In his opening address to The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit, Industry Minister Tony Clement announced that the department would shortly launch a consultation to determine the nature of liberalization of rules governing Foreign Direct Investment in the telecommunications sector.

That consultation was launched earlier today.

The status quo is not an option being entertained.

The 12-page consultation paper describes three options:

1. The CRTC approach, which would see symmetric liberalization for broadcasting and telecom, but only opening up the market for both sectors to 49% foreign ownership;
2. The approach described by the Telecom Policy Review Panel (TPRP) and endorsed by the Competition Policy Review, which would remove restrictions on telecommunications carriers that have lass than 10% market share;
3. Open the doors to foreign direct investment in all carriers.

In the case of the second option, there is a question of which services basket or geography will be used to establish the market share. As the consultation paper indicates, the TPRP suggested that the 10% would be a test in ‘any’ market:

a presumption should be made that investments in any new start‐up telecommunications investment or in any existing telecommunications common carrier with less than 10 percent of the revenue in any telecommunications service market would be in the public interest.

However, the language of the option laid out in the new paper [pdf] speaks about ‘total telecommunications market revenues’, which were just over $40B according to the latest CRTC monitoring report. This option has the effect of locking out investment flexibility for Canada’s big three: Bell, Rogers and TELUS.

While the consultation paper leaves a crack open for possible liberalization of cable companies and other broadcast distribution undertakings. Keep in mind that cable companies and all of the major phone companies hold broadcast distribution licenses. The consultation paper carefully tip-toes around whether we will see amendments to the Broadcast Act.

While it is recognized that telecommunications and broadcasting are increasingly converging, the policy objectives and legislative authorities under the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act are distinct, and the government is not considering changes to the Broadcasting Act. With respect to broadcasting content and culture, the government will not consider any action that could impair its ability to pursue Canadian culture and content policy objectives.

If the government wouldn’t consider the type of modifications proposed by Rogers to the House industry committee in April, it could have been simpler in its language with a clear statement like “the government will not consider changes to the Broadcasting Act.” 

Comments are due July 30.

First time attendees at The Canadian Telecom Summit always seem to be amazed at the collegial conversations between members of the industry who are fierce competitors in the marketplace, but who sit together at lunch or who work to resolve issues over an espresso in our courtyard cafe.

It doesn’t always show up that way, if you don’t look beyond the show on the stage. For example, I received a note from a colleague who wrote:

From my novice perspective I find the dynamic between the players very interesting.  About the only thing there was agreement on was a huge expanding marketplace with an unsaisable appetite for ‘stuff’ be it new devices or more services or data yet even with that there is dis-harmony in the sandbox.  It kind of reminds me of the NFL or MLB.  Both leagues are hugely successful with a very large pie but the principles, be it players or owners are always at odds on how the handle the largesse.  As you may remember the baseball strike in the 90’s damn near killed the golden goose as many fans, myself included blamed them both and swore off supporting them.   I understand the ‘bigs’ want to protect their legacy and huge investments but, like it or lump it, that boat has sailed and that is the today reality.

It seems to me that there is far less advertising that pushes the merits of one technology versus another. More emphasis is being placed on overall reliabilty, speed, billing simplicity, customer service. Bashing the other guy may have the unintended effect of confusing customers and encouraging them to stay on the sidelines. Buy my brand ’cause it doesn’t suck as bad as the other guy. I wonder what was going on in the minds of advertisers who use that approach.  

With the close of The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit earlier this week, I am getting ready to move to “summer-mode” for blog postings. Of course, it depends on whether there are issues that arise out of the blue, but you can expect articles to diminish from my regular daily pace down to 2 or 3 per week.

I hope it is a great summer for all of you.

With yesterday’s close of The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit, we had an initial chance to review the internal operations of the event. From our perspective, logistics went much smoother than ever before. Perhaps part of it was thanks to familiarity with our team and the facility: we have been using the same venue for 6 years now and almost all the people from The Toronto Congress Centre, from AVW TELAV (our audio visual supplier) and on our team are the same.

It helps that we all work well together and enjoy working together to present the event. But we also have to give bredit to Blackberry Messenger. Communications about little details, like getting water refreshed at Table 12, dealing with last minute special meal requests, an extra easel sent to a board room used to involve walkie talkies and chasing people down.

This year, it was a simple BBM text instruction that provided a confirmation that the message was sent, received and read. The satisfaction when the simple reply of “K” was received provided comfort and allowed us to move onto the next issue. On the fly conferencing within BBM kept the co-chairs informed when speakers needed an extra moment before coming on stage; or a little prompting with a well crafted question.

Each year, we hope that the operational issues are invisible to our delegates. In this case, the simple application of relatively basic communications technology provided better customer service with less effort.

Day 2 of The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit included a new approach to the CRTC’s involvement in the event. This year, two leaders from the Commission participated. I had a chance to interview Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein in a 45 minute ‘fireside chat’ format in front of the audience, in a format that we have not tried before. [CPAC was on hand to record the session, and I will let you know when we expect it to be aired.]

The regulatory blockbuster once again generated the buzz we have come to expect from 6 of Canada’s most passionate advocates for telecom policy, in a session moderated by Greg O’Brien of Cartt.ca. That session was also recorded by CPAC, as was the panel looking at Building Digital Canada moderated by Industry Canada’s Helen McDonald, which included the CRTC’s vice-chair for telecom, Len Katz.

Lots of article covering the day’s activities are in the media, ranging from the Globe’s interviews with keynoters Pierre Blouin and Robert Depatie and coverage of the CRTC Chair, unplugged, and the Post coverage of our ‘keynote discussion’. The major wires and trade press also have coverage of the various sessions.

Today is the conference close, with most of the day focussed on hearing from the wireline and wireless service providers.

Pretty strong coverage in the media from the first day at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit.

Iain Marlow from the Globe may win the most prolific writing award. He has stories here, here and here. The last link includes links to a number of streaming media pieces from his interview with Rogers.

Emily Mathieu from the Star wrote a story here.

Jamie Sturgeon at the National Post has a story here and here.

Christine Persaud from Marketnews has an article here and here.

And David Friend from Canadian Press filed this story, including some great closing quotes.

I will be interviewing CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein at 10am. It is one of 3 sessions scheduled to be recorded by CPAC for replay later this week.

If you aren’t at the event, you can follow me on Twitter @Mark_Goldberg or follow keyword #cts10. There is a special telecom supplement scheduled for today’s Globe and Mail.