I noticed that the US Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights is convening today to conduct “An Examination of Competition in the Wireless Market“.
Witnesses today include representatives of Cellular South, Aalborg University (Denmark), Verizon Communications, Mobile Future, T-Mobile USA, and Free Press. Some of the testimony is already available – I will try to update links here.
The US Senate hearing may be instructive for Canadian policy makers – there is a webcast starting at 10am Eastern. The CRTC will be exploring the state of competition in Canada’s wholesale wireless marketplace in a proceeding that was launched last week, with a process that includes an oral hearing starting on September 29, 2014. Perhaps just by coincidence, CRTC’s hearing is scheduled to take place during the period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, the days of penitence, and a time of special introspection for the religiously observant.
The CRTC’s paper process gets started with filings on May 1.
On Monday June 16, in one of the sessions at The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit, we plan to bring together some leading economists to look at competition in telecommunications, in a session to be moderated by Dvai Ghose of Canaccord Genuity. So far, we have confirmed participation by Len Waverman (Dean, DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University), John Mayo (McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University) and Bob Crandall (Sr Fellow at Brookings Institute). It should prove to be an interesting session.
Early bird rates are still available for The Canadian Telecom Summit, through Friday. Register today!