Canada’s Industry Minister Tony Clement released a discussion paper and announced a national consultation on the digital economy. A welcome message from Industry Minister Clement describes this as being part of a bigger process toward developing a national action plan:

This consultation is the next step in developing the right environment for the greater adoption of digital technology. After it is complete, we take the results into account as we develop an action plan to address the digital issues facing Canada now and in the future.

In his remarks at the Canada 3.0 conference in Stratford, Minister Clement said:

Canada can and should be a leader in the global digital economy. Nothing prevents us from being the best place in which to invest, grow a digital business or create digital content for the world.

Now is the time for the private sector to step up. To contribute its ideas. And then, when the digital strategy is in place, implement the game plan.

I noticed that Statistics Canada released its 2009 Canadian Internet Use Survey yesterday as well. It has a few interesting observations that we can examine over the next little while. I suspect that the timing was not coincidental, especially given that the survey was sponsored by Industry Canada. Among the first things that caught my eye was the continued dominance of cable over wireline telephone company connections for broadband. Cable continues to be the choice of 52.9% of households while telco connections dropped from 38.5% in 2007 to 32.8% in 2009.

Many of the first user comments on the Digital Economy website focus on plumbing – the supply side of broadband. It seems to me that the conversation needs to get much broader.

People have talked about setting a moonshot vision for Canada in the digital world. As I wrote last month, the US didn’t put a man on the moon by setting a vision to build a Saturn V rocket.

The vision needs to be broader. As Minister Clement said, we need to look at “how best to encourage the greater adoption of digital technologies.” Demand side drivers, not just supply-side incentives. Ensuring leading edge infrastructure is a necessary, but not sufficient enabler of Canada’s global leadership. Adoption of ICTs, development and protection of content, skills. There are a range of issues to be explored.

Tuesday June 8 at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit will feature a number of sessions that examine these issues. Minister Clement will deliver the opening keynote address on June 7.

Have you registered yet? Download the complete conference brochure here [pdf, 1.2MB].

Over the past few months, we have been getting a stream of calls that are supposedly from the “Promotions Department” of a major communications services provider.

The deal being offered sounds good, but before I give out information about my household’s assets, I like to have an idea about who I am really speaking with. I just figured that if this was really a call from a major company, the sound quality should be better and they should conform to the Telemarketing Rules, especially the one about “display the originating calling number.” Instead, I kept getting “unknown name / number” and really bad sound quality.

On most of the calls, when I asked for their number so I could call them back, the agent disconnected the call. One time I did get a caller ID – the toll free number actually displayed, but it routed to an auto attendant with no voice mail – another telemarketing rule violation:

For any telephone numbers provided to a consumer, the telephone call shall be answered either by a live operator or a voicemail system to take messages from the consumer. The voicemail must inform consumers that their call will be returned within three (3) business days

I asked colleagues at the service provider to try to help track down this third party agent, however, without identifiers, we knew it would be difficult.

Last week, I decided to play along and make the agent think I was really interested. I recorded the call and got the agent to give me a number so I could call her back after I talk the deal over with my family – she really wanted to call me back. Miraculously, the number she gave matched the toll-free CLID from a week ago. 

These combined to help the service provider track down the third party agent who was behind the torrent of inappropriate calls. They tell me that they have come down hard on this channel – although I don’t know if that means the agency has been terminated or just been put on notice. Either way, the calls have stopped.

Now, I am sure that this agency’s methodology must have been successful enough for them: use cheap VoIP based lines, agents in a boiler room, and if people don’t say “yes” right away, just disconnect and move on to the next number. But I would have thought that doing it the right way could actually be more profitable.

It seems to me that if the caller ID gave the name of the service provider, then their credibility would have gone up instantly and they would have improved their sales. Real companies should be proud of their name and their agents shouldn’t have to rely on sales tactics that feel slimy. It comes down to protecting a brand and image.

I suspect that my approach to dealing with these calls worked faster and ultimately was more effective (measured by speed of effecting change) than going through the official national complaints centre. Later this week, the CRTC will be ruling on the appeal of a DNCL violator, for calls dating back 18 months. There has to be a better way.

The Executive summary of yesterday’s CRTC’s decision [2010-255] on wholesale usage based billing (UBB) was almost Orwellian in its doublespeak:

The Commission approves, with changes, applications by Bell Aliant and Bell Canada to introduce an economic Internet traffic management practice for their wholesale Residence Gateway Access Services (GAS).

Right. I remember some of the parenting books trying to teach us how to always answer our kids with a yes, such as: yes, you can have that cookie, just as soon as you finish eating your chicken and salad. Yes, of course you can watch more TV, when your homework is finished.

