Last week, unless you are already registered at The Canadian Telecom Summit, you likely received an email from us to remind you that Canada’s premiere communications industry event is just 6 weeks away. Attracting the senior-most professionals from around the globe, The Canadian Telecom Summit is the forum for the broad cross-section of stakeholders to meet, exchange views, share ideas, challenge assumptions and plan for the future.

Our regulatory blockbuster panel features 6 of Canada’s top telecommunications regulatory policy experts debating issues of concern, moderated by Greg O’Brien (editor of Cartt.ca). We have expanded this session to 90 minutes, given the level of attention in the public eye on issues such as retail and wholesale internet pricing models, symmetric regulation of video programming, spectrum auction policy, vertical integration and convergence. Just before that panel on Wednesday June 1, we will again have an open conversation with CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein.

The Canadian Telecom Summit has 17 keynote addresses, from leaders of all of the major carriers and the companies that power their networks and services. Panel discussions will explore cloud computing, the future of wireless, universal broadband, unified communications, the multi-screen universe, competitive dynamics and more.

No other event brings together all of the industry leaders; no other industry event covers so many issues; no other industry event provides such an opportunity for those with vested interests in the Information and Communications Technology sector to explore so many issues associated with creating value for all stakeholders.

The price of registration for The Canadian Telecom Summit goes up on May 1. Register now to save more than $250.

You can download a complete conference brochure here. I look forward to seeing you there.

Earlier this week, some reports suggested the EU is launching an investigation into internet traffic throttling and blocking. I read the source material differently. To me, this looks more like talk than action

First off, let’s remember that for the past 18 months or so, Canada has led the world in having an actual net neutrality regulatory framework in place.

The Associated Press reports that the EU has asked its member countries to investigate whether ISPs block or slow traffic in a way that harms consumers.

If national telecommunications regulators find that providers are not transparent enough about how they manage their services or make it too difficult for users to switch, the European Commission, the EU’s executive, may propose new legislation to protect the principle of “net neutrality.”

But there is already an acknowledgment from the EU that some traffic is OK to be managed:

In its report Tuesday, the Commission says “it is widely accepted” that providers have to slow down some services to allow others to work.

“A consumer’s experience is not affected if an email reaches him a few seconds after it has been sent, whereas a similar delay to a voice communication would cause it to be significantly degraded, if not rendered entirely useless,” the Commission said.

Another report suggests that the exercise may be to develop a “name and shame” list.

Be sure to review the actual releases from the European Commission, including the press release on ISP transparency, the briefing remarks, and the communication from the Commission to the European Parliament [pdf, 157 KB].

There is a recognition of the need to permit operators to determine their own business models, while seeking to offer consumers choice and the ability to easily switch service providers if they are not satisfied with their access to lawful content.

Any additional regulation should avoid deterring investment, or innovative business models, lead to a more efficient use of the networks and to creating new business opportunities at different levels of the internet value chain while reserving for consumers the advantages of a choice of internet access products tailored to their needs.

The briefing remarks seem to indicate that Commissioner Neelie Kroes would ideally like to see market forces used to enable consumer choice.

If I am not satisfied that consumers can counteract such practices by switching providers, I will not hesitate to introduce more stringent measures. That could be in the form of more prescriptive guidance, or even legislation if it is needed.

We’ll see how this investigation translates into new legislation or operator codes of conduct.

As I mentioned on Friday, tonight is the start of Passover, the Feast of Freedom, and my kids have arrived back in Thornhill, closing the usual 10 time zone separation that usually divides us.

So, I am going to take some time off to focus on really important things in focus: family time.

I am sending them out to vote while they are home; I know that they share my pro-Internet passion, but they may express it in different ways. They also know to keep perspective on the breadth of issues that need to be assessed when marking a ballot.

I’ll catch up on telecom trends later this week.

Twenty years ago today, the CRTC public hearing opened to review the application by Unitel to create competition in the Canadian long distance telecommunications market. The hearing ran for months and it followed a lengthy exchange of paper and a year of preliminary processes. This was the oral phase of the proceeding that led to Telecom Decision CRTC 92-12. I was part of the opening panel of witnesses, defending our network interconnection plan.

It was a remarkable time in my career and I was privileged to work with a team of dedicated young professionals who helped prepare the winning case. We continue to stay in touch, albeit too infrequently.

Unitel hasn’t existed as a brand for a long time, but what we did 20 years ago continues to be felt. Does anyone wait until 11pm to make a long distance call any more? That is what we did when we were students. Twenty years ago, calls after 11 became affordable for students, as long as the call was kept to the bare essentials – like “exams are fine, I’ll be done on the 18th I need money, love you, bye.”

