Last week, an article in the Toronto Star suggested that the CRTC was biased in discouraging the participation of public interest groups in its over-the-top fact-finding exercise (B&TNC 2011-344). The author based this charge on the CRTC’s refusal to consider this consultation to be a proceeding for the purposes of applications for reimbursement of costs.

Konrad von Finckenstein, the chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, was asked at an industry conference about the role of consumer groups in telecom regulation. He responded that consumer groups generally do not have a problem ensuring their views are heard, but that their effectiveness depended upon getting organized and developing the necessary knowledge and expertise to fully participate in regulatory proceedings.

Yet just as von Finckenstein was providing assurances to the consumer community, the CRTC was erecting barriers to their participation in a consultation on online video services such as Netflix and AppleTV. In fact, the consultation (labeled a “fact-finding exercise”) has been marred by charges of CRTC bias that has led at least one consumer group to pull out altogether.

Of course, the author should have recalled that there was a $3M fund established in March for precisely this kind of purpose, when the CRTC approved the CTV change in control (Decision 2011-163).

Canadian Broadcasting Participation Fund ($3 million)

• Independently administered fund that will focus its activities on the representation of the interests of non-commercial consumers of broadcasting services regulated by the Commission across Canada and in both official languages
• The fund will provide assistance with the representation, research and advocacy of those interests.

As described in that decision, the fund was PIAC’s idea!

47. PIAC submitted a proposal for an independent fund to represent non-commercial consumer interests before the Commission in its broadcasting proceedings.

Why wouldn’t PIAC draw from this fund in order to fully participate in proceedings such as this?

Before the Canada Day holiday, the Canadian technology community gazed into an executive tennis match with alternating lobs between executives – from the anonymous “Open Letter”on Boy Genius Report and the return volley from Inside Blackberry.

There is a real problem when so-called senior executives feel compelled to appeal to our voyeuristic interest through a gutless public kvetch, rather than actually exercise their executive duties to fix the company. But what is the right long term solution for Canada’s technology leader?

A round of golf is generally a good way to lubricate the mind and stimulate non-linear thinking, perhaps since we generally follow a non-linear route to navigate each hole. This morning’s perfect weather was especially well suited to developing ideas for merger candidates for RIM. One thought was that RIM missed opportunities a few years ago when it could have merged with Motorola’s handset division; perhaps a Blackberry / Microsoft marriage would have made sense then as well?

My brother, who is not in telecommunications, but plays in the software world, chimed in with the best idea. He admonished the rest of us for thinking as telecommunications professionals – I observed that this is an occupational hazard for us telecommunications professionals. In any case, he observed that Apple’s real success is less in the technology and more in the content and how it is delivered to its users.

Who, he asked, would be the best match to bring content to Blackberry?

Amazon. They have had trouble working with Apple and they have gone so far as to develop their own device, the Kindle. Put Amazon’s content and distribution networks to work for Blackberry; get Blackberry technology to deliver Amazon content. There is a match.

Hmmm. With that, he drove his next shot to just short of the green.

Something to ponder over your steaks and beer this holiday weekend. Talk among yourselves.

The CRTC is holding a hearing this week to examine the increased level of vertical integration in Canada’s communications industry.

In my interview with CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein at this year’s Canadian Telecom Summit, I asked about whether Canada is really so much more integrated than the US. The chairman observed that the US carriers, such as Comcast, don’t have mobile networks integrated with their broadcast companies.

However, it is worth a re-examination of Comcast as a comparable of what is happening in other markets.

I first wrote about NBC Universal nearly 5 years ago, in the context of 30 Rock’s series opener – long before Comcast purchased a majority interest in the broadcast and production company from General Electric. Comcast is a $50B cable powerhouse, with more than 22M subscribing to their video distribution (nearly double Canada’s total households), 16M high-speed internet customers and 8M voice customers. With NBC Universal, the company is a major broadcaster (including Telemundo), a major producer of content and it has theme parks. Comcast also owns the Philadelphia professional basketball and hockey franchises.

The world of entertainment is changing, not just in Canada. Follow the hearings. What level of flexibility with Canada’s broadcasters and carriers have to respond to their vision of the evolving marketplace?

With the oral hearings approaching for the CRTC’s re-examination of wholesale high-speed internet access, alternate internet service providers have still been unable to offer matching speeds to their clients in the absence of an interim tariff until today. The CRTC issued Telecom Order 2011-377 which sets an interim rate based on a number of compromises.

The Commission recognizes the importance of providing competitors with access to higher-speed and increased POI aggregation services as soon as possible.

After all, it is two years since the CRTC began its consultation process (Telecom Notice of Consultation 2009-261).

In the interests of expedience, allowing non-facilities based competitors to begin to offer advanced internet access arrangements, the CRTC instituted interim rates that provide a 35% discount off residential rates and 15% off business rates.

There is no usage-sensitive component to the interim wholesale rates, but the CRTC was quite explicit on this point:

No inferences of any kind should be drawn from the fact that this interim tariff, given its short and transitory nature, contains no separate usage component.

In addition, the CRTC may adjust the rates retroactively, depending on the outcome of the final proceeding.

The new wholesale arrangements will be described in tariff pages to be issued by June 23 (next week). The implementation date is 30 days from today – in the middle of the oral hearings for TNC 2011-77.

Thanks to CPAC, 8 sessions from The 2011 Canadian Telecom Summit are available for viewing. Here is a summary of the CPAC coverage:

• Rogers Communications chief Rob Bruce conference opening keynote (May 31, 8:45 am)
• Industry Minister Christian Paradis keynote (May 31, 2:00 pm)
• The Wireless Broadband Panel (May 31, 2:15 pm)
• CWTA chief Bernard Lord keynote (May 31, 4:30 pm)
• Videotron chief Robert Depatie keynote (June 1, 9:30 am)
• A conversation with CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein (June 1, 10:00 am)
• The Regulatory Blockbuster (June 1, 11:00 am)
• The Privacy / Security Panel (June 1, 2:15 pm)

The 2012 Canadian Telecom Summit will celebrate 20 years of Canadian telecommunications competition. It will take place from June 4-6, 2012.