Which Canadian ILEC will be the first to boldly go forward with an investment in the future such as fibre to the home?

Verizon’s CTO, Mark Wegleitner, was recently interviewed by CNet News on the occasion of having passed the million subscriber mark for its FiOS service. On the question of whether other ILECs are getting it wrong by investing in DSL, he said:

DSL is a good technology. Our concern was more about what happens a few years out. And that’s why we picked fiber. And I can’t really predict how other technologies will grow, but we know that fiber gave us the headroom we needed.

Besides delivering a platform for innovative services, FiOS has the added benefit of inoculating against churn – Verizon is reported to be disconnecting the twisted pair to the home, and competitors do not enjoy regulated access to the fibre access plant.

From a technology solution perspective, DSL seems to almost always be playing catchup – a little behind the data capacities of coaxial cable. In late January, Videotron and Cisco announced 100Mb services over DOCSIS 3.0. IPTV over copper seems to be one of those ‘almost as good‘ solutions for broadcast TV.

When the current financial engineering focus at many of the Canadian ILECs is through, it would be interesting to see them emerge with bold announcements in innovative infrastructure and technology. Fibre would be one such approach. IMS and next generation wireless would be another.

Nearly a year ago, I had the opportunity to work with Richard Warman when we filed an application with the CRTC to address a foreign based death threat against a Canadian.

Earlier this week, the Ottawa Citizen had a feature article about Richard.

I recommend you take a look at the piece.

Sasktel has announced that it is appealing parts of the CRTC’s Price Cap Decision (2007-27), dealing with mandated price increases in ‘high cost serving areas’:

We believe the part of the CRTC’s recent Price Cap Decision that systematically reduces the amount of subsidy SaskTel receives to support residential service in high cost serving areas was not within the original scope of the proceeding. This decision essentially forces SaskTel to raise rates in high cost serving areas. We want to continue providing our customers in high cost serving areas with affordable phone service but this decision ultimately ties our hands, therefore, we feel strongly that the CRTC should re-evaluate and conduct a separate hearing to deal with this issue.

The appeal is based on procedural grounds, with SaskTel asserting that the issue was not part of the original scope of the proceeding and therefore the CRTC did not solicit sufficient evidence upon which to base its determination.

SaskTel is a provincial crown corporation. A reduction in transfer payments to rural operators (such as SaskTel) from other carriers is a resultant effect of the Price Cap determination to raise rates in high cost serving areas.

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Update [July 13, 12:35 pm]
The appeal is in the form of a Review and Vary application back to the CRTC, asking it to review its own decision.

CATA issued a press release on Wednesday, expressing concerns on the issue of Canadian companies protecting their intellectual property rights in the wake of a recent Federal Court case:

A recent Federal Court decision on new disclosure requirements for Patents will have an extremely negative impact on Canadian research and innovation if not overturned on appeal.

According to CATA, the Court’s decision is not consistent with existing Canadian law, nor U.S. and EU law as well as possibly violating international IP treaties.

Contrast that position with the video on Michael Geist‘s site:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TloG6qL3gg]
Michael’s tag line says

Canadian policy should prioritize Canadian interests, not those of foreign governments and lobby groups.

What is the relationship between creative (movie and music) intellectual property rights and those of technology innovators?

CATA is a Canadian industry lobby group, representing the advanced technology industry. Shouldn’t Canadian policy reflect the interests of Canadian innovators?

To what extent are these interests inconsistent with those of the majority of the population?

Technorati Tags:
CATA, intellectual property, Michael Geist

I wrote last week about the Bracebridge Business Improvement Area (BIA) wireless network plans. The RFP to cover WiFi for downtown has now been released on the town’s website.

The RFP calls for Downtown Bracebridge to offer complimentary WiFi services at narrowband rates, offer business members internet access, install wireless speakers and add webcams for security.