Twenty years ago, overseas calls cost a tank of gas so you would save that for family emergencies. Nowadays, you can talk to much of the world for 20 minutes for less than the cost of a cup of coffee. I’m going to guess that most of my readers don’t think twice about picking up the phone to call anyone, anywhere, or at anytime. You’re welcome.

Twenty years ago, I faced a week of cross examination from lawyers who were unable to poke holes in our network plan. As a regulatory novice, I remember the shock of seeing our lawyer talking with Bell’s lawyer during the first coffee break at the hearings; I was surprised that these enemies on the battlefield could be so civil with each other. Through the years, I have had the opportunity to work with lawyers and executives from both sides of our original long distance battle. Like Sam and Ralph from Looney Tunes, the ability to do battle while remaining collegial and respectful has been one of the key attributes of the regulatory blockbuster at The Canadian Telecom Summit.

At the time, the Financial Post observed the youth of our team. I feel good to have been part of that group. There are a lot of stories from those days. I remember being called back to Ottawa at the last minute to help with witness preparation for Canadian Pacific CEO Bill Stinson and Rogers chief Ted Rogers. Early Monday morning, I found that in my rush to pack, I forgot to pack a dress shirt, so I borrowed one with a neck size so big that we folded and stapled the back of the neck. I happened to make mention of my kids on the transcripts when describing how Unitel’s long distance wouldn’t impact 9-1-1 service and that has been a little challenge and inside joke ever since.

Our offices will be closed for the first part of next week so that I can spend time with the family who are all home for Passover so there will be no blog posts until next Thursday.

Michael Geist had a blog post with some excerpts of Canada’s performance in the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011 [pdf, 10.1MB] yesterday. I had a post this morning that uses the report to understand the breadth of issues that need to be considered in a comprehensive national digital strategy. You can contrast the full 71 point scorecard in the World Economic Forum approach with the views of others

I thought it would be worthwhile to expand on the indices that Professor Geist provided and look at how Canada ranks compared to our colleagues in the G-8.

Issue	Canada	Canada in G8	US	UK	Germany	France	Italy	Russia	Japan
Average cost per minute mobile phone calls	66	6	42	60	25	113	47	45	128
Mobile telephone subscriptions	95	8	76	24	27	68	13	9	75
Mobile subscriptions with data access	68	8	16	28	32	31	22	40	4
Fixed broadband Internet monthly subscription charge	23	2	12	28	71	41	31	35	46
Government prioritization of ICT	31	3	20	32	24	42	115	77	41
Government procurement of advanced technology products	25	2	5	52	31	47	116	81	40
Importance of ICT to government vision of the future	28	2	22	38	34	30	104	100	40
Household with a personal computer	10	2	24	13	8	29	36	46	11
Broadband Internet subscribers	10	2	18	12	11	9	30	51	19
Internet users	11	2	15	7	13	23	46	74	15
Internet access in schools	13	1	14	18	39	41	85	62	40
Use of virtual social networks	6	2	12	3	23	37	51	102	67
Impact of ICT on access to basic services	23	2	22	39	24	26	78	101	45

Not sure why his post didn’t include this line from the tables, which might have preempted the usual voices preaching that all is doom and gloom in the Canadian telecom sector:

Issue	Canada	Canada in G8	US	UK	Germany	France	Italy	Russia	Japan
Fixed phone tariffs	1	1	1	96	58	82	70	37	46

Among the interesting observations are the consistently strong measurements compared with our economic peers. Canada and the US are both at the bottom of G-8 ranking so for mobile penetration for a variety of structural reasons and the government has already taken action to advance Canada’s mobile voice and data competitiveness.

Canada’s first place standing in school internet access shows the value of targeted government programmes in achieving leadership, as I suggested this morning. Although people have observed the drop from 7th place in the previous year’s rankings to 8th place this year, an examination over a longer term shows the generally improving trend:

Network Readiness Index Rank	Canada	Canada in G8	US	UK	Germany	France	Italy	Russia	Japan
2010 – 2011	8	2	5	15	13	20	51	77	19
2009 – 2010	7	2	5	13	14	18	48	80	21
2008 – 2009	10	2	3	15	20	19	45	74	17
2007 – 2008	13	3	4	12	16	21	42	72	19
2006 – 2007	11	3	7	9	16	23	38	70	14

In the absence of a comprehensive national national digital economy strategy, Canada’s performance has been generally improving and global leadership is within reach. Canada has been second to the US for the last three years. Following the election, clear targets should be set for Canada to lead the G-8 within two years and aim to consistently be among the world’s top three by 2017.