Craig McTaggart from TELUS released a paper last week at the Law Society of Upper Canada’s National Conference on New Developments in Communications Law and Policy.
It is a scholarly approach to examining Net Neutrality and Canada’s Telecommunications Act and it is worth reading.
Craig begins with an examination of the legitimate concerns of 4 stakeholders:
- internet users, concerned about whether they will be able to continue to experience the Internet in the manner in which they have in the past;
- content and application providers, concerned about potential changes to the terms on which they reach their audiences while anticipating upgrades to infrastructure to enable even better applications and services;
- ISPs, concerned about dealing with technological change disrupting their economic assumptions and searching for ways to differentiate themselves; and,
- governments, wanting to ensure public access to robust, competitive telecommunications services and under pressure to appear to act in respect of net neutrality concerns prior to significant problems arising or harm to consumers being proven.
As you have read on this website before, Craig asserts that there is already sufficient legislation in Canada for the CRTC to safeguard consumers’ interests, although he appears to disagree with FCC Chair Martin on whether the same holds true for the United States:
this paper seeks to demonstrate that, unlike in the United States, Canada’s existing Telecommunications Act provides the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) the authority it needs to address any problems that may arise.
The paper concludes that Sections 27(2) and 36 of the Telecom Act are sufficient to provide protections for all stakeholders’ interests and allow the Internet to evolve as it always has.
There is no need for premature legislation that would prejudge what models of Internet access will best satisfy Canadian Internet users’ diverse preferences in the future.
On June 18, The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit will host a panel discussion looking at Net Neutrality.