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?
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.
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.
In the midst of an election, one might ask to what end should our government continue to invest time and effort in development of telecom policy?
What is left to deal with?
At one time, there were a number of critical economic issues tied to Canada’s telecom industry: the sector represented the core of Canada’s industrial R&D; investment; the focus on introducing competition in the development of electronic infrastructure – wireline and wireless, narrowband and broadband; international competitiveness; e-commerce; telemedicine; distance learning; etc.
How have the priority of these policy factors been diminished?
With all of the changes at Nortel in recent days (and over the past few years), Canada continues to risk more jobs being lost to overseas competition. More than 3 years ago, then CEO Bill Owens recognized the threat being posed by the market entry of Chinese suppliers, ZTE and Huawei. Did Nortel and Canadian industrial policy respond appropriately?
In respect of access to broadband infrastructure, there continue to be a number of gaps, as I wrote on Monday: based on geography – the rural and urban digital divide; based on education; based on income; based on age. A policy to improve connectedness must address all of these factors. How boldly will our next government address these factors?
I sometimes wonder if too many people focus on artificial international rankings of connectivity, without considering that connectivity is only part of a pathway, not an end itself.
Connectivity is one of the factors that enables economic renewal – it does not create jobs by itself; connectivity enables strategies that contribute to a reduced carbon footprint – it does not improve greenhouse gas emissions by itself; connectivity enables programs for more cost effective delivery of education, health care and other government programs – but these programs require far more effort than deployment of connectivity.
What kind of focus will the next government place on delivery of Canada’s electronic future? How high will telecom policy rank within the priorities for the next Minister of Industry?
