Yesterday’s approvals of Bell’s acquisition of MTS came with a plot twist that few anticipated. As a condition of government approval of the deal, 40 MHz of spectrum (in the AWS-1, 700 MHZ and 2500 MHz bands) is being transfered to Xplornet, Canada’s largest rural internet service provider, giving birth to a new entrant in the Manitoba market. Xplornet is also getting certain other incentives (under the terms of a consent agreement with the Competition Tribunal) to help it launch, including nearly 25,000 customers, retail stores, discounted advertising rates and expedited access to network infrastructure. Additional Bell/MTS customers will be able to switch to Xplornet without any termination fee (including not having to pay off the remaining device subsidy), serving as an incentive for Xplornet to launch quickly in the province.

The structure of the overall deal includes other measures that help ensure Manitoba will continue to have multiple carriers investing in building and upgrading networks and consumers will continue to have access to multiple brands.

The other interesting twist is found by looking at which network network infrastructure will carry each service provider’s traffic. Up until not, Bell and TELUS have shared use of TELUS infrastructure; going forward, Bell’s 90,000 subscribers in Manitoba will migrate to the MTS network which is also being shared with Rogers under the terms of a long term Network Operating Agreement. The TELUS network utilization is being restored through the transfer of 110,000 customers under the terms of the deal.

The deal brings a change in market dynamics as Bell moves from 4th to first place in Manitoba along with a commitment to maintain current pricing offers for at least one year. Perhaps with an eye toward Manitoba’s western neighbour, statements from the Competition Bureau also signal how similar deals might need to be structured to gain regulatory approval.

With all of its focus on wireless, it is disappointing that the government didn’t get a commitment from the companies to launch a broadband service to target low-income households in the province – or even to impose the condition across Bell’s entire service footprint. Low income services have been launched by TELUS and Rogers in their respective wireline serving areas. Unfortunately, neither the CRTC nor Innovation, Science & Economic Development used their approval process to get such an important service to be offered by Bell in Manitoba, Quebec or those parts of Atlantic Canada not already being served by Rogers.

As I said on Monday, “Set clear objectives. Align activities with the achievement of those objectives. Stop doing things that are contrary to the objectives. That takes leadership, not money.”

Unfortunately, this was another missed leadership opportunity for the government to bridge a gap in digital adoption, without spending any additional taxpayer money.

Barrie McKenna had an opinion piece in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, “In Ottawa, innovation is just a word in search of meaning.” It opens with “The Trudeau government is obsessed with innovation. It may not have fully embraced the concept yet, but it sure loves the word.”

The article observes that, despite the word “innovation” figuring prominently in so many funding announcements to every type of institution and business from coast to coast, “the government does not have a coherent innovation strategy.”

That’s not surprising. After all, the previous government engaged in a multi-year, multi-departmental digital strategy consultation only to produce a light weight document that read more like a campaign pamphlet, entitled “Digital Canada 150.”

In McKenna’s Innovation article, he says:

The coming budget is an opportunity for Ottawa to start getting its policies right. A good starting point would be to spell out what outcomes the government wants from its innovation strategy – clear and measurable targets. Then, it should spell out what it intends to do to help Canada get there, adding new programs where there are obvious gaps.

That sounds familiar. When digital Canada 150 was released, I commented: “Europe released a digital scorecard looking at where it stands on targets in its digital agenda. What does Canada’s scorecard look like?”

Over the past year, I have written a number of pieces (such as “Measuring success” and “Inconsistent messages; predictable turmoil” and “Building a digital economy dashboard“) that call for the government to provide clear, measurable objectives for our digital policy agenda.

However, I diverge from McKenna on one of his closing points, where he calls for “putting real money on the table. Canada is being outspent and outmanoeuvred by its trading partners.”

As I wrote a few years ago when Digital Canada 150 was released, success requires leadership more than money. “Set clear objectives. Align activities with the achievement of those objectives. Stop doing things that are contrary to the objectives.”

When I was first being shown around Bell Labs in the mid-1980s, my boss commented to me that success in our jobs wouldn’t depend on being in the office Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 5:00. You can’t say to a group of researchers “Today, we are going to invent the transistor.”

Succeeding in innovation means creating the kind of environment that attracts people who will innovate, fostering policies that encourage risk, and allowing success to flourish and be rewarded.

As politically appealing as it may be to spend government money under the guise of innovation, it is far more important to set those clear and measurable targets, as called for by Barrie McKenna.

“Set clear objectives. Align activities with the achievement of those objectives. Stop doing things that are contrary to the objectives.” That takes leadership, not money.

The theme of The 2017 Canadian Telecom Summit (June 5-7, Toronto) is “Competition, Investment and Innovation: Driving Canada’s Digital Future“. On Wednesday, June 7, Namir Anani, the CEO of Canada’s Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) will be hosting a panel at The Canadian Telecom Summit entitled “Disruptive Innovation: Driving Canada’s Digital Future.” Have you registered yet?

For 3 days (June 5 – 7, 2017), the leadership of the telecom, broadcast & IT industries will converge in Toronto for The 2017 Canadian Telecom Summit. Join your peers, suppliers, policy makers, regulators, customers and competitors in attending the industry’s most important gathering, to discuss the key issues and trends that will impact this critical sector of the economy.

