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The annual meeting of STAC, Canada’s Structure, Tower and Antenna Council, STAC2021, opened Monday in a virtual format, another event that has transformed digitally in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

STAC members represent those essential workers who deploy the physical infrastructure necessary to expand the reach and capacity of Canada’s facilities-based networks.

From the outset of the pandemic, over the past year, these workers have developed protocols to enable their work to continue safely to deliver the digital connectivity upon which all of us have depended as most of us are stuck at home. So, it was fitting that one of the sessions on the opening day of the STAC2021 event was entitled “Coping with COVID”. The session was moderated by Anne-Sophie Tétreault from Cognibox and featured Laura Marciniwe of Teletek Structures, Adam Gale of Vertical Specialties, Jeff Selby from Trylon and Steven Bain from Rogers.

How did businesses establish pandemic protocols? How did the industry look after field technicians in dealing with basic needs: finding safe restrooms and safe places to sleep at night when away from home?

As borders closed and shipping faced delays, how were supply chains maintained?

Misinformation and conspiracy theories stoked fears of 5G towers as a cause of COVID-19. Imagine being an installer of equipment on towers or restoring service after an arsonist burned down a tower.

Protecting technicians who needed to go into private residences and uncontrolled workplaces to restore services? Ensuring sufficient personal protective equipment was available to protect technicians and their families.

How did companies deal with team building, burn-out and mental health issues as the pandemic dragged on?

Over the past year, the telecommunications industry has been recognized for maintaining network quality, enabling so many of us to work from home. The presentations represented people on the front line, some of the heroes who made the past year bearable by keeping our bits flowing and building new sites to extend broadband to previously unserved areas.

STAC2021 promises to be an interesting event. There are more than 400 people participating on-line this week. Most of the sessions focus on safety, for workers and the public, such as:

• Building a Safety Culture;
• Rope Safety: Everything You Should Know About Working with Rope (But Probably Don’t);
• Rope Safety: Rope Access & Controlled Descent;
• Driving Safety and Awareness;
• AM Safety;
• Tower Damping and Vibration Mitigation;
• RF Monitors and RF Safety;
• Tower Inspection Trends: Immediate Deficiency Mitigation;
• Structural Fasteners: Everything You Should Know (But Probably Don’t).

Other panels and keynotes look at business issues, legal matters, industry trends, career development and more.

I’ll be posting highlights from a variety of the sessions all week. And you can follow #STAC2021 on Twitter.

Canada’s premier tower industry event – the annual STAC Conference & Exhibition will be held virtually April 12-16, 2021.

Structure, Tower and Antenna Council (STAC) is a Council of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), reporting to the CWTA Board of Directors. The Council is member-driven, and is directed by an eleven-member steering committee representing the communications network infrastructure market.

STAC 2021 is dedicated to safety and other best practices in the communication tower industry and will bring together industry professionals from across Canada. Expected attendees include representatives from wireless carriers, broadcasters, oil and gas companies, utility providers, tower engineers, contractors, manufacturers, safety trainers and safety equipment suppliers from across the communications and tower industries.

Improving access to education and training resources can help all workers in the communications antenna construction industry remain as safe as possible. This collaborative approach helps ensure all have access to the best possible training and educational material.

The annual STAC conference is the premier event dedicated to Canadian tower safety and is devoted to sharing the important information and best practices that will help maintain Canada’s world-leading tower safety record. STAC brings together experienced professionals from across the industry to help identify optimal guidelines and best practices for all aspects of communications antenna construction. Attendees will learn about new industry practices and technologies and will receive exclusive information about the development of STAC best practices and other industry resources that are normally only available to STAC Members.

The STAC Conference & Exhibition will bring you valuable safety content, opportunities to network, and an engaging virtual exhibit floor. Registration includes a delegate bag shipped directly to you!

I look forward to seeing you there.

Building resilience in telecommunications in Canada and Beyond. That is the topic for a workshop taking place in downtown Toronto on the afternoon of May 14, 2024. The event is hosted by the Ivey Business School.

Over the past couple of years, I have written about network resilience a few times:

• Reliable and resilient networks (January 23, 2024)
  I observed that weather-related service disruptions will likely be a bigger factor in coming years. In a competitive environment, I asked what is the role of regulators in setting standards or objectives for reliable and resilient networks?
• Network resilience (April 14, 2023)
  This post looked at the report released by The Canadian Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (CSTAC), aimed at improving network resilience and reliability.
• Time to rethink resilience (October 11, 2022)
  While it is impossible for businesses to prepare for all potential disruptive events, mitigation strategies can dampen potential damages.

