TELUS is teaming up with Microsoft to launch Health Space, letting Canadians securely manage and store their personal health information.
Microsoft Canada president Phil Sorgen is quoted saying:
This marks the first international deployment of Microsoft HealthVault, which accelerates the move toward an online, patient-centric healthcare system, and which will improve the health and wellness of our country’s citizens.
A couple months ago, I wrote about Walmart’s entry into e-Health, powering the upgrading of doctor’s offices.
Phil Sorgen is delivering the keynote address at the end of the first day of The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday June 15.
As I mentioned earlier this week, responses to the March 11 Cabinet appeals were submitted on Monday. A few parties cobbled together rushed submissions and at least one group asked for an extension – it is almost as though some groups were reminded of the deadline by this blog!
TELUS summarizes its reply comments with a call for policies that encourage and not discourage investment and innovation.
You cannot expect carriers to make risky investments if they are forced to share new infrastructure at artificially low rates in order to benefit competitors that won’t invest.
CAIP has filed responses that support the MTS Allstream application and call for the Bell and TELUS applications to be denied. In its press release, CAIP said:
Canada is no longer a broadband leader and Canadians are paying higher prices for an inferior product than customers in other OECD countries. If Bell and TELUS prevail, the situation for Canadian customers and businesses will only get worse.
Of course, absent investment in their own infrastructure, it is unclear how ISPs that resell telco DSL access services are driving increased speeds for Canadian consumers. The ILEC argument is that it is precisely the requirement to share their infrastructure that stifles their appetite for risky investment.
The outcome of the cabinet appeals will impact incentives for investment and innovation. What policy will guide carriers building and delivering broadband services to businesses and consumers. How will Canadian broadband networks evolve?
We’re exploring that theme at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit on Monday June 15, with a panel of leaders with different approaches in rural and urban settings. What are the roles for fibre, wireless and satellite technologies?
On Tuesday June 16, the Regulatory Blockbuster and the panel on Network Neutrality will look at key issues from a policy perspective. And don’t forget the address by MTS Allstream CEO Pierre Blouin who can be expected to lay out his views on the case before cabinet. The conference opens on June 15 with an address by Rogers’ CEO Nadir Mohamed.
I was referred to an opinion piece by Sara Diamond, president of the Ontario College of Art and Design, in yesterday’s Globe and Mail and I think it merits your review. I’m not sure I agree with the article, but there is an interesting discussion that it launches.
The article asks “Will Canada miss the next wireless revolution?” and suggests that except for a handful of companies, Canadians are sleeping through a dramatic shift in the international economy.
But with the exception of Research In Motion, the Viigo IP Platform, QuickPlay, Marble Media, and a host of bright young micro companies, we don’t get it. Our internal market has been too small to propel a profitable local industry, data rates have been too expensive, appetite for risk and access to Canadian carriers too limited.
Do Canadians really not get it? Does the future belong to these “micro companies”? How can Canadians participate and win in the mobile economy?
Next week, the Information and Communications Forum at University of Toronto is running an executive development program, looking at The Networked Society in 2020, with an objective of trying to identify opportunities for leadership for the Canadian ICT industry.
FORA.tv has a video highlight available of Google’s Derek Slater speaking about ideas for building broadband connections including customer owned fibre – or what he has called, Homes with Tails.
http://fora.tv/embedded_player His full talk at the April 15 session of the Association of Computing Machinery can be viewed here.
The Cabinet appeals that were filed March 11 appeared in the April 4 edition of the Canada Gazette, which started a 30 day clock for the filing of comments. The clock runs out today.
Subsection 12(1) of the Telecommunications Act provides that, within one year after a decision by the CRTC, the GIC [Governor in Council (Cabinet)] may, on petition in writing presented to the GIC within 90 days after the decision, or on the GIC’s own motion, by order, vary or rescind the decision or refer it back to the CRTC for reconsideration of all or a portion of it. … Submissions regarding these petitions should be filed within 30 days of the publication of this notice in the Canada Gazette.
You can find the Petitions and supporting documents here. Comments will be posted on that site as well.
The cabinet appeals should add fuel to the fireworks that usually erupt during the Regulatory Blockbuster, on June 16 at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit. Have you registered yet?
Update [May 4, 2:50 pm] MTS Allstream has issued a press release to announce its submission of reply comments.
