CPAC has added 2 more segments from The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit to its video on demand database.

You can now watch The Regulatory Blockbuster, recorded on the morning of June 8, 2010 and the Building Digital Canada panel from the end of the day on June 8.

These complement the interview with CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein that has been available for a while now.

We would appreciate your feedback on the value of these sessions being available in the CPAC archives.

Just like the millions of school kids turning in their end of year projects and term papers before heading off for summer vacation, last week our elected members of parliament and our appointed senators released three reports of interest to the ICT community.

First was the Senate’s Standing Committee on Transport and Communications releasing its Plan for a Digital Canada [pdf, 2.3MB]. Of the three reports, this was the one that actually used web technologies to release its report, as contrasted with simple pdfs from its classmates. A summary of the 18 recommendations can be found here.

Parliament’s INDU committee (the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology) spent a few months examining foreign ownership issues. It called nealy 40 witnesses, collected briefs from a dozen or so groups and its report [pdf, 745KB] came out with just 2 recommendations: clarify the “control in fact” test of the Telecom Act (Section 16); and, liberalize ownership restrictions for satellites – a move that the government took 3 months earlier. Some early reports have been critical of this output from the committee.

I’ll point out that I found greater value in the appended statements from the 4 parties, perhaps providing advance insight into which way the minds are leaning. Given the current public consultation process (which should yield legislation being introduced in the fall), it is helpful to have an indication of where the political support and opposition for various alternatives will be found.

The final report was from Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. It issued what it called an ‘interim report’ on “Emerging and Digital Media: Opportunities and Challenges” [pdf, 206KB]. The report covers a broad range of issues, including foreign ownership, copyright, Canadian content, net neutrality and more. It makes it clear that there is more work to be done.

Add the three reports to your summer reading list.

CPAC is continuing to provide portions of The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit on its broadcast network and then it will make the programs available on demand on CPAC.ca.

Tonight, beginning at 2:00am (Eastern, 11:00pm Pacific), CPAC will air two of the sessions recorded Tuesday June 8. First up will be the Regulatory Blockbuster session, always a highlight of the Summit, and this year represents the first time that the programme has been made available to the public.

That program will be followed by a presentation of the Digital Canada panel.

If you can’t stay up that late or you don’t have a recorder, then there are still two options: you can watch the two shows next Tuesday, June 22 starting at a more reasonable 2:00pm (Eastern); or, you can visit CPAC.ca after it loads the programs into its video-on-demand server.

I’ll provide a link here, as soon as it is available.

I’d appreciate feedback on having portions of the event available in this way – does it help you share the experience of the event? Will it help encourage you to attend in person next year?

According to a tweet from Greg O’Brien, CBC led off its coverage of the foreign ownership consultations with:

Everyone knows Canadians pay the highest rates in the world for cell phones

The budget cuts that forced the people’s network to sell off the chairs in the TV news studio might have reduced CBC’s research budget to the point that it just recycles populist drivel, without bothering to check facts. It couldn’t be that the news anchor was expressing an opinion, could it?

Maybe the CBC anchor was trying to demonstrate clearly why  we need an alternative news voice, such as the proposal for Sun TV News. But, that is another story.

Well, let’s see if the conventional media (or other commentators) take a look at a new report from BMO that says Canadians enjoy cheaper mobile data prices than our friends south of the border.

Interestingly, we highlight that Canadian postpaid data pricing is cheaper relative to AT&T for light and extremely heavy users. Given the competitive dynamics in Canada, we expect this trend to continue into 2011 as Canadian carriers focus on driving adoption of wireless data.

I found the last part of this to be the most significant. BMO expects this trend to continue into next year, as Canadian carriers focus on driving adoption of wireless data.

It will be interesting to see how many people will review a report that contradicts the populist perspective.

For the past 4 years, CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein has been a speaker at The Canadian Telecom Summit, helping to set the stage for the debating that takes place during the Regulatory Blockbuster session. This year, we changed the format to be more like a fireside conversation on-stage.

For the first time, CPAC – Canada’s Cable Public Affairs Channel – recorded a number of the sessions for playback on TV. The programs will be available soon on-demand from the CPAC website.

The first of the segments, featuring the conversation with the Chairman, aired for the first time on Saturday morning. You should be able to view it on-demand – [Update: Click here]. CPAC also recorded the Regulatory Blockbuster and the  Building Digital Canada session. Watch for them on CPAC’s Podium.

Please let me know your thoughts on making selected segments available to the public.