The issue of indirect regulation came up again in last week’s internet traffic management decision.

The issue: how does the CRTC impose regulations on service providers that aren’t carriers? So, the CRTC created two new definitions to distinguish between “secondary ISPs” (defined as service providers that don’t own their own facilities and therefore aren’t regulated as carriers; and, “primary ISPs” that own transmission facilities and are therefore more easily brought before the CRTC as carriers under the Telecom Act.

The CRTC assumed that “secondary ISPs” must get access to their customers by dealing with at least one “primary ISP” and so the Commission ordered all “primary ISPs” to include a contractual obligation for their wholesale clients (ie. “secondary ISPs”) to agree to abide by the rules.

This is problematic on a number of levels.

First, as I described last week, the requirement doesn’t capture secondary ISPs that don’t deal with a primary ISP. It is quite possible for an ISP to do all of its wholesale buying through another secondary ISP. Alternatively, there may be colocation companies that are carriers, but not ISPs. The latter can be dealt with by simple rewording of the order; let’s face it, the use of the term “primary ISP” instead of “carrier” was to appease the “secondary ISPs” who may have found the term “reseller” to be pejorative. It isn’t as simple to go after second tier “secondary ISPs” (should they be called “tertiary ISPs”?).

More fundamentally, what happens if a secondary ISP is in breach of its contractual obligation? How does this get enforced?

In the absence of meaningful regulatory oversight, will an industry association enforce a code of conduct to provide assurance to Canadians? Still, the CRTC didn’t believe a voluntary code offers sufficient consumer protections. Don’t customers of secondary ISPs deserve the same protections?

Hughes Network Systems has announced that Canada’s largest rural broadband provider, Barrett Xplore has committed to acquire and operate over 10 Gbps of capacity on Jupiter, a next-generation, high-throughput satellite. Jupiter is scheduled for launch in 2012.

With Jupiter, Barrett Xplore expects to offer a range of broadband packages up to 10 Mbps for residential service and up to 25 Mbps for business, with performance and pricing comparable to that in terrestrial broadband markets.

John Maduri, CEO at Barrett Xplore said:

Jupiter will enable Barrett Xplore to provide significantly enhanced service offerings to our current customers, and offer additional capacity to serve hundreds of thousands of rural Canadian households. This considerable investment in satellite capacity demonstrates Barrett’s ongoing commitment to rural broadband and strengthens our ability to reach all rural Canadian households with cost-effective, high-speed Internet.

The agreement is valued in excess of U.S. $100 million.

My electric utility came to the house on Wednesday and installed my new smart meter. Earlier this year, we installed the Peaksaver thermostat.

The idea behind the smart electric meter is to enable the utility to charge differential prices based on the time-of-day or day-of-week when we consume power.

The Peaksaver thermostat not only enables some very cool programming and remote internet access, but also permits the utility to kill the air conditioner for a brief period (hopefully not noticeable) during the hottest, most power intensive days of the summer.

I wonder if the concepts behind these capabilities might find application by a creative ISP.

For example, internet services don’t really have a monthly capacity constraint; monthly download caps are a convenient measure of total consumption for proportionate allocation of resources, but the pipes are really provisioned for peak load. For real-time applications, like voice calls and streaming content, ISPs need to make sure there is sufficient capacity to handle everyone’s aggregate requirements. Less sensitive applications can be delayed slightly without any impact.

Outside of the peak, it doesn’t matter as much if an individual user is consuming a little or a lot; the network capacity is sitting available.

It seems to me that an ISP might want to create a service offering that provides user incentives to shift loads out of the peak – for example, offering software utilities to make sure those routine software updates are scheduled to downloaded during slower network loads, and perhaps exempting such behaviour from contributing to the download caps.

What about another product that permits interruptible service? Rather than degrade all bandwidth intensive traffic, would some consumers be interested in a service that cuts certain bandwidth intensive applications at peak times – like killing the air conditioner on peak electrical days.

Of course, these kinds of network based developments require network operators to have the flexibility to deploy and use technologies like DPI interfacing to various billing and management systems – and to advise customers on what is going on.

Would such services help preserve flat rate internet for some users, while providing effective economic internet traffic management?

Yesterday, I wrote about TELUS launching the iPhone and its HSPA network on November 5.

Today, TELUS announced simpler pricing, called Clear Choice with Clear and Simple Pricing.

TELUS is also simplifying the number of rate plan options.

Beginning November 5, TELUS will offer clear and simple pricing, with no System Access Fee (SAF) or carrier 911 fee, across business and consumer wireless rate plans.

Existing TELUS clients can continue to renew on their existing rate plans or have the option to switch to the new rate plans at launch.

Nokia has announced its Christmas line-up of phones and accessories.

Bluetooth earpieces, headphones and speaker phones figure prominently on their website.

The current version of the Nokia Holiday Gifts website only shows phones for the Rogers network. Nokia plans to update the site frequently – possibly showcasing more devices and choices after some of the competitive HSPA networks launch later this year. For example, the Nokia website shows the E71 in grey and white for the Rogers network, but Mobile Syrup is saying that TELUS will offer that device in black and red.

An preliminary version of the site showed the Nokia N86 incorporating an 8-megapixel camera including Carl Zeiss optics. The phone can be bought from on-line sources in Canada, but it isn’t being promoted by a carrier, yet.

Will it be available through one of the major service providers before Christmas?