When I entered the departure area of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening, my cellphone received a text message.
The message came from Cellcom, the carrier from which I have an Israeli SIM card. The text informed me that my phone would continue to work for me while I am outside Israel and that there are discount packages available.
I thought it was most interesting to have seen that my location served as a trigger to generate the message.
In this particular instance, the message came from the wireless service provider itself, not a third party advertiser. How would users respond to location based advertising starting to beep their phones? Are network information messages a way to start preparing consumers for another screen to be targeted by advertisers?
What does the budget hold for us in the communications and information technology sector?
On rural broadband:
Canada was one of the first countries to implement a connectivity agenda geared toward facilitating Internet access to all of its citizens. To this day, Canada remains one of the most connected nations in the world, with the highest broadband connection rate among the G7 countries. However, gaps in access to broadband remain, particularly in rural and remote communities.
The Government is committed to closing the broadband gap in Canada by encouraging the private development of rural broadband infrastructure.
Budget 2009 provides $225 million over three years to Industry Canada to develop and implement a strategy on extending broadband coverage to all currently unserved communities beginning in 2009–10.
We need to look beyond the funds that will be spent over the next 3 years on extending broadband in unserved parts of the country. I noticed that Michael Geist compares that sum to the AU$4.7B that Australia is committing. Of course, we need to consider that Australia lags Canada’s penetration rates by 2-3 years, demonstrating that our broadband industry has been able to a far better job of providing service without reliance on government.
On the Canada Health Infoway:
Budget 2009 provides Canada Health Infoway with $500 million to support the goal of having 50 per cent of Canadians with an electronic health record by 2010. In addition, this funding will be used to speed up the implementation of electronic medical record systems for physicians and integrated points of service for hospitals, pharmacies, community care facilities and patients. An electronic medical record system allows doctors and other health care providers to chart patient health information using a computer, thereby avoiding duplication of testing and helping to ensure patient safety and effective treatment.
This appears to be a positive for TELUS’ investment in Emergis and its focus on health sector solutions.
On the Canada Foundation for Innovation
In order to accelerate investments in leading-edge facilities and equipment, Budget 2009 provides $150 million to increase the funding available for meritorious projects in the 2009 Leading Edge and New Initiatives Funds Competition.
In addition, Budget 2009 provides $600 million for future activities of the Foundation, including the launch of one or more new competitions by December 2010 in support of areas of priority identified by the Minister of Industry in consultation with the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and guided by the Foundation’s strategic plan.
What will it take for telecommunications to be defined as an “area of priority”.
The Waterloo area benefits from $50M toward the Institute for Quantum Computing. Favourable tax treatment for investments in new computers and software. This can also serve as a stimulus for increased network demand from the business sector.
My thanks to Brian G for helping find the appropriate excerpts from the budget documents.
In comments filed with the CRTC’s proceeding on network management, the Canadian Association of the Deaf (“CAD”) warns that its stakeholders need to be assured of quality for their above average consumption of multi-media content.
A disability lens … needs to be applied to any and all traffic management proposals to make sure unintended consequences on Deaf or other people with disabilities do not impact the communities negatively.
The association’s comments also refer to proposals for Video Relay Service and IPRelay, under consideration in the Public Notice 2008–8 proceeding, which is examining accessibility of telecommunications and broadcasting services to persons with disabilities.
In addition, CAD suggests that Deaf users may use video phones to communicate with others without going through relay service providers.
The comments were filed nearly a month before the due date in a proceeding that many view as an examination of net neutrality. Most public comments are expected to be filed on February 16.
It is a day of reckoning for the Canadian Government.
A couple months ago, the minority government was on the verge of collapse in its first week of sitting. A creative constitutional manoeuvre was used to prorogue parliament, buying time until yesterday’s throne speech and today’s budget.
For the past month or so, companies, unions, provinces, municipalities and other interest groups have been appearing at town hall meetings and writing letters, asking for consideration for the budget to provide funding for their economic stimulus projects.
What makes for an effective fiscal stimulus plan? The government’s website defines a good project as:
It should boost the economy when needed, not when it has already recovered.
Each dollar of stimulus should deliver the maximum impact here in Canada.
If the recession is longer or deeper than anticipated, the stimulus will need to be larger and longer in duration.
An effective stimulus should also balance our short term needs with our long term economic plan for prosperity.
Much chatter has surrounded potential policy changes on the horizon impacting network operators south of the border. With a new president and a new FCC chair, some Canadian observers are speculating that it is only a matter of time before a spill-over effect drives law-makers in Canada to impose regulation on the internet.
I don’t think it is going to work that way. I think that the FCC and US industry observers should be looking northward for guidance on how to govern the behaviours of internet service providers.
We’ll have a public hearing on network management practices in early July and a final decision out before the end of the year, if all goes according to schedule.
Some of the loudest voices in Canada keep ignoring the fact that we already have legislation and regulatory precedents that provide protections that are missing from the toolkit available to the FCC in disciplining abuse in the United States.
To start with, the FCC has an internet policy statement that serves as a proxy for formal regulation of carrier behaviours; Canada has in place some key legislation, such as the non-discrimination provisions of Section 27(2) and the non-blocking provisions of Section 36.
Will the FCC significantly vary or backtrack on the views expressed [pdf, 88KB] by outgoing Chair Kevin Martin at a conference in Denmark in September:
Our action was not about regulating the Internet. Instead, we took a cautious approach that merely requires operators to use an even and fair hand as they control the flow of traffic on their networks. Adopting broader regulations in this area could have unintended consequences that could stifle innovation.
We have our network management proceeding underway. Responses to CRTC interrogatories are already available on the CRTC website. Written comments will be due on February 16.
Based on the comments that are received, the Commission may ask an additional round of questions, or address questions to any of the other parties who submitted comments. The Commission asked parties to respond to specific questions in the Public Notice.
There is a lot of noise about net neutrality among the unaffiliated technophile community. Will there be sufficient focus in their submissions to permit a meaningful discussion of the issues?
We have a special session planned to explore the issues at The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit in June. We expect that people will be testing their arguments in advance of the CRTC proceeding a few weeks later. Have you registered yet?
