Day 2 of The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit featured a number of memorable sessions – including this year’s installment of the Regulatory Blockbuster [covered here by CBC and here by the National Post].

Keynotes by University of Waterloo President David Johnston and CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein were covered by Peter Nowak here. The CRTC Chair’s keynote was described by David George-Cosh here.

Each year, it is a challenge for us to keep the event fresh and relevant and we try different things. A number of global industry executives who have participated as speakers and delegates have commented on the uniqueness of The Canadian Telecom Summit in gathering together such a panel of leaders – on stage and in the audience.

To close off Day 2, we had two receptions. The first, sponsored by Tech Mahindra, honoured the participation of their president of international operations, CP Gurnani, and BT CIO Clive Selley.

This was followed by a reception and concert sponsored by the Israel Economic Mission and the Canada Israel Chamber of Commerce, featuring Mosh Ben Ari.

He opened the show with the song in the video I posted earlier this year – a song called “The Way” – which is my favourite. To quote a lyric from the song, it was an especially sweet moment for me.

The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit opened yesterday with more than 500 delegates gathered to hear from 75 industry leading speakers.

You can watch our introductory remarks here.

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Canadian Telecom Summit

David George-Cosh reviews Nadir Mohamed’s opening keynote at The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit this morning.

He quotes Nadir:

There’s a recognition on the part of Rogers that the world has changed. We’ll be changing our prices to reflect that.

The National Post included an 8-page special Telecom Summit supplement this morning.

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Peter Nowak gave us a nice bit of coverage on his CBC Online column.

I like the way he referred to The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit in a uniquely nationalistic way:

The three-day summit — the Stanley Cup finals of the telecommunications industry — this year comes at an active in Canada.

His article also provides a preview of the remainder of the event.

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A few weeks ago, the National Governors Association (yes, there really is such an association), released an issue brief: State Efforts to Expand Broadband Access. The document tries to provide strategies for states to increase broadband access and adoption.

Among them, the press release suggests that some states have established public-private task forces to evaluate the current state of broadband deployment and identify policy changes needed to expand access and adoption.

We have already had lots of talking, lots of evaluating, and even lots of identification of policy changes. I would suggest that on this side of the border, we don’t need another task force.

On the other hand, we should welcome some action.

In our opening comments today at The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit, Michael Sone and I called for the government to take some of the nearly $2B windfall from the AWS spectrum auction (the excess over the original estimates of $1.5B) and invest it in initiatives to stimulate demand for broadband from under-serviced segments.

We suggested that a new approach is needed. We don’t think government programs should pick winners by subsidizing one service provider over another:

We propose that the government establish a sustainable program that helps lower income Canadians to pay what it costs to provide service, regardless of means. Our tax system is already structured to be able to offer such subsidies and there are even mechanisms to differentiate based on geography.

This kind of approach would use the AWS auction windfall to stimulate economic investment in broadband infrastructure by regional and niche service providers. It represents a way for the government to re-invest money generated from the telecommunications industry, back into the industry to help bridge the digital divide and render broadband affordability a non-issue.

The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit runs through June 18 at the Toronto Congress Centre. It has once again attracted a sell-out crowd of more than 500 industry leaders.

Plan to attend next year – join our mailing list. The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit will take place June 15-17, 2009.