Allison Lenehan President & CEO Xplornet Communications
Through the years, I have written a number of articles that look at Australia’s multi-billion dollar National Broadband Network plan. Many commentators have mistakenly portrayed the plan as one that will deliver universal fibre to the home.
I have long said that satellite based service is the only reasonably economic way to reach many households in a sparsely populated country [such as here, here and here].
In Canada, Xplornet Communications has been active in delivering next generation broadband, supplementing its 4G fixed wireless in delivering broadband service to rural Canadians. I use Xplornet satellite service each summer as my primary communications service provider.
A week ago, CRTC Chair JP Blais announced a series of decisions in a speech in my home town – London, Ontario – the cradle of Canadian cable TV. For a week, I have been considering what to write about these decisions. How can I add to the analysis that is already available?
Mobile TV has been under examination by the CRTC to see if rules are being broken because people can’t get open internet video streaming for the same effective cost per megabyte as packaged mobile video. Frankly, my initial reaction would be to respond that mobile carriers marketing departments should be free to choose whatever products they want to offer. Some service providers only offer voice and text. Isn’t it up to the service provider to decide whether they offer data and at what speeds?
If you want open internet, here is the price per megabit per second and here are the terms and conditions. If you don’t accept those conditions, please feel free to find another service provider.
We don’t mandate that ice cream stores offer tiger ice cream – although maybe we should – nor do we limit them from offering more than vanilla flavour. We don’t even require them to offer vanilla.
Price discrimination is not against the law, contrary to the views being expressed by many. I saw one piece that said:
Indeed, the CRTC found that a member of the public viewing identical programming would pay $5 if they were a Bell mobile TV customer and $40 (a difference of 800%) if they did not subscribe by way of Bell’s mobile TV service. In these circumstances, how could the CRTC find other than that Bell and Videotron, in their roles as signal transmission providers, had discriminated against the customers of other Internet streaming services available in the mobile market?
It is actually a 700% difference, but that is irrelevant. Massive discounts for subscriptions are the norm as those of us who still like glossy paper know. Consider magazines. It is quite common for annual subscriptions to be priced at 80-90% off the individual cover prices. My newspaper delivery is less per month than I would pay per day at the convenience store.
In “Roadblocks for an innovation economy“, I observed “The UK was concerned that net neutrality regulation might prevent pricing innovation, differentiation of offers and serve to discourage investment in higher-speed access networks.”
Through the years, carriers have tried various means to encourage adoption of new services, including special flat rate prices for certain services (Canadians have demonstrated an affinity for flat rate over variable pricing).
Even today, Mobilicity offers an “Unlimited Light Data” plan that provides unlimited access to certain popular social media websites, but not others.
Such plans were common in the early days of mobile internet, encouraging the adoption of smartphones and getting consumers into the idea of incremental data plans.
But in reference to the Mobile TV decision, in his interview with Cartt.ca, CRTC Chair JP Blais said “this is about an open internet. It’s about making sure that there aren’t fast lanes and slow lanes.”
No data was being slowed down or sped up, so are we to interpret this statement as a ban on bundling data for certain applications?
As such, is Mobilicity’s Light Data add-on next to be shut down?
Should the dairy board be investigating why my ice cream shop charges the same price per scoop for truffle packed ice cream as it does for plain vanilla?
I doubt I would ever find tiger ice cream if my local shops needed to get bureaucratic approval.
The digital economy framework shouldn’t block service innovation and differentiation.
In Canada and the United States, government bodies are increasing their intervention in the internet.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about special pricing plans in a piece called “Zero is better than nothing.” It concluded “Consumers can benefit greatly from creative, competitive, targeted pricing plans. Regulators need to be careful imposing restrictions on the evolution of business models.”
In addition to our annual Regulatory Blockbuster, The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit [June 1-3 in Toronto] will be presenting a panel of leading economists from both sides of the border to explore the impact on innovation and investment. Early Bird prices are available until the end of February. Register today!
