Over the course of the day, you should be receiving an email from The Canadian Telecom Summit, letting you know that the countdown has begun for Canada’s premier information and communications technology (ICT) event.

The most influential leaders of the Canadian & International ICT industry will gather in Toronto from June 16-18 at The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit.

No other event presents a complete picture of current and expected trends & developments.

No other event matches The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit for the depth and breadth of topics covered and issues debated.

Come see why The Canadian Telecom Summit has become the only must-attend conference. With more opportunities than ever to learn, network and do business, if you are involved with or impacted by Canadian telecommunications, broadcasting or information technology, you need to be at The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit.

Join your colleagues for 3 days of spirited discussion and networking. Register today for The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit.

I look forward to seeing you there.

What is a spectrum license worth?

It appears that the sale of Mobilicity to TELUS has fallen through, with raises the question of how should we value Mobilicity’s spectrum licenses?

In 2008, Mobilicity paid just over $243M for its AWS spectrum; its licenses were awarded in February 2009, starting the clock on 10-year licenses and an annual fee holiday for its AWS spectrum.

At the end of the 10-year licenses, there will be annual fees tied to the value of the spectrum. For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that the spectrum begins to attract annual fees of 10% of the original 10-year license fee.

So, what is the current value of the licenses? Is it roughly half of the amount paid originally because we are just over 5-years into the original 10-year license? Given that the government has made it clear that the spectrum cannot be bought by an incumbent, has new entrant spectrum decreased in value, beyond the depreciated value?

The spectrum doesn’t depreciate to zero at the end of the license period. Keep in mind that at the end of 10 years, the spectrum holder effectively has the first right to renew the license to continue its business.

What is the correct accounting treatment?

How should an investor look at the value of a spectrum license?

Forty years ago, when I was finishing high school, I spent the summer in Israel, visiting relatives and working on an archaeological dig on what turned out to be the southern entry steps for the biblical era Temple in Jerusalem. In those days, transatlantic phone calls were prohibitively expensive, multiple dollars per minute – more than an hour’s pay per minute of calling. Real time communications with home was just not an option. Instead, we relied on aerograms, a letter written on tissue-paper thin paper, pre-printed with postage that would get folded up and sent via airmail. It would take about a week and a half, so roughly 3-4 weeks to get a response from home.

That was 40 years ago. This year, 2014, marks another milestone for my family. It was 25 years ago – the summer of 1989 – that I moved back to Canada to work on establishing competition in telecommunications in Canada. We changed the telecommunications landscape in Canada, having to convince the regulator that competition was a good thing. That’s right. In 1989, we had to start by proving for the regulator that the case for competition in the telecommunications sector outweighed the benefits of a regulated monopoly.

What a different world we created to enable today’s global digital connectivity. There are low cost ways to call most people on the planet and we regularly make calls to our kids living overseas for just pennies a minute. Sometimes it is helping to provide a sounding board for a difficult issue; other times, it is helping with a recipe for dinner. We don’t think twice about the cost of communicating.

This reflection was triggered a few hours ago, when my daughter gave birth to our first grandchild in a hospital in Tel Aviv. My wife was with her and I was kept up to date, connecting with her using a local Israeli SIM card. It just took a little bit of advanced planning. Over the next few days, I plan to have video chats using Skype and Facetime over the hospital’s WiFi network.

What a different world. I don’t ever take it for granted.

I get concerned thinking about whether enough is being done for our strategy for the next generation. How do we envision the evolution of information and communications technology? How do we ensure inclusiveness, providing benefits to citizens across all economic strata.

Five years from now, my new grandson will get his first mobile phone when he goes to kindergarten; unfortunately, it is a public safety imperative over there. Within the next few years, he won’t have to think of the technology that enables him to touch an icon on his tablet, launching a video chat with his grandparents on the other side of the world, sharing news of holidays, butterflies, losing a tooth, eating an ice cream, scraping a knee.

Not every kid has access to these kinds of technologies. That should bother more of us.

When the federal government released its Digital Canada 150 strategy 6 weeks ago, it looked forward just 3 years:

By Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, our vision is for a thriving digital Canada, underscored by five key pillars: connecting Canadians, protecting Canadians, economic opportunities, digital government and Canadian content.

To deliver on this vision, it will take leadership from the private sector – the kind of folks who will be meeting at The Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto, in just 4 weeks, from June 16-18.

At last year’s event, it was the private sector that launched a pilot program to place connected computers into low income households. It is the private sector that has just announced a half billion dollars to launch two new satellites [Viasat 2 and Echostar XIX] for next generation rural broadband connectivity.

What do we need to do to create real economic opportunities in a digital Canada? How will you help create a thriving digital Canada? How do we build a better digital world?

Two different indicators of telecom customer service excellence came across the wires this morning – unrelated companies releasing data that point to the same conclusion: it pays to invest in customer service.

Data point number one: TELUS released its quarterly financials, which included an objective key performance indicator of customer satisfaction: churn. What percentage of customers cancel their service each month? This past quarter, TELUS achieved a 0.99% churn among its post-paid wireless customers, an improvement of 12 basis points. Contrast this with Bell’s reported 1.24% (an improvement of 1 basis point) and Rogers’ reporting of 1.20% (an improvement of 2 basis points).

Data point number two was the release of The 2014 Canadian Wireless Total Ownership Experience Study from JD Power. JD Power ranked customer satisfation highest at Sasktel, for the second year in a row. Among the major 3 carriers, TELUS scored 717, compared to Bell at 688 and Rogers with 674.

Does it pay to invest in customer service? The National Post report on TELUS financials carried a headline of “Telus Corp captured almost 60% of net new cellphone contracts in Q1“.

When pricing for many basic plans appears to be similar, customer service can be a significant competitive differentiator.

There will be a session looking at Customer Experience Management at The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit, exploring these issues and more.

It is an outstanding panel with leaders who are delivering excellence in customer service.

The Canadian Telecom Summit takes place June 16-18 in Toronto. Register before May 15 and save more than $250.

A new report was released last week by the World Economic Forum, written in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group, “Delivering Digital Infrastructure: Advancing the Internet Economy” [pdf, 6.3MB]. The report is said to be the first to undertake a comprehensive examination of the present threats to digital infrastructure, with input from representatives of government representatives, NGOs, communications services providers, content and digital-services companies, and hardware manufacturers active in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

The World Economic Forum’s “Delivering on Digital Infrastructure” initiative “sets the basis for a new vision for digital infrastructure by providing recommendations for policy-makers and industry participants to create a healthier environment for investment and innovation, and offer consumers a digital infrastructure on which they can rely.”

At a time when some people are looking to shape Canadian digital services markets to follow a European model, the report is sharply critical of Europe’s digital health, saying that Europe has gone from digital leader to laggard in less than a decade. “Current industry economics constrain investment in telecommunications infrastructure; consumers pay less for connectivity than in some other countries, but they are missing out on advanced services.”

In the report, policy-makers are urged to improve the infrastructure investment environment by allowing targeted consolidation and the report calls on operators to adapt business models to grow digital services. At the same time, policy-makers are told to encourage innovations taking place in “the last mile” to heighten competition and investment.

How does Canadian policy stack up against these recommendations? What measures do we need to take for Canada to lead in a global digital economy?

A number of sessions will explore these issues at The 2014 Canadian Telecom Summit, June 16-18, in Toronto. Save more than $250 by registering before May 15.