Network resilience was incorporated in the 2023 Policy Direction to the CRTC. The Canadian government oversaw the creation of a multilateral memorandum of understanding for mutual assistance in the Fall of 2022. The CRTC has not yet released its final determinations in its “Development of a regulatory framework to improve network reliability and resiliency – Mandatory notification and reporting about major telecommunications service outages”, launched a year ago. Regional governments have increasingly been concerned with the Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. Canadian consumer groups have raised concerns about network outages, prompting responses from both government and industry. The industry is investing heavily for resilience in wired infrastructure and wireless networks, including satellite.

In the Canadian context, discussions include examining the roles of government funding mechanisms, outage reporting, network access, and the role of layered and competing infrastructures. Internationally, both geopolitical and domestic concerns have brought resilience to the highest concerns among Canada’s main trading partners and allies. New initiatives are underway in the United States, the European Union, and South Korea, among others.

This workshop aims to explore policy, regulation, business strategy and institutional frameworks for an increasingly resilient Canada – in a world where threats to resilience (climate events, cyberattacks, war) surge forth without regard to national borders or government mandates, with digital ecosystems of international reach. Speakers from Canadian government, industry and consumer organizations will join with international experts for an engaging debate and important announcements. New initiatives, frameworks and concepts will be explored by an inquisitive debate and presentations.

Speakers from Canadian government, industry and consumer organizations will join with international experts for an engaging debate and important announcements. New initiatives, frameworks and concepts will be explored by an inquisitive debate and presentations.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Andre Arbour, Director General, Telecommunications and Internet Policy, ISED
• Erik Bohlin, Professor, Ivey Business School, and Ivey Chair in Telecommunication Economics, Policy and Regulation
• Seongcheol Kim, Professor, Korea University
• Phil Moore, VP, TELUS
• Romel Mostafa, Director, Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management, Ivey Business School
• Eli Noam, Professor, Columbia University
• Jieun Park, Korea Institute of Science and Technology
• Adam Scott, Vice Chair, CRTC
• Georg Serentschy, Serentschy Advisory Services

This workshop, Building Resilience in Telecommunications – In Canada and Beyond, is funded in part by the Ivey Chair in Telecommunication Economics, Policy and Regulation, as well as the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management at the Ivey Business School. Registration includes lunch, all sessions, and a cocktail reception to wrap up the day. It all takes place at Ivey’s Donald K. Johnson Centre in the Exchange Tower at 130 King Street West in the heart of Toronto’s financial district.

The full agenda [pdf, 660KB] and registration information are available on the event website.

Over the past couple of years, I have been more assertive in defending my identity.

I am proudly a Jew (in case you didn’t already know). I have never hidden that fact. In university, I refused to write exams scheduled on Jewish holy days or on the Jewish Sabbath (Friday evenings and Saturdays). On my first day of work at Bell-Northern Research in early September in the late 80’s, I informed my boss that I would be missing work in a few weeks for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. He responded that I wouldn’t have earned any vacation time by then. I made it clear that I wasn’t asking for time off. I wasn’t going to be at work those days; he and HR could figure out how to code it.

In the early 90’s, the CRTC was running behind schedule during a multi-week hearing. The Commission wanted to have sessions on Saturdays in order to catch up. I refused to testify on a Saturday. My boss pressured me, reminding me that I wasn’t “that” religious. I replied saying it is one thing for me to choose to do some work on Saturdays, but it is a different matter for my government to require me to work on my Sabbath. I held firm. Instead, the hearing ran later each day. An observant Jewish member of one of our competitors came up to me and thanked me for holding my ground.

And, that is why I am using this platform to write this post.

When I am publicly defending my identity, I am also standing up for those who don’t have a public persona. I get to raise my voice on social media, and often, some like-minded followers will amplify that message well beyond my customary reach. It is a network benefit.

Back when the Laith Marouf affair was percolating, the story gained traction when Jonathan Kay raised the profile of my complaints. It is for that reason that I believe it is important to write to you.

Followers of this website know that I frequently travel to Israel. Israel is an intrinsic part of my Jewish identity. When Jews pray, we face toward Jerusalem. Our prayers and our bible contain references to Israel. Major Jewish festivals are tied to agrarian timetables and practices in Israel. I am not an Israeli citizen, but I have family who are.

