER CRTC CHAIR Konrad von Finckenstein has some advice for Innovation, Science and Economic Development minister Navdeep Bains: Drop the facilities-based competition principle when the proposed policy directive to the CRTC, announced last week, is finalized.
Writing for the CD Howe Institute, von Finckenstein told Bains in a memo dated Wednesday, March 6: “Adherence to the policy of facilities-based competition (where companies each own their hardware and networks) in order not to discourage investment in infrastructure by established telecom companies, as they claim, is no longer sustainable.”
He continued: “It is hard to comprehend how much the concept of facilities-based competition has become accepted dogma of both the CRTC commissioners and staff. Equally, the lobbying and attempts at persuasion or influence (often described as co-opting) of the big carriers is constant and ongoing. Unfortunately, in the past it has generally been very successful. From my experience as Chair of the CRTC, I know how persuasive and convincing this lobbying can be.”
The new policy directive needs to stand firm in the face of what will be heavy pressure from Canadian carriers, wrote von Finckenstein and be very clear that the facilities-based concept must be abandoned immediately because it is now outmoded.
“(T)here should be a clear and categorical statement that: ‘The facilities-based competition concept shall not be further applied or considered by the CRTC in its decision making.’ It was useful in the days of wireline telephony, however it has a retarding effect on innovation and expansion in the age of the Internet.”
Click here to read the entire memo (and a h/t to TekSavvy's Andy Kaplan-Myrth for alerting us to this piece).