So, a number of people fell for the CRTC’s positive approach to executive summary writing. A tweet read:

Bell’s government arm, the #CRTC has approved usage based billing on resellers. Double dipping on bandwidth chargers. http://bit.ly/cxAJtD

In reality, Bell and Bell Aliant have been told that they have to eat their dinner first. In fact, they have to do all their homework, eat a good dinner, wash the cars, take out the garbage and play nice with their little sisters for the next few years before they can have that cookie. And they got their allowance cut.

Was this decision really an approval of usage based billing? It certainly was not the decision that Bell wanted.

Here is how the CRTC phrased the precondition:

the Commission concludes that each Bell company may implement its economic ITMP only once it charges UBB rates to all its retail Internet service customers.

Which customers don’t have UBB? The customers who have been around the longest. The most stable, least likely to churn customers are precisely the ones that are standing in the way of wholesale UBB.

In other words – there will be no usage based billing for wholesalers in the near future. If you are a Bell retail internet subscriber with a legacy unlimited data plan, why would you voluntarily get rid of it? Maybe some people could be bought out, but all it will take is a single hold out. If I was working for an independent ISP, I would find a Bell customer with such a plan and pay them to make sure they never voluntarily give up their unlimited service.

On top of this, the CRTC adjusted [downward] the pricing for the wholesale service – the cut in allowance. The lower rates are coming into effect virtually immediately [the tariffs are to be filed within 15 days], improving competitor margins by about 10 percentage points. Given the reductions, it appears highly unlikely that the CRTC will permit the $2.00 price increase that Bell proposed in mid February. So that is a double win for the competitors.

When you read the dissent by Commissioner Molnar, you can get a sense of where this could be heading. She writes that there are three ways that the majority may have contravened the Policy Direction in three ways:

• the requirement to use measures that are “efficient and proportionate to their purpose and that interfere with the operation of competitive market forces to the minimum extent necessary to meet the policy objectives.”
• the requirement that regulatory measures “neither deter economically efficient competitive entry into the market nor promote economically inefficient entry.”
• the requirement measures be “implemented in a symmetrical and competitively neutral manner.”

The bottom line: usage based billing for wholesale will not be seen in 2010. The decision appears to have been a victory for independent ISPs.

The issue of UBB for wholesale internet customers is certain to be raised during the regulatory blockbuster at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit taking place next month on June 7-9.

Have you registered yet?

Download the complete conference brochure here [pdf, 1.2MB].

Is leadership in mobile devices going to come down to the operating system?

Last week, when writing about Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of Palm, Richard Martin observed that

More valuable [than Palm’s brand] are Palm’s robust intellectual-property portfolio, which comprises more than 1600 patents; its engineering team, which despite the recent business missteps is still highly respected in Silicon Valley; and its mobile operating system, WebOS.

He added,

HP has a chance to create an end-to-end, fully integrated network of devices that not only work together seamlessly but are based on open standards and open platforms in a way that the iPhone, today’s dominant smartphone, does not.

Competing with that version of the future comes yesterday’s announcement from Nokia and Microsoft about their joint release of Communicator Mobile, that targets RIM’s dominance of the business mobile communications market.

The future of mobile intelligence will figure prominently in panel discussions and keynote addresses at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit taking place next month on June 7-9.

Have you registered yet?

Download the complete conference brochure here [pdf, 1.2MB].

The Canadian Telecom Summit is the place for Canada’s ICT industry leadership to gather, to meet, to discuss issues and to do business together.

For the past few years, the event has caught the attention of the global communications industry. As a result, top executives of communications industry players from around the world have joined the cadre of speakers and graced the stage of The Canadian Telecom Summit.

This year is no different. Sanjay Kalra, CEO of TechMahindra will be speaking on Monday June 7. Peggy Johnson, EVP at Qualcomm will be speaking at lunch on Tuesday June 8.

We are also hearing from Harry Patz, who heads up Microsoft’s Communications Sector for North America and from Juergen Walter, Nokia Siemens Networks global Business Solutions chief.

For the first time, Fujitsu Network Communications is participating in The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit, with Rod Naphan returning to his home and native land to speak. 

Fujitsu is hosting our networking cocktail reception on the evening of June 7.

The reception is always a highlight, a chance to unwind and meet with new acquaintances, old friends, colleagues, clients, competitors and suppliers. There is even a chance to tell a regulator or policy maker what you really think – but you may hear an equally candid response.

The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit takes place June 7-9.

Have you registered yet?

Download the complete conference brochure here [pdf, 1.2MB].