The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit, taking place June 1-3, 2015 in Toronto, brings together the key influencers who are creating Canada’s unique telecommunications, broadcast and IT market structure.
For 3 days, the leadership of the telecom, broadcast & IT industries will converge at the Toronto Congress Centre to discuss the key issues and trends that will impact this critical sector of the economy. Join your peers, suppliers, policy makers, regulators, customers and competitors in attending the industry’s most important gathering.
For 14 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 Summit will feature high-octane interaction, top-level keynote speakers and thought-provoking panel discussions.
Hyper Connectivity: Shaping Personal & Business Digital Relationships
As connectivity expands to include billions of devices and machines in our homes and businesses, how does Canada stake out a leading position in an increasingly digital world? How do our networks and our industry need to change? The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit’s keynote speakers and panelists will address these points, giving you a chance to hear about service deployment, what is in store for next generation business models, and underlying all of this, the technologies that continue to drive the industry forward.
As always, The Canadian Telecom Summit features cutting-edge topics. This year, in addition to our always popular Regulatory Blockbuster, we are featuring sessions devoted to
Cyber Security;
Big Data & Analytics;
Competition in Telecom;
Customer Experience Management;
Advanced Mobile Services;
The Internet of Things;
Turbo-charging network performance; and,
The video revolution.
The Canadian Telecom Summit has something for everyone! It leaves 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. Meet with your suppliers, customers and peers for 3 full days of thought provoking
interaction.
Save more than $200 by registering by February 28.
Special Networking Event
All participants are invited to join us for our annual cocktail reception Monday evening, June 1.
As I have written in the past, mental healthcare is the main line of business for my family. My older brother and my sister are psychologists, following in the footsteps of my father – a psychiatrist – to help others.
Bell Let’s Talk Day is about talking. It is a day for talking about something that makes many people uncomfortable. And as I wrote last year, we need to talk even more. Public perception is the leading reason that most of those living with a mental illness do not seek help. Bell’s willingness to have its brand associated with helping Canadians deal with mental illness is a brave and bold statement to open the national conversation about mental health.
This year’s ad campaign highlights the need to watch the way we talk. Bell will contribute 5 cents for every Text message sent and every mobile & long distance call made on their networks. And they will add another nickle for every Tweet using #BellLetsTalk and every Facebook image share – even if you are not a Bell customer.
Last year, that came to nearly 110M texts, calls, tweets and shares, raising just under $5.5M.
There were 3 million tweets last year, making “Bell Let’s Talk” the #1 Twitter trend in Canada and #3 worldwide.
Let’s aim to beat last year’s totals.
Communications competitors TELUS, Rogers and Wind Mobile have added their support to the Bell initiative on Twitter:
We applaud @Bell_LetsTalk for helping to break the silence around mental illness. Great work for a great cause. #BellLetsTalk
Last summer, I wrote a brief blog post called “Regulating the internet” suggesting it may be worthwhile for some academic researchers to take a look at the impact of regulating internet content in Canada, from such perspectives as economic and social policy, cultural issues, etc.
Are we restricting the evolution of creative business models and innovation through regulation?
Others? (such as digital copyright, lawful access, etc.?)
Yesterday, I saw an article by Brian Fung of the Washington Post, seeking to explain “How the cable industry is trying to reshape the economics of the Internet“. He writes, “As it waits for the regulatory shoe of net neutrality to drop next month, the cable industry is going on the offensive.”
As I read the article, it struck me that internet services in the United States could be on the verge of some very heavy handed regulation.
If the US moves to apply new regulations and government intervention in internet access and network management and interconnection services, what opportunities might arise for Canada?
Will Canada see such moves as an opportunity to lead or will Canada’s regulatory and policy authorities follow suit?
A number of sessions at The 2015 Canadian Telecom Summit [June 1-3 in Toronto] will be well suited to discuss these issues and more:
On Monday morning, June 1, a panel of world leading telecom policy economists and academics will be exploring “Competition in Telecom”
That afternoon, another panel will examine “Cyber Security”
