Last week, I started to review the party platforms, looking at the official positions being set forth in Canada’s upcoming elections. On Sunday, the New Democratic Party set out its platform [pdf] and telecom policy plays a more prominent role than we saw from the Liberals or Green Party last week.

Like the Greens and Liberals, the NDP are promising to introduce new legislation “to prevent the publication or proliferation of child sexual abuse content on the Internet.” The NDP has joined the Green Party in promising to regulate the internet. The NDP go further than simply looking at regulating traffic; they plan to regulate prices as well.

Implement “net neutrality” to protect everyday Canadians’ right to freely access the internet content of their choice at a flat rate and with clear and transparent rules. We will end price gouging and “net throttling”, preventing a two-tiered internet in Canada.

The NDP are the first party to mention plans to improve access to broadband internet:

Invest in a pan-Canadian broadband strategy to bring high-speed internet to more communities in Canada.

The NDP also plan to combat identity theft, control online computer fraud, including spamming and “phishing,” working to implement new measures to fight cyber-crime. The party also addresses new media with a promise to strengthen the delivery of new internet-based media services from CBC and Radio Canada.

The NDP, through such members as MP Charlie Angus, has been active in raising the awareness of telecom issues in the most recent session of Parliament. Although I often disagree with their positions, I admire the focus in the coverage of telecommunications issues as evidenced in their platform document.

Three years after then CEO Bill Owens spoke of how Nortel would defend its markets from the threat of competition from ZTE and Huawei, an article from Light Reading suggests that Huawei may be the most likely candidate to acquire Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Network division.

Earlier this year, Huawei’s attempt to purchase 3Com was derailed by US national security concerns about Huawei’s ties to the Chinese military.

Nortel has deployed a lot of metro optical equipment in local exchange carrier networks in Canada and around the world, serving government clients, including defense and intelligence organizations.

To what extent will national security concerns in Canada and the US play a role in Nortel’s divestment plans?

The Canadian Internet Project has released [press release pdf] its report [ pdf] emanating from its 2007 study of Canadian internet habits.

Some of the study findings seem to contradict conventional wisdom that berates Canada’s international broadband rankings.

The CIP study finds that Canada is actually a world leader in Internet usage:

In comparison to the rest of the world, Canadians continue to be among the heaviest Internet users. Internet penetration increased by 6 percent to 78 percent in 2007. The average number of hours spent online also increased from 13 in 2004 to 17 hours per week in 2007. Canadian Internet users are typically very experienced and have been online for an average of nine years.

The Canadian Internet Project is a research initiative of the Canadian Media Research Consortium, under the direction of Prof Charles Zamaria (Ryerson University) and Dr Fred Fletcher (York University) in partnership with: Heritage Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, Telefilm Canada, Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, Bell University Labs, eBay, CBC, and the CRTC.

The study found that Canada ranks number one for Internet engagement by its eldest citizens. According to the report, Canadians over 60 years are not just using e-mail and search engines, but are also engaging in activities more similar to what their grandchildren are doing, such as social networks and posting online content.

However, a language divide became markedly apparent, with adoption of only 67% of French-speaking Canadians versus 82% of English-speaking Canadians. The gender gap has pretty much disappeared (80% of males are online, 77% of females), but males were found to have been more actively engaged in a greater diversity of activities and applications on-line.

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In yesterday’s posting, I asked “what kind of focus will the next government place on delivery of Canada’s electronic future?”

As the parties begin to publish their election platforms, I started to look for statements on internet and broadband policy. Here is what I found for the Liberals and Green parties.

The Liberal platform has been released [pdf] and it includes a section that calls for completing the job of making broadband internet service available to rural communities. The Liberals also speak of enhancing legislation to target internet luring.

The Green Party appears to be silent on the subject of expanding access to broadband internet in remote and rural regions. Its platform [pdf] addresses the internet twice: first in the context of deploying resources and tools to combat child pornography and luring; and, secondly, identifying plans to pass legislation

granting the Internet in Canada the status of Common Carrier – prohibiting Internet Service Providers from discriminating due to content while freeing them from liability for content transmitted through their systems.

Apparently, the Green Party has stumbled upon a conspiracy plan:

There are corporations that want to control the content of information on the internet and alter the free flow of information by giving preferential treatment to those who pay extra for faster service.

We’ll be watching for statements from the other major parties over the next week or so.

Comcast has notified the FCC [ pdf] that it is updating its methodology for managing peak loads on its internet service.

According to Comcast, if certain areas near a state of congestion, the company will apply techniques to provide all customers with a fair share of access to the network. Comcast will identify the customer accounts which are using the greatest bandwidth and their Internet traffic will be temporarily managed until the congestion passes. All customers will still be able to do anything online, but they could experience longer times for file downloading or uploading, Web surfing may seem slower, or playing games may seem sluggish.

The new techniques do not manage based on the specific online activities, protocols or applications. Network management only focuses on the heaviest users in real time, so the periods of congestion could be fleeting.

A FAQ is available from Comcast. The new system will be in place before the end of the year.

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