The events of October 7, 2023 have been deeply troubling to me. The response – or more correctly, the lack of moral leadership – by Canadian officials has been disturbing. The sacking of British Columbia’s NDP cabinet member Selina Robinson demonstrates a pervasive rot – or latent antisemitism – among many political leaders.

I am tired of politicians thinking that the way to respond to antisemitic acts is to write on Twitter that “This is not who we are” or claim that “Hatred and violence against Jewish communities have no place in Canada.”. Condemnations on social media are no match for intimidation by throngs calling “Death to the Jews”. Tweets are ineffective against firebombings and shots fired at synagogues and Jewish community centres.

In defending freedom of expression, I have frequently quoted Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant speech from The American President. “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”

Still, there are limits to those speech rights. As CIJA said in its statement yesterday, “We cannot allow mob-driven demonstrations to obstruct our right to participate fully in society.”

Which brings me to how you fit in to help in defending my identity. In resigning from the NDP caucus, Ms. Robinson wrote, “I don’t need your hugs and your emojis. What my community needs however, is for you to stand up to antisemitism.”

Call out hate when you see it online. Tell your elected officials that antisemitism isn’t just a problem for Canada’s Jews. Demand action.

And every once in a while, I’d be OK with a hug.

Maybe I am the naive one for expecting delegates at national political convention to produce thoughtful policy resolutions.

Shame on me.

At the recent Liberal Party convention, there were 24 policy proposals that earned majority delegate support as an “official party policy”.

One of these, ranked tenth in priority, was entitled “Combatting Disinformation in Canada”. The policy requests “the Government explore options to hold on-line information services accountable for the veracity of material published on their platforms and to limit publication only to material whose sources can be traced.” Because it directly impacts press freedoms, the media had a field day with this one. A Globe and Mail editorial called it “nothing short of dreadful and dangerous”.

The resolution passed without debate. No one stood up to challenge it. And while the Prime Minister told journalists that the government “had no intention of acting on the party’s policy”, let’s remember that this same government is pushing through a suite of legislation to control internet content, generally treating committee review of the bills with hostility.

As the Globe editorial wrote, “the resolution reflects how the Liberal base, at least, thinks that control should be increased”.

This wasn’t the only resolution that should have attracted greater review. Number 17 caught my eye, entitled “Fairer Access to Telecommunications Infrastructure”. The leadoff recital begins “Whereas a 2017 OECD report found…”. And, that may be all you need to know about that first recital.

Should we actually care what a six year old OECD report reported? A 2017 OECD report, any 2017 OECD report, is based on data from 2016 or earlier. It is 2023. If there are no newer reports that support your resolution – the first recital of your resolution – that may be an important indicator. Contradictions in that policy resolution might bring comic relief to your day. For example, the policy calls for nationalization of telecom infrastructure in part of the resolution, while seeking more international carriers in the second part. What a welcome to doing business in Canada!

I am not just picking on the Liberal Party. Three years ago, I noted that more thoughful policy would be helpful for all of the political parties. At the time, the Conservatives had produced a telecom policy paper that read more like a rough draft of a first year college term paper, a hodgepodge of random thoughts.

Our parliamentary committees seem broken. Is there a sufficient depth of understanding of issues to help produce more thoughtful policy?

Last week, University of Calgary economist Dr. Jeffrey Church and NERA’s Managing Director Dr. Christian Dippon penned a detailed critique of the “junk science” approach to analysis of international price comparisons, published in the Financial Post. The article is a deeper analysis, but it is worth investing time and brain-power to read.

Notably, the authors write that “The quality of network service, availability of family plans, consumer preferences, income, availability and terms of handset provision, alternatives to wireless services, costs of provision, and the institutional / regulatory / legal environment all differ across countries.” These factors are all missing from more simplistic analysis of price comparisons, leading to a flawed conclusion that higher prices in Canada are to be blamed on market competitiveness. “The FCC assessment [pdf, 2.8MB] of effective competition in wireless services contrasted starkly with the emphasis on flawed international price comparisons by the CRTC and the Competition Bureau.”

Junk science market analysis contributes to the flawed resolution passed by the Liberal party at its convention. Such policies, based on overly simplistic price analysis, can lead to increased costs for Canadian carriers, ultimately raising prices for consumers and potentially harming the business case for investment in network upgrades.

What is the best way to facilitate development of more thoughtful policy?