Yesterday, Ericsson Canada announced that it is supplying Vancouver’s Wavefront mobile commercialization centre / incubator with HSPA mobile communications equipment and access to Ericsson’s Montreal Test Facility, one of the largest and most advanced telecom labs in Canada. Ericsson engineering support will also be available to developers should they need help troubleshooting applications.

Mark Henderson, president and CEO of Ericsson Canada, said:

The final piece of the puzzle for most wireless applications developers is testing their technology on a large-scale network. With this connection, developers now have convenient and affordable access to such a network as well as the support of our world-leading Montreal Testing Facilities.

Wavefront is a joint venture between industry and government, formed in 2007 to accelerate the commercialization of mobile applications and technologies. Ericsson Canada’s Montreal labs has the mandate for development of many areas of Ericsson’s global mobile product portfolio.

On Monday June 7, Ericsson Canada CEO Mark Henderson will be delivering a keynote address at The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit.

Have you registered yet?

When the CRTC set up its review of access to basic telecommunications services, the public notice [2010-43] included a few little words that triggered a firestorm.

In addition, the Commission will re-examine the appropriateness of the existing forbearance framework for mobile wireless data services.

The Canadian Wireless Telecom Association suggested to the CRTC that this section of the public consultation should be severed from the rest of the process in the interest of keeping the proceeding manageable.

In a letter on February 10, the Commission refused, saying, in effect, that the public process is fine as is; if you want to comment on mobile wireless data services forbearance, the CRTC looks forward to hearing from everyone in mid-April. 

A report issued by the CRTC the day before added fuel to the firestorm when it said:

Over time, the Commission’s hands-off approach to wireless may come under pressure as it becomes a more important platform tool to access all forms of communications and the distribution of Canadian content.

The media started speculating that the CRTC was about to wade in on regulating wireless pricing. CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein conducted an interview with The Globe and Mail to try to calm the rumours and “paranoia”.

There is a little bit of paranoia here. Obviously, I am very concerned about the impression that the regulator is reasserting itself more than is necessary.

According to the article, the Chair said that the intent is to focus on the narrow issue of whether the CRTC should have the power to protect against wireless service discrimination. Of course, the Public Notice and the Commission’s February letter do not have the same clarity of focus as the Globe and Mail story indicates. The Public Notice asks a very broad question:

Should the Commission change the scope of forbearance with respect to mobile wireless data services, and if so, to what extent?

Pricing, range of services, the need to file tariffs, wholesale services, geographic coverage, service standards. What do you want to talk about? The CRTC has invited the public to open the proceeding up to virtually anything you might want to talk about.

So yesterday, the CWTA wrote a letter to once again give the CRTC an opportunity to limit the proceeding scope to keep the process somewhat manageable, keeping in mind that the main focus of the proceeding is pretty broad itself: the definition of basic services and the obligation to serve.

The CWTA’s letter says that its carrier members support having Sections 24 and 27(2) of the Telecommunications Act apply to mobile wireless data services (the same sections that the Commission retained when it forbore from regulating mobile voice services). As such, CWTA says that it is no longer necessary for the Commission to consider this issue.

The proceeding is going to have to tackle a broad enough range of issues and the two-week public proceeding is being split between Timmins and Ottawa, adding to the complexity. It seems that the CWTA is offering the CRTC a last opportunity to rein in the range of topics.

On Monday, Ontario’s Speech from the Throne set out the agenda for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government. Interestingly, what was called the “Open Ontario Plan” did not lay out plans for an open government, for open access to digital files or records.

Ontario set out plans for expansion of post-secondary education, promising to add 20,000 university seats and creation of an on-line institute.

Ontario’s colleges and universities will also play a key role in the five-year Open Ontario Plan, starting with the addition of 20,000 students this year. The plan also targets e-learning with a new Ontario Online Institute, which will give students access to the best professors in top university programs from their home computers.

Of course, this presumes that the students have homes and computers to start with. We have seen programs such as Toonies for Tummies asking us to help disadvantaged children have access to a proper meal.

There wasn’t a lot of discussion of digital economy issues, perhaps because the province assumes that communications falls under the sole purview of the federal government. However, there are many areas of government impact that fall under provincial jurisdiction.

How can provincial governments drive broadband adoption? I was listening to a Digital Inclusion Summit conducted by the FCC yesterday. One of the best speakers was Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who commented that the destiny of a child can be predetermined based on their zip code.

With broadband, a child’s ability to learn is not limited solely by where their school is located.

To what extent are we doing enough to look at this problem in Canada? As mentioned yesterday by HUD Secretary Donovan:

Federally-assisted housing offers a platform to reduce these barriers through local outreach and training that educates people on specific ways that technology can improve their lives, and on how to use it. Through digital literacy training to get people comfortable with technology. And through workforce development and financial literacy training so that they can get the most out of it.

The US National Broadband Plan, to be released next week, will be looking at how to bring down the cost of computers and monthly broadband service fees for low-income families who lack the opportunities to make use of digital technologies.

Broadband stimulus programs in Canada have typically been aimed at supply; isn’t it time to focus on elements that improve accessibility and demand?

As if cued by yesterday morning’s supplementary blog post about the CRTC’s review of how much maple syrup is running through the veins of Public Mobile, the Commission issued a release about its review of Mobilicity (the service provider formerly known as DAVE).

The CRTC indicated that Mobilicity also has a relatively complicated ownership structure meriting further review under Type 2 procedures (see yesterday’s post for more info about these categories) and there was a lot of supplementary information already put on the public record as an attachment to the Commission’s letter [pdf, 250KB].

For example, slightly more than 75% of the equity is coming from outside Canada, although that investor is getting less than a quarter of the votes. About half the debt is coming from vendor financing of the equipment.

While the CRTC is saying that Mobilicity “appears to comply with the legal control requirements of the Act,” it still needs to review the “control in fact” to see if there are other ways that company might be controlled by non-Canadians [recall the double negative language in the Telecom Act].

the Commission will apply the existing jurisprudence relating to determinations of control in fact, while taking into consideration that when the Government varied Telecom Decision CRTC 2009-678, it stated that the “decision to vary is specific to the facts of this case”.

How will CRTC reviews of ownership interfere with launch plans for the new entrants?

Mobile Syrup is saying that Public Mobile plans a “soft launch” next Monday. Will CRTC approvals get in the way?

Last November, the CRTC opened a file to begin the examination of the ownership and control of Public Mobile.

As we have come to know, the CRTC needs to affirm that carriers operating in Canada are in conformance with Telecom Act requirements. Under Canada’s current regime, Industry Canada’s approvals for the purpose of awarding radio licenses is not considered to be sufficient.

In Telecom Regulatory Policy 2009-428, the Commission established a four-type review framework to apply to ownership and control reviews.

In December, the CRTC informed Public Mobile that it had determined that its application was Type 2:

the ownership structure of Public Mobile is of a complex nature and could hold precedential value for the industry and the general public. The Commission does not consider, however, that the evidentiary record would be improved by third-party submissions.

In other words, the ownership approval is not an open-and-shut case, but we don’t need outside assistance on this one. The file has been quiet since then. The Commission has said that it will issue a formal decision and open its files for public examination upon conclusion of its review of Public Mobile’s ownership.

Public Mobile has started its teaser ads and it has been preparing some retail stores. Is the wait for CRTC approval on the critical path and will this possibly delay a service launch?