At the close of the financial markets, Industry Minister James Moore released a series of rulings on wireless telecommunications spectrum, making more airwaves available for Canada’s fixed and mobile wireless communications services providers.
Two months ago, in the wake of Minister Moore’s response to submissions filed in the 3500MHz process, I wrote “The consultative process works“. Today, Minister Moore followed through with his October 9 commitment: “Under no circumstances will our government take spectrum licences away from any local Internet service provider that is providing Internet service to rural Canadians.”
It is gratifying to see Industry Canada responsive to the appeals by rural municipalities and service providers focusing on low density communities.
In other decisions released today, the Minister dealt with the AWS-3 auction process, the AWS-4 consultation, the 24/28/38 GHz consultation and launched a consultation on the 600MHz band. There was also a decision released on backhaul spectrum.
More mobile spectrum, being made available for service providers to try to stay ahead of consumer demand for broadband wireless access.
Minister Moore has overseen spectrum management actions that have significantly increased the amount of spectrum accessible for deployment by competitive service providers.
On Twitter, he released a graphic just prior to the announcement, claiming that competitors share of spectrum has grown from 2% in 2006 to 25% in 2015.
The US wireless association, CTIA, released an infographic last week that shows why service providers need more spectrum. Consumers are upgrading their devices, watching more video and continuing to download more bits at faster speeds – driving a continual need for carriers to invest in network capacity.
Still, should we be concerned about how spectrum is managed in Canada?
The 2006 Telecom Policy Review Panel observed:
Canada is one of the few OECD countries where a politically appointed minister remains responsible for spectrum licensing and management.
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The key benefits of having an independent regulator include:
- providing more stability in processes
- providing a greater degree of continuity
- allowing for arbitration
- having more effective enforcement powers
- freedom from political pressure.
These benefits had been cited from an OECD report.
The Panel believes the increased convergence of wireless and wireline telecommunications and broadcasting technologies calls for a more consistent and unified regulatory approach. Such an approach could be facilitated by moving the current spectrum regulatory and licensing functions of the Minister of Industry to the CRTC. This move would be consistent with international practice. A recent OECD report recommends that Canada should adopt the same approach. This would increase the transparency of spectrum regulation and provide the CRTC with a better overview and insights into the wireless developments.
The Industry Minister has substantial discretion in spectrum policy, as recently affirmed by the Federal Court in its rejection of an application by TELUS to overturn the Minister’s repeated refusals to approve TELUS acquiring Mobility’s wireless licenses. However, such power can create concerns for the reasons set out by the OECD and echoed by the 2006 Telecom Policy Review Panel.
Spectrum management is not getting any easier.
Canada’s arbitrary division of responsibility based on broadcast versus telecommunications use may complicate the availability of frequency blocks with propagation characteristics that are extremely attractive for mobile communications. Just as the Canadian industry itself has seen broadcast and telecommunications convergence, we have increasing pressure to migrate more broadcast spectrum for telecommunications use.
At a recent investor conference, executives from CBS and Fox said they would consider migrating off the airwaves to sell their broadcast spectrum.
It is another reason why we need a new review of our converged communications policy. As I have written so many times, we are long overdue for a fresh look.
Perhaps the Minister could consider creating a new expert panel – even before an election – to make recommendations that can be reviewed for implementation by the next government.