Four weeks from now, we will mark 20 years since the CRTC’s landmark Decision 92-12, “Competition in the provision of public long distance voice telephone services and related resale and sharing issues.”
I was the lead-off witness in the hearing that led to that Decision. It was the job that brought me back to Canada and I am grateful for that career decision.
Hard as it may be to imagine, among the issues we had to deal with was convincing the CRTC that competition itself was in the public interest. The Commission made the right decision:
Based on a thorough assessment of all of the information presented, the Commission has concluded that increased competition, subject to the appropriate terms and conditions, would be in the public interest.
The printed version of the Decision was more than 200 pages in each official language.
You should take a fresh look at the Decision. You may be surprised at the types of issues that needed to be settled: competitive safeguards, industry standards, access to emergency services and more. The decision gave birth to CISC processes and carrier services groups.
The very first Canadian Telecom Summit took place 10 years ago. The event was called “Celebrating 10 Years of Telecom Competition“. On June 12, we will be marking the 20th anniversary of that Decision. It is sometimes surprising how many issues continue to arise that we sought to resolve a generation ago.
We’ll mark the anniversary at this year’s Summit (coming up in less than 3 weeks), but our focus will be more forward looking. The theme this year is “Competition and Innovation: Celebrating our Legacy, Developing the Future“. Once again, we have speakers who are the most influential in leading the development and evolution of Canada’s communications sector.
Have you registered yet?
Start of my CRTC education/career too …. Plus ca change. … Just now it’s a wireline duopoly