CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais spoke last Friday at the annual dinner for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC). In his address he made a number of important points that merit highlighting.

the public interest is much bigger and more complex than just looking after the interests of individual Canadian consumers. We must also consider the needs of Canadians as citizens and creators.

The Chair went on to explain that cost considerations are broader than just the rates paid by individual Canadians, but also include businesses. And he raised the issue of healthy competition and the Commission’s understanding that profit isn’t a dirty word:

This demands healthy competition among multiple service providers—all across the country, not just in major populated areas. In turn, this requires that businesses be able to profit from their efforts and investments. Having a fair chance to make a return on investment is crucial to encourage, and underwrite, innovation. That’s what leads to job creation and builds the foundation for our country’s economic future.

Of course, I was especially interested in his comments about the evolution of the basic service obligation:

In light of the growing importance of broadband to all aspects of Canadians’ lives, I can foresee the day when universal access to broadband will form part of the definition.

Thanks to investment by alternate service providers, virtually all Canadians have access to broadband services. Affordability is another matter. As I have written many times, affordable broadband service is a problem for urban and rural Canadians. Indeed, there are more Canadians in urban households who can’t afford broadband than those in remote and rural settings.

Will 2013 bring an increased examination of solutions to deliver broadband connections to all Canadians?

Over the next two weeks, the ITU is meeting in Dubai for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12).

This landmark conference will review the current International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), which serve as the binding global treaty designed to facilitate international interconnection and interoperability of information and communication services, as well as ensuring their efficiency and widespread public usefulness and availability.

Application service providers have mustered all of their lobbying power to preserve the status quo, and overworked slogans are trying to rally public opinion. Don Tapscott writes “The governance of the Internet ain’t broken, so don’t fix it.” Google has been very active and has opened an advocacy website saying “A free and open world depends on a free and open web.”

Despite deliberate misinformation with such language as “Some governments want to use a closed-door meeting in December to increase censorship and regulate the Internet”, the WCIT-12 website shows the process to be pretty open, including media accreditation and webcasting of sessions.

Among the ideas being floated is applying a “sender-paid” pricing model to internet connectivity. Would such a model enable increased connectivity from developing economies? Would such a pricing model facilitate development of lower priced internet access for more budget conscious citizens?

The Liberal Party’s 2013 leadership race may provide an opportunity for digital economy issues to be advanced by politicians of all stripes.

So far, the declared candidates have provided little in the way of detailed platform, but hints of priorities are emerging on their websites:

Marc Garneau has an explicit statement: “As leader, I will place a relentless focus on the development of a balanced, creative, knowledge-based economy.” We will be looking for more details as the campaign moves forward.

Although Deborah Coyne has a header on her policy page for “Building a Solid Economic Foundation: Prosperity through Creativity and Innovation”, the closest reference to the subject appears to be the establishment of yet another blue-ribbon commission. As I have written before, we already have a government that is great at launching studies; we don’t seem to be as good acting on the recommendations.

George Takach announced his candidacy at the MaRS discovery District this morning, a choice of venue that makes a statement itself. The Canadian Press is already calling him the e-candidate, with a plan to engage with gamers to crowd-source a digital bill-of-rights, the first elements of which are on his website. His economic policies speak of plans to introduce a new Digital Economy strategy – among other points of relevance to a digital issues: Embracing technological innovation; Investing in high-tech infrastructure; Introducing a new Digital Economy strategy; Overhauling Canada’s R&D approach.

George Takach believes there are other important “digital” issues that also must be addressed, including ensuring that all Canadians have high-speed access to the Internet – regardless of where they live – so they can take better advantage of the full potential of both the Internet and the Information Age and ensuring a balanced approach to digital intellectual property.

While it is encouraging to see digital issues take centre stage from a leadership candidate, the Takach campaign continues to talk in terms of a rural digital divide without addressing the issue of affordability. 

I would still like to see Canada create a program to ensure that all households with children have affordable access to a connected home computer.

I was unable to find any policy statements on the Justin Trudeau leadership website.

Whether you are a Liberal or not, the policy statements set out in this leadership campaign can influence the future platform and policy agendas for all parties.

To what extent will digital issues capture the hearts of Canadians?

What are the common threads between these points?

• 700 MHz spectrum policy
• Copyright reform
• R&D tax incentives
• University research funding
• Rural broadband
• Digital TV transition
• Job training and retraining
• Delivery of government services online
• Computers and broadband for low income Canadians
• CBC Music and Radio 3
• Canadian content and New Media development
• Bell / Astral
• Crowdfunding

All of these items are topics that have led to a blog post or Twitter tweet in the past few weeks and all should have been discussed in a national digital strategy. There is no overall strategy to guide the implementation of these projects; there is no cross impact analysis.

The strategy should address even more. For 5 years now, I have been asking about a national digital strategy – an innovation agenda to propel all sectors of Canada’s economy forward.

The government’s consultation for a national digital economy strategy was launched in May 2010. In June of this year, we were promised delivery of this magnum opus before the end of the year:

We are still developing a Canadian digital economy strategy. And I am committed to delivering it by the end of the year.

Two and a half years in the making – we look forward to busy reading over the holiday period. What are you looking to see in the National Digital Economy Strategy?

Rogers has announced it has hired SamKnows to verify broadband speeds being delivered to its customers.

It strikes me as a smart preemptive strategy, not only aiding in its customer facing marketing, but also serving Rogers well in dealing with a regulator that is proclaiming an increased consumer focus. Indeed, the CRTC’s 3-year plan includes an intent to monitor upload and download speeds. What better approach than for Rogers to engage with the same third party that has done work with other regulators, including the FCC and Ofcom.

In August, Rogers announced that it was working with PwC towards SysTrust Certification of its Internet Data Meter Systems, providing increased confidence in its usage based billing.

As the broadband internet market matures to approach universal adoption, such confidence building measures can be expected to be used in marketing its services. How confident are you that you are getting what you pay for?