Other conferences promise but don’t deliver. Only The Canadian Telecom Summit allows you to hear from the leading ICT executives and influencers and provides the opportunity for you to interact with them and your colleagues. Don’t be disappointed by attending imitation events.

For 16 years The Canadian Telecom Summit has been the place for Canada’s ICT leaders to meet, interact and do business. As in past years, this year’s event will feature high-octane interaction, top-level keynote speakers and thought-provoking panel discussions.

Competition, Investment and Innovation: Driving Canada’s Digital Future
How does Canada stake out a world-leading position in an increasingly digital world? What kinds of communications infrastructure is needed to provide Canadians with a platform to excel? What kind of policy framework will encourage investment and foster the development of innovative new applications and technologies to deploy in Canada and offer around the world?

As always, The Canadian Telecom Summit features cutting-edge topics. This year, we are featuring sessions devoted to:

• Cyber Security: Securing your data; protecting your privacy
• Customer Experience Management
• Disruptive Innovation: Driving Canada’s Digital Future
• Regulatory Blockbuster
• Network Innovation & Service Delivery
• Advanced Mobility & Internet of Everything: Innovation & disruption in services, devices and apps
• and more

The Canadian Telecom Summit has something for everyone, leaving no stone unturned in bringing you the most substantive and comprehensive line-up of speakers and topics. Hear from senior executives from across the industry.

Save more than $200 by registering by February 28. Book your place today!

Special Networking Event
All participants are invited to join us for our annual cocktail reception Monday evening, June 5.

Continuing Professional Development
Lawyers: The time spent attending substantive sessions at The Canadian Telecom Summit can be claimed as “Substantive Hours” toward the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements.

Is over-the-air transmission sustainable as a broadcasting medium? For TVO, the answer is no. TVO, “the technological extension of Ontario’s public education system,” has decided to pull the plug on transmitters in Ottawa, Belleville, Chatham, Cloyne, Kitchener, London, Thunder Bay and Windsor, eliminating 7 jobs and saving $1 million annually. According to TVO, most of its viewers use broadcast distribution (such as cable, IPTV or satellite) or online services such as TVOkids.

As the 600 MHz incentive auction draws to a close in the US, we can see a tangible value, measured in the billions of dollars, for the continued repurposing of television broadcast spectrum for mobile connectivity.

There are so many factors that come into play, mandatory carriage, opportunities for simultaneous substitution, access to households without BDU subscriptions, but we might also consider issues of technological neutrality in the regulatory treatment of delivery systems for linear broadcasting. On one hand, Canada continues to regulate broadcasting that does not use public spectrum (such as direct to cable specialty channels), but uses different forms of licenses and applies different terms. On-demand services are another issue, receiving different treatment based on whether the service is delivered over the internet or not.

Two years ago, in an address to the London (Ontario) Chamber of Commerce, CRTC Chair JP Blais used a metaphor of the Commission as “bridge builders.” He said the CRTC “built a bridge to carry analog television programming”.

As television started to change, as consumers began to embrace on-demand viewing, mobile platforms and online video services, it became apparent that the old bridge was ill suited to carry modern digital traffic. More than just renovations were required to ensure traffic continued to flow smoothly into your home and onto your mobile devices. We needed a new bridge.

He observed that some prefer “the old bridge. They like to consume content on traditional platforms and in the same ways and quantities that they have for years.”

At the time, despite the possibility that digital transmission could lead to “renewed interest for OTA broadcasting,” he also observed “Long term, however, the format must change. The future of television lies more toward viewer-centric, on-demand models than the scheduled broadcasts such as those provided by OTA.”

As I wrote on Twitter, “From telecom policy perspective, shouldn’t we encourage more broadcasters to abandon OTA transmitters & free up 600MHz spectrum for mobile?”

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[Update: February 3, 2017] TVO has released a statement to its viewers, explaining “TVO’s decision to decommission over-the-air transmitters.”

In the 1980s, TVO relied on more than 200 over-the-air transmitters to deliver our broadcast signal. Since then, technology has evolved and the number of OTA transmitters has been reduced by all broadcasters, and delivering to multiple platforms has become the standard. Today, the expectations and preferences of viewers are changing as people turn to digital and online, on-demand services and we are doing our best to juggle all of these demands.

Since early November, each day I have been tweeting an innovation with its origins in the telecom sector that has had a meaningful impact on our lives. That series wraps up this morning. You can find all 50 of the innovations on my early November blog post. Telecom innovations have produced a surprising array of innovations, from talking movies to the Big Bang Theory, wire photos to music synthesis, HDTV to radio astronomy.

How do we create the right environment for continued investment in research and innovation as Canada drives toward a digital future?

The theme for The 2017 Canadian Telecom Summit will be “Competition, Investment and Innovation: Driving Canada’s Digital Future”

Now in its 16^th year, The Canadian Telecom Summit is Canada’s premiere conference that brings together the thought leaders and key influencers of the Canadian and global ICT industry. Our attendees represent a broad cross-section of interests including cable, Internet, video and telephony providers, equipment vendors, customers, applications providers, solutions developers, professional services organizations, government leaders and the financial community.

Early bird rates are in effect until the end of February. Register over the next 4 weeks to save more than $200 per person.