I mentioned last week that I would examine the VoIP Order in Council in a little more detail. You can access the full text on the Privy Council website.

When I look at the details of the Order, it makes me wonder how the folks from Industry Canada were able to present the proposal to the other members of Cabinet. Considering how poorly understood the Order was initially, as evidenced by the coverage in the press and my blogging colleagues, I have to congratulate the folks who explained the details of the Order to a diverse group of public officials with no telecom background.

This ties to the the challenge of how do we raise the profile of telecom policy issues for the general public.

How do you talk ‘access-independent VoIP’ to politicians who have no other exposure to telecom technology and policy? Look at the major elements in the preamble:

Whereas the Governor in Council considers that retail local access-dependent and access‑independent VoIP services are quite different from each other;

Whereas retail local access-dependent VoIP services are services for which access and service are both provided by the same provider, and can be provided by changing the underlying technology of the local access network from circuit-switched to packet-switched;

Whereas for retail local access-independent VoIP services – in which access and service may be provided by distinct providers – the service provider is not required to provide the underlying network on which the service rides and is not required to obtain the permission of the network provider to offer the service to customers on that network;

Whereas the Governor in Council considers that retail local access-dependent VoIP services are typically indistinguishable from traditional local telephone services, while retail local access‑independent VoIP services are very different, as they require high-speed Internet access as well as special handsets, adapters or the use of a computer, and may be more susceptible to service deterioration or disruption;

Interesting to see this level of sophistication in the Order. Will the Government maintain its interest in telecom policy enough to move forward on the report of the Telecom Policy Review panel? How much can be expected from a minority government?

Can all the parties – political and telecom stakeholders alike – develop a consensus under a minority government framework to create an ever better implementation?

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, Cabinet, VoIP, TPR, Mark Goldberg

TELUS and Dell Canada have announced an agreement to embed TELUS mobile broadband capabilities on select Dell notebooks and mobile workstations, including its Latitude models D420, D620 and D820, XPS M1210 and the Dell Precision M6.

Exclusive to TELUS clients across Canada, the mobile broadband option will enable the units to access the Internet with broadband-like download speeds using the TELUS Wireless High Speed (EVDO) service.

TELUS’ EVDO-based Wireless High Speed service is available in 21 areas across the country, including all major urban centres. The embedded cards can also access TELUS’ 1X network covering areas with 94% of the Canadian population.

Dell offers its HyperConnect service in the US through Verizon, Sprint and Cingular and Dell provides a comparison of the three.

For global roaming, the Cingular version leverages GSM/EDGE standards. TELUS offers US roaming which operates at 1X speeds.

Interesting that T-Mobile, with its network of WiFi hotspots and its mobile data network, does not have an agreement with Dell.

The agreement to embed a TELUS wireless card in Dell business-grade machines follows a TELUS promotion that provides a free Dell desktop computer to TELUS residential high speed internet subscribers when they subscribe to 3 year plans. Perhaps the relationship is a side benefit of Dell’s presence in the TELUS Plaza in Edmonton.

How will Rogers and Bell respond?

A couple of us were talking about Wednesday’s speech by Industry Minister Maxime Bernier. When researching the text of the speech, I noticed that the Minister had a recent speech announcing the Bovine Mastitis Research Network. Maybe it’s just me, but that kind of research is not the kind of thing you would normally associate with Industry Canada.

As noted earlier in the week, in his telecom speech at the Economic Club of Toronto, the Minister said:

…many people believe that it is up to the government to bring about economic growth. As one once said, such a view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: if it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. This is not a view that I share.

With reference to the Minister’s interest in bovine research, if it moos, would we still tax it?

Technorati Tags:
CRTC, Cabinet, VoIP

Mark Evans looks at satellite radio in the wake of results coming out this week from Canadian Satellite Radio (TSX: XSR), the people who bring XM to Canada. Mark asks whether subscriber numbers of 1 million are attainable.

We’re looking at this right now in our household. We are halfway through our 90 day trial subscription provided as part of the purchase of a new car and we need to decide whether to sign up, as Mark Evans says, to 50 cents a day in programming costs.

I have to admit, I like XM channel 46 – Toptracks. On a recent 4 hour drive to Detroit, I found it played my music the whole way down. My wife had her headphones on watching season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy, so she was able to put up with (or maybe just ignore) me singing along to my kind of music – even I sound good singing back-up to Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

But, are we prepared to plunk down $14.99 per month for (almost) commercial free music?

Mark says:

While I can see how satellite-radio can appeal to certain types of customers (taxi and truck drivers, serious commuters, cottage owners), I’m still not sold on its mainstream appeal.

I’ll tell you about cottage country music. As soon as I get past Gasoline Alley north of Barrie, the car radio seems to tune itself to The Moose (99.5). All cottage music, all the time.

We’ll need to decide before the end of the year.

Technorati Tags:
XM, Sirius, satellite radio, Mark Evans