A week ago, I asked “Why not in Canada?” in looking at T-Mobile’s newest combination WiFi / cellular handset.

This afternoon, MTS announced an expansion of its WiFi capability and it seems to me that there is an opportunity for MTS to be a spoiler in the wireless industry. Granted, their WiFi network is only 5% the size of T-Mobile’s. But a combination device could be an interesting opportunity for MTS to lower its users’ data roaming out-payments to TELUS and Bell.

Why not?

About 16 years ago, I remember the Canadian president of a major computer firm giving me a tour of his company’s pavilion at the ITU world exposition in Geneva. The president proudly told me that 100% of his firm’s data network was riding on the network of the company I was working for. I told him that he should fire his head of communications.

I thought my boss was going to swallow his lit cigar.

My concern was network reliability. My boss was concerned about revenues.

That same year, at the CRTC’s Construction Program Review (CPR) meetings, I expressed concern about decommissioning switching centres to the point that too much traffic was running through buildings that would become catastrophic single points of failure. We were told not to worry; there were fault tolerant processors, dual cable entrances. As the CRTC used to find in its conclusion of the CPRs, there was no evidence to find the telco plans unreasonable – a double negative by design.

After Friday night’s network failure, ask the people in Newfoundland if they still share the same level of confidence in their telecom network. Ask them if too much of the province’s communications needs runs through a single building. As the investigation into Friday’s network failure proceeds, let’s see if there is still no evidence that the construction plans were unreasonable.

On August 2, Sault Ste. Marie was completely isolated by a fibre cut. In both cases, 9-1-1 emergency services were knocked out of service. Newfoundland’s emergency measures chief is calling for proof that this won’t happen again.

As we mentioned in August, the current CRTC reporting regime, designed to protect competitors, may not sufficiently look after the interests of individual consumers. We wrote:

We think that consumers would be well served if all Canadian service providers, wireline and wireless, were required to report service outages affecting a broad base of subscribers for more than 15 minutes.

We would include broadband internet access service providers in that reporting as well, given the migration of some voice services to ride over broadband. Reliable connectivity for consumers will become a competitive supplier issue as access independent services take hold.

In an environment of government organizations looking at emergency preparedness, we may need to have an independent audit of how carriers are engineering their networks in a competitive environment.

Do we have an easily accessible database of service affecting outages? Shouldn’t we?

In August, we asked if razor thin margins in a competitive marketplace may be a contributing factor. Will income trusts add further pressure?

Will the CRTC take charge of leading an examination of the security of network architectures, or will emergency measures organizations lead the way?

The city of Riverside, California has entered into an agreement with AT&T to provide city-wide WiFi tol cover the city’s 80-plus square miles. The project will develop the largest Wi-Fi network in the US designed for both public and municipal use.

Users will be able to choose from a variety of connectivity options, including free advertising-supported access or a higher-speed access service offered by AT&T. AT&T will deploy its equipment on city light poles and fixtures throughout the coverage area. Most importantly, AT&T will be responsible for maintaining and upgrading the network and all equipment, as well as handling customer service.

In addition, the city of Riverside will use a parallel Wi-Fi system, built by AT&T, to support municipal and public-safety communications needs. After testing this system across a three-square-mile area, the city will have the option to use the parallel system or the citywide public network to support municipal services. The parallel system will run over a separate frequency to enhance communications for police, fire and public works employees.

OK – it isn’t quite the launch of full unbridled competition. But we have moved a step closer.

TELUS has filed an application with the CRTC for local services forbearance in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

The application represents the first by one of the major ILECs and it is the first application to have been filed since the CRTC released the formal rules in Decision 2006-15 last April. The TELUS application claims that it has already lost more than 25% market share in Fort McMurray. Recall that the 25% threshold is under review by the CRTC, on its own motion.

However, TELUS acknowledges in its application that it does not meet the competitor quality of service criteria as currently set out in the CRTC’s 2006-15 rules. On October 5, TELUS filed a separate application to modify certain aspects of the competitor quality of service criteria. The Fort McMurray application is contingent on the CRTC accepting TELUS’ arguments that the competitor QOS criteria be modified.

It would have been nice to see a clean application conforming to the 2006-15 criteria – but at least this is a start.

Evidence of rivalrous behaviour? After two weeks of CRTC public hearings on Price Caps and appearing in front of Parliamentary Committee, it will be good to look at activities in the marketplace.