Our family has had a number of interactions with the health care systems in Ontario and Quebec over the past month. The quality of care has generally been great, but if phone companies were run like these hospitals, they would be out of business.

Paper records. New ID cards issued each time you go. Long line-ups at each stage. Wait times to even get scheduled. Digital records that can’t be sent electronically because no secure network exists.

I’m not talking about remote areas of the provinces. This is the experience we put up with in major hospitals in Toronto and Montreal.

In some ways, the situation almost reminds me of phone companies, in those days before competition. Except that we had a regulator that made sure that customer service standards were more tolerable.

Talk about an industry that is long overdue for efficiency improvements. What can the telecom industry do to help deliver better health care service at lower cost?

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health

Will capital markets support the aspirations of new wireless telecom service providers?

Frontline Wireless, a start-up in the US with an innovative plan to build a network for private and local public safety agencies, collapsed because it was unable to raise enough money to bid in this month’s upcoming FCC auction of spectrum. Frontline was started by former FCC chair Reed Hundt and it had an impressive set of early venture backers. According to a New York Times article, it was a matter of sourcing funding.

Acquiring spectrum is one thing. A new entrant still has to build out a network and establish itself in the market. An analyst quoted by the Times article suggests investors are wary of backing start-ups that will have to compete with the established giant wireless carriers.

The Canadian auction rules require that potential bidders submit irrevocable standby letters of credit for substantial amounts of money with their applications on March 3.

The capital markets have changed significantly over the past 6 months on both sides of the border. What will be the impact on Canadian firms seeking financing of their business plans for the AWS spectrum auction?

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spectrum, AWS, Frontline

Light Reading has a report on the keynote delivered by Brian Roberts, Comcast’s Chair and CEO, at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The address spoke about Project Infinity, an initiative that will rollout more than 1000 HD choices to consumers by the end of the year.

The article says this is a response to Verizon’s fibre to the home. How will other telcos respond to cable TV powering multi-set HD devices in a household?

Is there an alternative to Verizon’s architecture of building FTTH?

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cable, HDTV, Comcast, Verizon, FTTH

A report out of CES says that the FCC is planning to investigate Comcast’s practice of managing Bit Torrent traffic. The article says that groups asked the FCC to levy heavy fines against Comcast: $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

Is it fair game to manage all torrent traffic equally?

A special session at The 2008 Canadian Telecom Summit will examine Net Neutrality from all angles.

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Comcast, FCC, BitTorrent, net neutrality

Late in December, I wrote about Yak filing applications with the CRTC to “protect Canadians against consumer gouging“, referring to a new network access charge being levied by TELUS to customers who had no long distance plan.

The CRTC had received 600 consumer complaints about the charge and so it had started its own investigation. TELUS responded to initial CRTC interrogatories in late November although I found at least one of the answers somewhat tough to decipher.

It is still unclear to me if a consumer can use casual calling (101XXXX+) if they are forced to sign up for toll blocking in order to avoid being hit with the TELUS network charge.

The two processes were blended into a single Type 2 proceeding, one that is expected to involve multiple parties or raise significant policy issues. The charge is yet another example of a “system access fee”.

Under the CRTC’s guidelines for such proceedings, we may not have a decision until September, 2008.

The CRTC could rule the charge to be illegal and force a refund. As such, will there be a potential liability growing on the books?