Following up on yesterday’s posting about a vision for a Digital Canada, I noticed an article on CBC that quotes various critics kvetching about the lack of broadband leadership in the budget.
Some seem to equate tax dollars with commitment to a knowledge economy.
Are government handouts the only way to demonstrate leadership? Perhaps inspiration can be found by a commitment to providing e-government services. Leadership can be seen in implementing any or all of the studies that have been commissioned by various governments over the past decade.
Creating and maintaining the right regulatory and policy environment for sustainable private sector investment should be the number one objective from the government.
Once again, there will be a Regulatory Blockbuster panel at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in June. Early Bird rates are available until the end of February. Have you registered yet?
Canada has been pretty good about studying the future. It is the follow through that seems to be missing. We have had a broadband taskforce, a spam taskforce, a telecom policy review panel, a competition policy review panel, etc. Two weeks from today, the CRTC will commence the public hearings phase of its review of Canadian broadcasting in new media. The Commission has already received 153 submissions from individuals, content providers, industry lobby groups, telcos, broadcasters, unions, church groups and academics.
We have CRTC monitoring reports that look at the state of telecommunications, broadcasting and new media.
We’re pretty good at producing studies. Can we follow through?
The broadband website has been moved to our national archives; the broadband.gc.ca website announces:
With the completion of the Broadband for Rural and Northern Development pilot program and the final round of the National Satellite Initiative (NSI), this Web site is now closed.
Does that strike anyone else as interesting? Is the work of building broadband really done?
It seems that there are lots of studies, but it is hard to find a clear statement of vision for Canada’s digital future. As we invest in measures to jump start job creation, what concrete measures will affirm Canadian leadership in a global digital economy.
On Thursday of last week, the UK released its interim Digital Britain report, setting out a strategy for building their knowledge economy.
The report contains more than 20 recommendations, including specific proposals on network issues as well as cultural issues such as the future of radio and intellectual property rights.
Of most immediate relevance to regulatory activities underway in Canada, the report sees no grounds for net neutrality legislation. It is concerned that net neutrality regulation might prevent pricing innovation, differentiation of offers and serve to discourage investment in higher-speed access networks.
Ofcom has stated that provided consumers are properly informed, such new business models could be an important part of the investment case for Next Generation Access, provided consumers are properly informed.
On the same basis, the Government has yet to see a case for legislation in favour of net neutrality. In consequence, unless Ofcom find network operators or ISPs to have Significant Market Power and justify intervention on competition grounds, traffic management will not be prevented.
The full report can be downloaded [pdf, 1.07MB]. It sets out 5 main objectives:
Upgrading and modernizing Britain’s digital networks – wired, wireless and broadcast – so that Britain has an infrastructure that enables it to remain globally competitive in the digital world;
Creating a dynamic investment climate for UK digital content, applications and services, that makes the UK an attractive place for both domestic and inward investment in our digital economy;
UK content for UK users: content of quality and scale that serves the interests, experiences and needs of all UK citizens; in particular impartial news, comment and analysis;
Fairness and access for all: universal availability coupled with the skills and digital literacy to enable near-universal participation in the digital economy and digital society; and
Developing the infrastructure, skills and take-up to enable the widespread online delivery of public services and business interface with Government.
Note that in the fourth bullet, universal availability is tied to near-universal adoption. As I wrote in November, as we increase broadband service availability, we need to focus on getting people to actually get on-line.
The Digital Britain report calls for a digital Universal Service Commitment to be effective by 2012, delivered by a mixture of fixed and mobile, wired and wireless means. Their target is a modest 2Mbps service. There are no suggestions on how to fund this Commitment – that is left to later.
How will Britain address service adoption? It will encourage the development of public service champions of universal take-up.
While I was in Tel Aviv earlier this week, I had a chance to meet with dozens of interesting companies that are innovating in the global telecommunications space.
One of them, TeleMessage, has already been successful in introducing their capabilities into Canada’s major mobile networks.
I’m not sure how well the service is promoted [see Rogers website, TELUS website, Bell website]. Pricing varies, ranging from a 15 cents per message premium at Rogers to being treated as a standard text message by Bell [Ask your service provider for details].
It seems to me to that this is a service that can have a lot of value when you need to get a message out, but just can’t make a call, whether it is a kid trying to be discreet getting word out to parents at home, or business people sending a message to the home office. And the price beats typical Canadian mobile long distance rates.
How can service providers do a better job at promoting all of the capabilities of their networks?
CBC is reporting that “Google targets throttling with new net measurement tools“.
AP’s headline reads “Google sets up online broadband testing lab“.
Business 2.0 says “Google Fights Net Neutrality with MLab“.
I wanted to see what the fuss was all about.
Almost as if to prove why traffic needs to be managed, my first attempt to reach Google’s new Measurement Lab was greeted with a network timeout message.
The server at measurementlab.net is taking too long to respond.
The requested site did not respond to a connection request and the browser has stopped waiting for a reply.
* Could the server be experiencing high demand or a temporary outage? Try again later.
* Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computer’s network connection.
* Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing.
* Still having trouble? Consult your network administrator or Internet provider for assistance.
When I finally got through and clicked on the User Connection Test link, the timeout message was repeated.
